Women Over Dinner Brings Together Women First Responders
A New York City dinner gathered Black and Brown women law enforcement officers and first responders for games, conversation and shared experiences.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Law Enforcement
Women Over Dinner hosted a dinner on October 25 in East Harlem for Black and Brown women law enforcement officers and first responders. Attendees included NYPD and correctional officers, CUNY and Port Authority officers, postal inspectors, and firefighters.
Why it matters
The event gave women in public safety roles a space to connect across agencies through icebreakers and shared stories about relationships, children, femininity and their jobs. It reflects the organization's broader model of bringing together people from both sides of the justice system.
The dinner was an organizational event rather than a criminal matter, and no charges or legal proceedings are tied to it. Women Over Dinner's founder, Nicole Daedone, is currently held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, and the source does not state the basis of that custody.
The players
Women Over Dinner
A dinner-based program that brings together incarcerated women, correctional staff and other participants, operating as a subsidiary of Unconditional Freedom.
Unconditional Freedom
The parent organization of Women Over Dinner.
Nicole Daedone
The founder of Women Over Dinner, who is currently held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The details
Participants played games and icebreaker activities during a dinner lasting a few hours, and some shared poetry and performed impromptu songs. Women Over Dinner, a subsidiary of Unconditional Freedom, began at the Taconic Correctional Facility in Westchester County and now also operates at Massachusetts Correctional Institution Framingham and FCI Estill in South Carolina.
Timeline
October 25, 2026: Women Over Dinner hosts the law enforcement and first responder dinner in East Harlem.
Legal Context
The dinner extends the Women Over Dinner model, which began at the Taconic Correctional Facility in Westchester County, into a gathering of public safety workers in New York City. Its growth to more than 600 dinners over three years shows how the program has expanded across correctional facilities.
Residents of New York City may see more community programs that bring together officers and first responders across agencies. The dinner shows an approach to building connections among public safety workers that could extend beyond the East Harlem event.
The takeaway
Programs that connect public safety workers across agencies can create shared spaces for conversation outside of work duties. Readers interested in this model can follow how Women Over Dinner expands its work over time.
Further reading
Explore more Law Enforcement coverage in New York City to see how public safety agencies are engaging their workforce.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Amsterdam News.
