Having helped so many of you develop a long term vision over the years, we wanted to share ours: We are driven by a passionate commitment to addressing inequities, at scale, until all people have the resources they need to live dignified, content, and whole lives.

At Aim & Arrow, we each have our own take on it. Devi studies how systems fit together into structures that constrain or unlock those resources. Eli is driven through a strong family history of championing education as a lever for racial justice and economic mobility. Kate strengthens leadership teams to be more strategic and effective, and cultivates the next generation of social sector leaders to address today’s most pressing social problems. We see these as mutually reinforcing strategies and seek opportunities to complement and strengthen each other’s work.

We hold on to our ultimate impact even in this heartbreaking moment. Chicago has quickly become the testing ground for executive versus state & municipal power, and a demonstration project for the future of human rights in this country.

It’s hard to focus on economic mobility when neighborhoods fall silent because people fear leaving their homes to go to work. Education as a lever for change matters, but first we have to get children safely past ICE agents and into their schools. Capacity building for leaders takes on different meaning when traumatized staff work double shifts to deliver medication to people in detention facilities, find volunteer legal support for those in custody, operate tip lines and text networks, organize volunteer escorts, and document abuse. 

Meanwhile, the entire social sector is bracing for impact as the administration turns its attention to philanthropy and nonprofits as the next frontier for bending institutions to its will.

We still hold the long term vision, and we know you do too. It’s essential to the resistance, even if it feels impossibly distant. But like the Principals and teachers, religious leaders, elected officials and journalists, first responders, shouting community members and grandmothers with their broomsticks surrounding neighborhood schools to protect the children they know and the children they don’t – this is a collective effort, and the vision belongs to us all. We will guard it together.

In solidarity and in friendship,

Elizabeth, Devi, and Kate

Photo Source: Block Club Chicago

Aim & Arrow is a certified woman-owned business that builds the capacity of social impact leaders working towards a more just, equitable world. We are researchers, strategists, and sector change leaders. Our expertise spans areas including education, health, community and economic development, racial justice and women’s rights, and basic needs. On our team, and through faculty roles in higher education, we also seek to incubate the social impact leaders of tomorrow. 

Across all our work, we are driven by a passionate commitment to addressing inequities, at scale – until all people have the resources they need to live dignified, content, and whole lives.