When Colin Copernicus’ charity Know Your Rights Camp began to grow rapidly, he partnered with the Entertainment Industry Foundation, an organization many athletes and dancers trust to help run their charity. Ex-NFL Quarterback Talks EIF’s 80th Anniversary the hollywood reporter About this association and the event that gave rise to their solidarity work.
FDid the hat motivate you to set up a camp to know your rights?
My partner Nessa and I founded Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) in December 2015 following a police lynching of Mario Woods in the San Francisco Bay Area. [No officers were charged for the shooting death of Woods, but his family reached an out-of-court settlement with the city of San Francisco.] As a direct response to police terrorism against black and brown communities, our organization provides youth with legal, cultural and neighborhood resources to combat police violence and systemic oppression. Our main offering is our onsite day camp.
As we travel from city to city, we work with local nonprofits and community organizers to give young people what they need to survive and thrive in a world that doesn’t always have their best interests in mind. We held our first camp in central Auckland in October 2016 and have since set up eight more camps. We organized our last camp in April 2022 in Las Vegas.
What do you consider to be the organization’s most important achievements?
Our influence was deliberate and strategically broad. At the start of the pandemic, in early 2020, and for the health and safety of young people, we temporarily suspended our personal camps for 24 months and launched several survival programs focused on supporting communities of color and Latino suffering disproportionate violence from the dual pandemic: COVID – 19 and police terrorism.
First, I’m proud of how we’ve put together many initiatives to support and protect our communities as local conditions continue to change.
Why did you collaborate with the Entertainment Industry Foundation to create your organization?
Since the beginning of the Know Your Rights Camp expansion, we have heard many times about the EIF’s reputation from many different people in the philanthropic community that we respect. When we met Nicole Sexton and her team, it was immediately clear to us why so many of the best philanthropic groups work with them to secure fiscal sponsors. Each member of the EIF team is dedicated and passionate about working with tax partners. The EIF team has been with us every step of the way as we have launched important initiatives such as our Legal Protection Initiative, our Guarantee Fund, our Autopsy Initiative and more. I am confident that together we will continue to do great things and look to the future.
A version of this story first appeared in the June 22 issue of The Gossipify. Click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
