22/03/2022
Today on Pressure Points Unpacked at 6 PM EST Actor, Author and the only Social Justice PR Ms. Nadia Fischer.
At the impressionable age of eight years old, Nadia witnessed firsthand the physical and mental health consequences of what incarceration does to families and communities when her eldest brother received ten to twenty years as a first time, non-violent offender. Over the next ten years as Nadia visited her brother in prison, she vowed to always be his advocate and to stand up against unfairness and injustice.
In 2014, Nadia established “Incarceration Relief Resource Center,” a non-profit organization dedicated to faith and community-based interventions for offender re-entry. IRRC is a nationwide social justice advocacy organization with the mission to reduce incarceration and improve outcomes for system-involved offenders. IRRC assists offenders to successfully re-enter their communities by helping to provide housing, employment, education, access to effective mental health, chemical dependency, primary care treatment services, government assistance programs, and spiritual connectedness. To date, Nadia has been the conduit for the release of 116 returning citizens, with 0% recidivism.
A native of Flint, Michigan, Nadia has a special interest in clean water and agriculture. She is a strong advocate for improved food and water products in the prison system. Through her work and research, she believes there is a direct link between the substandard food and water that is served and the resulting behaviors of prisoners. Nadia has been commended for her work by such notables as Attorney Mark Osler, author of Jesus on Death Row and Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative who dubbed her a “freedom fighter.”
Another significant aspect of Nadia's contribution is her advocacy and public relations work on behalf of mothers of murdered sons. She was the catalyst for the relevancy for, Mothers of the Movement- a group formed to campaign with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in support of her candidacy for President of the United States and advocate for an end to senseless acts of violence. This group of mothers included: Sybrina Fulton (Trayvon Martin), Geneva Reed-Veal (Sandra Bland), Gwen Carr (Eric Garner), Maria Hamilton (Dontre Hamilton), Congresswoman Lucy McBath (Jordan Davis) and others for social justice reform involving police and African American citizens, especially black males.
Nadia felt these tragedies needed a much large voice, so she shifted her passion toward television include: Two Sides narrated by Viola Davis, The Quad, Black Girls Rock and The High Cost of Membership a Columbia University Legal Studies Documentary Initiative.
As the Chair of the Cincinnati NAACP Prison Branch Committee. Nadia is charged with extending community and educational resources to returning citizens as well as emotional encouragement to support hurting, brokenhearted moms of incarcerated sons. The emotional aftermath of incarceration is often overlooked by the judicial system and the public when families lose their loved ones to the system. Nadia’s goal is to raise global awareness of the silent cries and deep emotional trauma experienced by the population that she serves.
Nadia is passionately dedicated to the work she sees as her calling. She is sustained by her faith in God and inspired by these words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."...injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.... caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator' idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider" (Letter from Birmingham Jail).
Nadia resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the proud Mother of one son (Sean) and wonderful aunt to Annalicia and Andre. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, singing, reading, and working with youth who are living in adverse risk environments.
