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Our Story

In 2011, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative launched a listening campaign in communities focused on building power around racial and economic justice issues during the great recession. What emerged from Black leaders in neighborhoods in Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus was clear -- felony records were holding many of our neighbors back from opportunities for housing, employment/careers; and education.

The leaders developed during that season went on to organize thousands more Ohioans into campaigns to win criminal justice reforms at the local and state level like fair housing policies, collateral sanctions reforms, drug policy reform and more.

After a decade of community organizing and power building focused on ending mass incarceration, in the Autumn of 2020, formerly incarcerated staff and leaders connected to the Ohio Organizing Collaborative launched our own membership organization, Building Freedom Ohio to be a vehicle for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system to lead the fight for transformation and liberation.