The Public Welfare Foundation Board of Directors approved more than $7 million in new grants, covering criminal and juvenile justice reform, health care reform, workers’ rights and special opportunities. Among the projects approved today:
- During this period of persistently high unemployment, the Center for Community Change in Washington, DC is receiving a $300,000 grant to promote -- together with several other civil rights and advocacy organizations -- a major campaign to create more jobs, particularly for low- and moderate-income workers. The Center and its colleagues will also investigate more permanent solutions to the chronic unemployment suffered by communities that are heavily populated with low-wage workers and racial and ethnic minorities.
- More than half a million people accused of crimes are sitting in American jails, waiting to be tried, simply because they cannot afford to pay the bail a judge has set for their release or to pay a nonrefundable fee to a bail bondsman instead. Keeping them in jail is costly and studies show that those incarcerated without bail are more likely to receive harsher sentences than similar defendants who are released under supervision pending trial. A $250,000 grant to the Pretrial Justice Institute, based in Washington, DC, will support their work to help make the case for more pretrial release services and programs.
- With a $200,000 grant, the National Academy for State Health Policy will work with Public Welfare Foundation grantees in 11 Southern states – called the Southern Health Partners – to address health policy issues in the region and help advocates, consumers and state policymakers understand and implement any national health care reform legislation that passes.
- By this summer, a series of town hall meetings across the country will highlight workplace safety and health issues, giving members of Congress and other policymakers the chance to hear directly from workers, their families and advocates about the need for reforms to reduce worker illness, injury and death. The town hall meetings will be coordinated by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which is receiving a $190,000 grant.
About 40 organizations received funding. More than $2 million in grants was awarded through the Foundation’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program, more than $2 million was awarded through the Workers’ Rights Program and nearly $2 million was awarded through the Health Reform Program. Under the Special Opportunities Program, $850,000 in grants was disbursed.
A complete list of the grants approved at the meeting follows:
Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program
Center for Community Safety – Winston-Salem, NC – ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support for a collaborative effort among community groups, advocacy organizations, government agencies and others in three North Carolina counties to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.
DC Lawyers for Youth – Washington, DC – ($175,000 – 1 year)
Support to organize community groups to advocate for juvenile justice reform in Washington, DC.
Florida
Institutional Legal Services – Newberry, FL – ($150,000 – 2 years)
Support for litigation as part of a broad campaign to reform the Florida juvenile justice system.
International Community Corrections Association – Silver Spring, MD -- ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support to help local advocacy groups develop resources such as halfway houses and residential reentry centers to assist the hundreds of thousands of people leaving prison and re-entering society every year.
Legal
Action
Center
– New York, NY – ($500,000 – 2 years)
Support for a national campaign to educate people about the need for changes in federal and state policies so that people convicted of drug-related felonies are no longer prohibited from receiving federally-funded food stamps and cash assistance for the rest of their lives.
National
Center for Youth Law – Oakland, CA – ($450,000 – 2 years)
Support for reform of juvenile justice systems in Arkansas and Wyoming by providing expert consultation and technical assistance to state government leaders.
National Juvenile Justice Network – Washington, DC – ($75,000 – 1 year)
Support for planning and development of a Juvenile Justice Leadership Development Institute to identify and help prepare for leadership positions promising juvenile justice advocates of color.
Pretrial Justice Institute – Washington, DC – ($250,000 – 1 year)
General support and project support to help reform bail policies in selected states and to develop a public education and communications campaign to explain to policymakers and the public the need for more services for people accused of crimes and awaiting trial.
Texas
Public Policy Foundation – Austin, TX – ($175,000 – 1 year)
Support for research, outreach, education and advocacy efforts by the Foundation’s Center for Effective Justice to reform the criminal and juvenile justice systems in Texas.
Vera Institute of Justice – Washington, DC – ($200,000 – 1 year)
Support for Vera’s Family Justice Program to work with the Ohio Department of Youth Services to offer more family and neighborhood supports to youths in the juvenile justice system to promote better results once the youths are released.
Health Reform Program
Center for Media and Democracy – Madison, WI -- ($50,000 – 1 year)
Support to monitor, analyze and publicize activities of the health insurance industry in North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Center for Rural Affairs – Lyons, NE – ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support for work in the Plains states and in Midwestern states to promote health reform measures that address the specific needs of rural people.
Center for Social Inclusion – New York, NY – ($300,000 – 1 year)
Support to help five of the Foundation’s Southern Health Partners examine systemic inequities and build multi-racial coalitions to address health disparities more effectively.
Community Catalyst – Boston, MA – ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support for a meeting to bring together Foundation grantees that are part of the Southern Health Partners and for a separate meeting with other advocates and state health officials in the region.
Florida
CHAIN (Community Health Action Information Network) – Jupiter, FL – ($180,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Georgia Budget and Policy Institute – Atlanta, GA – ($100,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Herndon Alliance – Seattle, WA – ($100,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia – Atlanta, GA – ($60,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Mississippi
Center for Justice – Jackson, MS – ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support to expand access to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, restore some Medicaid services and provide individual legal services related to health issues.
Mississippi
Health Advocacy Program (Project of the Sisters of Mercy Health System) – Jackson, MS – ($150,000 – 1 year)
Support to expand Medicaid and to educate officials and the public about possible federal health reform provisions.
National
Academy for State Health Policy – Washington, DC – ($200,000 – 1 year)
Support to build partnerships between policymakers and advocates among the Southern Health Partners to advance health care reform in their states and to keep state health policymakers informed about national health care reform legislation.
Public Assets Institute – Montpelier, VT – ($100,000 –1 year)
General support.
South Carolina
Fair Share Education Fund – Columbia, SC – ($150,000 – 1 year)
Support for increased statewide organizing, to reach out to small businesses and to expand children’s health insurance and Medicaid coverage.
South Carolina
Appleseed
Legal Justice
Center
– Columbia, SC – ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support for the Health Care for All South Carolina Project, including education, organizing and advocacy work to provide access to affordable, quality health care for people in the state.
Vermont
Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund – Montpelier, VT – ($150,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Vermont
Public Interest Research and Education Fund – Montpelier, VT – ($50,000 – 1 year)
Support for the Health Care for All program to achieve quality, affordable health care for all Vermonters.
Workers’ Rights Program
American Rights at Work
Education Fund –Washington, DC – ($250,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Blue Green Alliance Foundation –Minneapolis, MN – ($180,000 –1 year)
Support to bring together leading labor and environmental organizations on issues of mutual concern and for support of a national grassroots campaign to promote occupational safety and health policy.
Farmworker Justice –Washington, DC – ($150,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Global Workers Justice Alliance – Brooklyn, NY – ($55,000 – 1 year)
Support for advocacy to promote the rights of migrant workers.
Institute for Women’s Policy Research – Washington, DC – ($75,000 – 1 year)
Support for continued research and analysis on American workers and paid sick days.
Interfaith Worker Justice – Chicago, IL – ($247,000 – 1 year)
General support and project support for advocacy for reform of federal workplace health and safety policy.
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health – Chapel Hill, NC – ($190,000 – 1 year)
Support for a project to convene worker advocates and coordinate a series of town hall events to raise the profile of worker health and safety issues.
National
Opinion
Research
Center
– Chicago, IL -- ($151,283 – 9 months)
Support to develop, undertake and disseminate the results of a 2010 national survey on paid sick days.
Nebraska
Appleseed
Center for Law in the Public Interest – Lincoln, NE – ($100,000 – 1 year)
Support to improve health and safety policies for Nebraska’s meatpacking workers.
Neighborhood Funders Group – Washington, DC – ($75,000 – 2 years)
Support for the Working Group on Labor and Community, a network of funders who support workers’ rights.
New Jersey
Work Environment Council – Trenton, NJ – ($200,000 – 2 years)
General support.
Partnership for Working Families – Denver, CO – ($400,000 – 2 years)
General support.
Special Opportunities Program
Applied Research Center – New York, NY – ($100,000 – 1 year)
General support.
Center for Community Change – Washington, DC – ($300,000 – 1 year)
Support to promote creation of a federal jobs program and to advocate for long-term, permanent solutions to the current crisis of unemployment in low-income, racial minority communities.
ColorOfChange.org/Citizen Engagement Laboratory – Berkeley, CA – ($175,000 – 1 year)
Support for a project called “Deepening Engagement,” which mobilizes the organization’s mostly African-American national membership to become more actively involved in local, on-the-ground criminal justice reform as well as other racial and social justice issues.
Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington – Washington, DC – ($75,000 – 1 year)
Support for a local initiative aimed at preserving the region’s safety net of social services, from food banks to health care.
The Opportunity Agenda – New York, NY – ($200,000 – 18 months)
Support for a project that seeks to include equal opportunity provisions in economic recovery laws and policies and also trains other advocates to address race justice and other social justice issues.
