We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cherisse Scott. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cherisse below.
Cherisse, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?
I came to know the Reproductive & Sexual Justice (RSJ) framework, movement, as a client that the movement served before I worked in it. There are so many of my movement kindred who have academic grounding informing their preparation to work in the RSJ movement. I didn’t know anything about the movement. This was a little over 20 years ago. This year marks my 19th year as a RSJ servant leader. At the time, I was on recently on the other side of being lured into an anti-abortion center to be discouraged from getting the abortion I’d made the appointment there to have. They were effective at discouraging me by lying to me about the harm an abortion would cause to my uterus. I had my baby 6months later.
I met a sister at a friend’s party who worked in RSJ. She and another eleven Black women created the term, theory, and strategy of reproductive justice. I use the term, Reproductive and Sexual Justice, because it fully embodies the full range of people and experiences we serve and address at SisterReach. It is the evolution of the initial RJ terminology and intentional centering of Sexual Rights with the frame. She gave me her card. I needed to use the card less than a year after I’d had my son.
She connected me to the care I needed, built a sisterhood with me, and later invited me to join her board. Three years after that, and after two more abortion procedures, she offered me a job to work for her. I was fresh out of a failed marriage and accepted the position as Health Educator, Campaigns Coordinator. My role was to educate Black women about their reproductive and sexual health, organize, run campaigns work which included organizing clergy around supporting Black women coming under attack for seeking abortion care. I am also ordained, 26 years ago. I knew my role was not to preach from the pulpit. But for me it was to serve out of my reality. It was also for me to sing and write about the experiences in my life. The position was right up my alley. A niche, just for me.
Before moving to Memphis, I researched reproductive justice organizations, but there was none. I was hired at CHOICES part-time but was still unsatisfied with not working specifically in my advocacy field. My mother encouraged me to continue the work I was doing while living in Chicago. And with her support and the guidance of my grandmother to start a 501c3, SisterReach was incorporated and established just four months after me relocating to Memphis.
SisterReach is the only reproductive and sexual justice organization in Tennessee. Our influence and impact has shifted the advocacy and service dynamic in the state as medical providers, advocates, and aligned partners have adopted the reproductive justice framework to forward their work. SisterReach employs a 4-pronged strategy of education, policy & advocacy, culture change, and harm reduction. For almost 12 years we have served Black women, women and teens of color, pregnant capable individuals, queer and gender expansive people from this human rights frame.
Our mantra is that, “we are the people we serve,” which is directly connected to my lived experiences and that of the staff and board of directors on my team. Our work is servant leadership and we do it compassionately, unapologetically, and intentionally.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a Detroit native and moved to Memphis with my mom and sister in the 80s. I grew up in both cities and later moved to Chicago as a young adult. I claim all three cities as home because each of them shaped some part of who I am as a Black woman, and mother, a minister, an artist, and an advocate for human rights. However, the Chicago poetry scene is where my beliefs as a Christian were challenged. Living in Chicago was the first time I had been exposed to Black people who believed differently than me about religion and spirituality. I was challenged around what we now call Christian Nationalism, and the harm that believing in a Jesus that was whitewashed, repackaged, and sold as my oppressor instead of my liberator. It was the shake up that I needed that forced me to interrogate biblical texts and begin looking at it with new eyes, with a racial and gender analysis, with a justice lens. Chicago is where I became a mother and an artist. My son, my confidence in my Blackness and divinity as a Black woman, and my sound as an artist were birthed there.
I am thankful for the experiences I had in Chicago, because when I moved back to Memphis in 2011, I had no idea how those experiences would set me up for the life and career I have today.
I am also a sexual assault survivor. My traumatic experiences begin as early as 5 years old. I will be 50 next year, and what I can confidently say is that our experiences can break us or make us. Mine made me the fierce advocate I am today. They made me walk in and embrace my full self. They made me compassionate to people who have the same or aligned lived experiences. And it is my deepest desire to help the people we serve through SisterReach have better life experiences than I did. I believe that the way we initially experience sex shapes the way we address sex (and sexual relationships) throughout our lives. The people at that anti-abortion center had no idea the experiences I endured that led to terminate my pregnancy that day. They are disinterested in the lives of the people they control. They are only interested in their agenda and point of view. No love. No compassion. No discernment. They ghost Black women and children after they get their way. That’s what they did to me and my son. Part of my work is to dismantle their power and control over the vulnerable and marginalized. And for almost 20 years, I have been among the bold and unapologetic who have successfully lessened their impact.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I believe in the work I do. The work I do changed the trajectory of my life for me and my son to thrive. Not merely survive. Over the years, I’ve had people come to me and ask “how do you get into nonprofit?” I pause before responding because I know that for some, working in the nonprofit sector is just another way to access money. But for so many of us, it is the way to do meaningful work for ourselves, our families and communities, and often outside of the rigid structures of corporate America. Traditional cultures of work don’t translate well in the nonprofit sector, because you’re caring for people, rather than supplying a demand at a cost to people.
I had a vision. I wrote it down. I worked the plan. The first 3 1/2 years of SisterReach were practically unfunded. But I believed in the meaning of reproductive justice. I knew what the work had done for me. And I believed that if I could get more visibility around the mission, vision, and values of SisterReach, the resources would come. And they did.
Most things don’t happen just because you want them to. You must work the plan. Initially, I did a needs assessment to better understand the community I was hoping to serve. I asked stakeholders how an organization like mine could fill what they considered to be voids in the advocacy culture of Memphis. I spoke with community members and participated in several meetings to introduce myself, SisterReach, and the reproductive justice framework. My normal feedback was that “I was so passionate about the work.” I was only sharing what I believed in and before I knew it, I was getting invitations to teach about the work, share that work with community, and sit at tables that was missing a Black voices confident to call out the multiple oppressions at play in Memphis, in coalition, in organizing and research.
My initial work took trust-building, community building, consistency, and availability. I showed up and I sowed a seed of my time and talent. People had to first trust me before they could get behind SisterReach. And I had to frame SisterReach as work bigger than myself accomplishing outcomes bigger than my community. SisterReach is now a movement force taking up space unapologetically, intentionally, and strategically for liberation.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
It is this quote that guides SisterReach like a north star. I know what it feels like to be treated like nothing, to have nothing, and be made to feel like crap because I needed something. One of my leadership requirements of my staff is that we treat people with dignity and respect. I have fired people for treating our clients or our partners poorly. Poor and disenfranchised people are always treated unfairly, and unlovingly. I only want people to feel seen, heard, honored, and respected when they come through our doors, talk to us on the phone, or engage with us via email on social media.
In honor of my mother, Pearl Williams, I named one of our programs Pearl’s Pantry. The program is a food, clothing, toiletries, baby items and social support program designed for the whole family. One of the requirements of the pantry is to curate an experience of abundance, not deficit. Clients only receive name brand foods, new undergarments, and the very best we can offer in second-hand clothing. I remember a time when I had to go to a community free food service. I appreciated the help, but I also remember receiving what I was given in a box. The items I received were generic, and not of the best quality. I wanted to make sure that we never served people in that way but that we sent clients away with something they would be proud to have, even under the most challenging of economic circumstances.
When we survey our clients, we have only received great reviews. Many of our clients utilize the pantry services monthly. We have become part of their village and them part of ours. And in that village, will always be love, honor, dignity, and respect. That is the most effective strategy. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Simple.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sisterreach-tn.org ; www.cherissescott.com
- Instagram: @sisterreach
- Facebook: /SisterReach
- Twitter: /SisterReach
- Youtube: SisterReach
Image Credits
Images provided by SisterReach