The Ostara Initiative is a women-founded and women-led, hybrid, non-profit organization headquartered in Minnesota with programs in Alabama, Oregon, California, Texas, and Illinois. We believe in solutions rather than problem or people management.

We search for solutions in the soil, seed, and root of our communities, government, and institutions. Our work challenges the ​destructive tendencies of for-profit prisons and related businesses as well as the chasm between the carceral state and community-based support.

​The Minnesota Prison Doula Project offers comprehensive pregnancy support from trained doulas and group and individual education and support to justice-involved, pregnant people and parents. The goals are to nurture healthy parent-child relationships, increase parenting confidence and skills, reduce the intergenerational trauma of incarceration, and increase access to opportunities that build health, healing, and change.

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With the mission to improve the health of infants born to incarcerated mothers and strengthen maternal bonds, the APBP team works inside Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women to provide nutritious foods, create a micro-community of birthing women using doula support and education groups, and facilitate access to breast milk for infants born to incarcerated mothers.

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In the ​Constitution of United States of America, the 8t​h​ Amendment states, “​Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The goal of project EightA is to explore and create new patterns of thought, policy, and practice pertaining to justice-involved women and their children that are constitutionally-aligned and rooted in human rights-based standards. Several programs are housed in eightA, including our collaboration with research partners, the Oregon Prison Birth Project, and our collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.