The Rebecca Project
History:
Malika Saada Saar (our Executive Director), founded the Rebecca Project for Human Rights in 2001 while she was a student at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. The Rebecca Project for Human Rights is a national legal and advocacy organization for families struggling with the intersecting issues of economic marginality, substance abuse, access to family-based treatment, and the criminal justice system.
Our Method:
The Rebecca Project roots itself in the lived experiences of parents, who are mostly single mothers in recovery, and works to create openings and forums for their agency, voice, and leadership on the national level regarding policies that affect the lives of families battling with substance abuse. Through Rebecca Project's two civic action and leadership development programs, "Crossing the River" and "Sacred Authority," we frame the condition of parents denied access to treatment and the plight of substance abusing parents incarcerated for their addiction as human rights violations. The Rebecca Project unearths, documents and challenges those human rights violations that deny mothers the opportunity to raise their children, and indeed to raise their children with dignity.
Our Vision
Our vision is to create a community of civic-minded national leaders by educating, organizing and training low-income parents recovering from substance abuse. In turn, those parents advocate on behalf of their families and communities for sensible substance abuse treatment and social-welfare policies.