Aarti Shahani
Revson Fellow 2006-2007
Co-founder and Co-Director
Families for Freedom
Aarti N. Shahani is a Co-founder and Co-Director of Families for Freedom, a multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing deportation. FFF has provided direct support to over 1,000 immigrant families, and trained hundreds of community groups across the country on deportation defense. Ms. Shahani contributes to local media including the “War on Immigrants Report†for WBAI/Pacifica Radio, Caribbean Life, and Manhattan Neighborhood Network. She is an Advisory Board Member of Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights. Previously she was an advocate with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and a Board Member of Citizens and Immigrants for Equal Justice. She also received a Union Square Award and a New Voices Fellowship. She speaks and writes regularly on migration and policing. Ms. Shahani grew up in Flushing, Queens.
Coming at a time when my nonprofit organization was on the verge of extinction, the Fellowship enabled me to cobble together a strategy for survival, while acquiring the skills, credentials, and self-confidence to begin the transformation of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. Three years later, a New York State Community Development Financial Institutions Fund was established through my organization’s efforts. The fellowship year marked a turning point in my professional life; today, in the rear-view mirror, it remains a very prominent landmark and point of orientation.
