Bread & Roses Community Fund

For more than four decades, Cheri Honkala has transformed survival into a movement for human rights, collective action, and social justice.

As co-founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Cheri’s vision casts poverty not as a personal or policy failure but a human rights issue.

"There’s multi-million budgets, there’s nonprofits all over the place, and there’s nothing for people,” she says. “Every night in this city, homeless people have to do the homeless shuffle.”

Through organizing, bold public actions, and political education, Cheri’s lifelong dedication to the belief that everyone has a chance to live with dignity and hope has built power and sustained movements.

Cheri says: “We're educated, we're organized, and our goal is to recruit, multiply, and create another kind of world, because it's possible."

Click the link to sponsor, buy a ticket, make a gift, or learn more about the 2026 Tribute to Change: Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine taking place on June 11 at Vie. Your support of Cheri's tenacity and leadership allows Bread & Roses to fund grassroots organizations working toward social justice all year long: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

David Acosta is a community organizer and poet who has spent five decades connecting LGBTQIA+ rights, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and Latine and broader immigrant social justice movements.

In 1989, David founded GALAEI to confront the pain, hurt, and fear resulting from the loss of LGBTQIA+ Latine lives to the HIV/AIDS crisis, and later helped found Prevention Point Philadelphia, pioneering harm reduction and health services in the community.

“I had a lot of doors closed, but I was persistent, and eventually those doors either opened, or I kicked them open,” David says. “People realized this is important work, it's in our communities, it's happening, we're being affected, we're being impacted, we need to do something.”

“You do the work because you want to change both your own conditions, because in changing our own conditions, we change the conditions of other people,” David reflects.

As the current artistic director of Casa de Duende, David is dedicating himself to platforming, uplifting, and guiding artists to spark change. “We know that art does have the power to heal,” he says.

Sponsor the 2026 Tribute to Change and honor David’s courage and creativity demanding community self-determination and promoting healing. Sponsoring and buying a ticket allow Bread & Roses to fund grassroots organizations working toward social justice all year long.

Click the link to sponsor, buy a ticket, make a gift to Tribute to Change, and learn more: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

Blanca Pacheco has spent more than 20 years organizing immigrant communities in Philadelphia. Currently she serves as co-director of New Sanctuary Movement, an interfaith grassroots group that organizes for immigrant justice. “We bring people together with the same goal,” she says. “We all believe immigrants deserve to live a life with dignity.”

Through her organizing with New Sanctuary Movement, she has helped secure victories such as the City of Philadelphia recently ending its cooperation with ICE, as well as helping immigrant families successfully fight their deportation orders and leading a campaign in the state to win Driver’s Licenses for All. Throughout, Blanca's work creates a path to a future that welcomes people and enables them to flourish.

Celebrate Blanca’s trailblazing work by sponsoring or buying a ticket to the 2026 Tribute to Change: Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine on June 11 at Vie. Sponsoring helps Bread & Roses move money into the hands of community organizing groups working towards social justice all year round.

Click the link to sponsor, buy a ticket, make a gift to Tribute to Change, and learn more: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

Lift Every Voice Philly is a Black-led, multiracial organizing home for parents and caregivers dedicated to making systemic changes in public education. Their years-long Campaign for Joy in Schools put pressure on the School District and other decisionmakers, leading to a recent landmark victory: 113,000 schoolchildren are now guaranteed daily recess, bathroom breaks, and access to drinking water.

Celebrate Lift Every Voice Philly as a sponsor of the 2026 Tribute to Change: Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine on June 11 at Vie! Help move money into the hands of community organizing groups all year round. The deadline to be listed as a sponsor in the printed program book is Monday, May 25.

You can also support community organizing by buying a ticket! Click the link to sponsor, buy a ticket, and learn more: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

Juntos is a community-driven Latine immigrant organization in South Philly organizing to make policy changes that help immigrants thrive. Along with a coalition of allies, they recently championed and helped pass some of the nation’s toughest local anti-ICE laws to protect immigrant communities.

Celebrate Juntos as a sponsor of the 2026 Tribute to Change: Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine on June 11 at Vie! Sponsoring helps Bread & Roses move money into the hands of community organizing groups working towards social justice all year round. The deadline to be listed as a sponsor in the printed program book is Monday, May 25.

Tickets are now on sale! Click the link to sponsor, buy a ticket, and learn more: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

Cierra Freeman has spent years building power across communities—from saving the Cecil B. Moore Library through leadership in the Brewerytown Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition, to developing a guaranteed income program through her leadership at the Womanist Working Collective.

As she says: "The scope of work must be revolutionary for the trying times that we're in."

Celebrate Cierra Freeman as a sponsor of the 2026 Tribute to Change: Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine on June 11! Sponsoring helps Bread & Roses move money into the hands of community organizing groups all year round. The deadline to be listed as a sponsor in the printed program book is Monday, May 25.

Click the link to sponsor and learn more: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

Are you looking to support grassroots groups taking action for immigrant justice? Do you want to learn how to support our communities, neighbors, and loved ones from ICE and illegal detainment? Are you searching for ways to make a difference?

Please join Bread & Roses Community Fund for a community forum:

• Solidarity in Action: Showing Up for Immigrant Rights
• Thursday, May 21, 2026
• 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 pm.

You’ll hear from Bread & Roses grantees who are organizing on the frontlines in the fight against ICE. You’ll connect with friends and neighbors to talk about what solidarity looks like right now. And you’ll find ways to take meaningful action.

Registration is required. Click the link to register: https://form.jotform.com/261185271558058

Food will be provided. Children are welcome, and childcare will be available if requested with registration. The forum will be held in Center City; the location will be shared the day before the event.

If you’re looking for a way to stay engaged and be in community, join us!

Join us on Thursday, June 11, at Vie for Bread & Roses Community Fund's 2026 Tribute to Change: “Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine.” We're excited to honor the people and grassroots groups who are meeting this moment with courage—organizing their communities, taking bold action, and imagining a just and joyful future for all of us.

Come celebrate with us as we lift up our incredible honorees—these visionaries who are resisting, rising up, and reimagining a world we can all share together.

Paul Robeson Lifetime Achievement Award
DAVID ACOSTA ● CHERI HONKALA

Trailblazer Award
BLANCA PACHECO

Emerging Leader Award
CIERRA FREEMAN

Victory is Ours Award
JUNTOS ● LIFT EVERY VOICE PHILLY

Robin Hood Was Right Award
ARTISTS FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (AIR)

Click the link to sponsor, learn more about each honoree, buy a ticket, and find detailed accessibility information: https://breadrosesfund.org/2026tribute/

The call for nominees to be honored at the 2026 Tribute to Change has been extended to Monday, March 9 at 11:59 pm!

The theme for this year’s Tribute to Change is “Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine.” We'll be honoring leaders and grassroots groups who are meeting this moment with courage—organizing their communities, taking bold action, and imagining a just future.

Do you know a grassroots organizer or community group that embodies this theme? Click here for more information and to submit your nomination: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JboEYVTouECKNMf3eM63sp_24k_FBNVDoJXHZjs5yzdUQ1BLMjdGU1gxQjlVM0hYSUswM1g4TlMyMCQlQCN0PWcu

Bread & Roses' 2026 Tribute to Change theme is “Resist, Rise Up, and Reimagine.” We'll be honoring leaders and grassroots groups who are meeting this moment with courage—organizing their communities, taking bold action, and imagining a just future.

Do you know a grassroots organizer or community group that embodies this theme? Building real power in Philadelphia? Fighting for our human rights? Refusing to back down?

Submit a nomination today by clicking the link here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JboEYVTouECKNMf3eM63sp_24k_FBNVDoJXHZjs5yzdUQ1BLMjdGU1gxQjlVM0hYSUswM1g4TlMyMCQlQCN0PWcu

The deadline to submit a nomination is Wednesday, March 4.