Creating community and practising abolition

Seeds of Affinity (Seeds) is a South Australian organisation created to support formerly incarcerated women as they transition from prison into the community. Seeds was founded by two women, connected through their vastly different positions in the criminal justice system: Linda Fisk, a formerly incarcerated woman, and Anna Kemp, a social worker who worked as a community corrections officer for over 40 years. From simple beginnings in 2006, Seeds was formed to be a safe and welcoming place for women to connect over a shared lunch as a way to address the isolation they experience post-release. Seeds fills a much-needed gap in services for formerly incarcerated women in this state. Seeds are peer-led and driven, where “experts by experience” knowledge is central to their ways of working. Over the last decade, Seeds has grown to provide individual support to women in prison and outreach services that support women and their children. Seeds of Affinity is also a strong advocate for the rights of criminalised and formerly incarcerated women, with this advocacy work informed by an abolitionist framework. The values and practices embedded within abolitionism, those of love, care and community, guide Seeds’ ways of working.