Columbia County Sanctuary Movement organizes with immigrants and allies to collectively support, empower, and defend our communities. CCSM was founded in a rural area to build a base and political home for immigrants. Since our inception, we have integrated service and organizing to engage our community of members directly in our work. We believe long-term systemic change comes from bottom-up organizing that uplifts the leadership of directly impacted communities and builds relationships grounded in solidarity and mutual aid.  CCSM has six program areas: Community Organizing and Civic Engagement, Deportation Defense, Legal Support, Accompaniment and Family Support, Food Justice, and Community Building.

SJ is recognized as a community leader, writer and creative director. Thanks to her social justice activism and design expertise she was selected by The Advocate Magazine to create ABSOLUT Williams for the 25th Anniversary of Stonewall. She lived in NYC, and around the world, but was thrilled to discover Hudson in 2011. SJ has worked with a variety of non-profits including Hudson Business Coalition, Prison Public Memory Project and The  Hudson Eye. While a Trustee, she established an LGBTQ Archive at The Hudson Area Library. SJ serves as OutHudson Co-Chair and is honored to be a 2026 OutHudson GRAND MARSHA.

Kite’s Nest is a center for liberatory education in Hudson. We build the collective capacity of young people to bring about personal transformation, social connection, healing, and systemic change. We create youth-centered spaces of radical imagination and creativity, and support youth-led movements for equity and justice that transform the conditions impacting young people's lives. Our programs engage experiential education, the arts, meaningful job training, and civic action as tools for building community power.