Newsroom
Friday, February 01, 2008
Public Welfare Foundation Awards $10.8 million to 48 organizations
Author: Elaine Shannon

The Public Welfare Foundation has made $10.8 million in grants to 48 organizations across the U.S.  At a meeting Feb. 1 in Washington, the Board of Directors of the Public Welfare Foundation approved $9.5 million in grants representing the first series of awards made under the Foundation's new programs for 2008:  Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Health Reform and Workers' Rights.  Another $250,000 in grants was made under the Foundation's Special Opportunities program in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Washington, D.C.  Last-time grants of $1 million were issued under programs that are being phased out.

Grants totaling $305,000 were awarded under the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program, which supports advocates working toward broad-impact reforms to reduce the US prison population, reduce racial disparity in incarceration, reform laws and policies that inappropriately bar ex-offenders from employment and social services, end the practice of trying and incarcerating youth as adults and develop and expand alternatives to youth incarceration.  These grants included:
  • A Better Way Foundation, Hartford, Conn., $155,000 over two years to work for re-entry services for released prisoners and to advocate for the creation of a Public Safety and Justice Commission.

  • John Howard Association of Illinois, Chicago, Ill., $75,000 over one year for a public education campaign intended to reduce the number of low-level drug offenders, improve re-entry services for ex-offenders and advocate for early release for low-risk inmates.

  • Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, New Orleans, La., $75,000 over one year for development of alternatives to juvenile incarceration.
The Foundation approved grants totaling $7.3 million under the Health Reform Program, which supports effective consumer advocacy for affordable, high quality health care for all U.S. residents.  The awards went to two national organizations and 21 advocacy organizations in 12 states, including:
  • Community Catalyst, Boston, Mass., $900,000 over three years to build capacity of state and local health advocates, facilitate exchanges of strategies and information among them and identify emerging issues.

  • PICO National Network, Oakland, Ca., $400,000 over two years for its New Voices for Health Care Campaign led by low-income grassroots activists in 17 states.

  • Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund, Montpelier, Vt., $300,000 over two years to help implement a comprehensive state-wide health insurance plan.

  • Vermont Public Interest Research and Education Fund, Montpelier, Vt., $100,000 over two years for the Vermont Health Care for All campaign.

  • Public Assets Institute, Montpelier, Vt., $200,000 over two years for state fiscal analysis to facilitate funding Vermont's commitment to statewide health coverage.

  • Health Action New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., $500,000 over two years for the New Mexico Health Care for All campaign.
Seventeen organizations in ten Southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia), $4.9 million over two or three years to build community and state-based advocacy organizations in a region with large numbers of uninsured people and few sources of foundation funding.  (See accompanying story.)

Grants of $1.9 million were approved under Workers' Rights Program for organizations attempting to advance labor rights for contingent and low-wage workers, to make paid sick days a basic job right and to build state policymaker support for universal benefits applications in Illinois and Missouri.  Grantees include:
  • American Rights at Work Education Fund, Washington, D.C., $250,000 over one year to advocate for low-wage workers' rights.

  • CASA Latina, Seattle, Wash., $50,000 over one year t o advocate for Latino immigrant workers and day laborers in Seattle and to empower low-wage workers through economic and educational opportunities.

  • CASA of Maryland, Takoma Park, Md., $400,000 over two years to establish a workers' center in Prince Georges County, Maryland, help combat wage theft and secure stable employment for day laborers.

  • Community Labor United, Boston, Mass., $50,000 over one year for a campaign to improve wages and working conditions for 2,000 low-wage security officers.

  • Front Range Economic Strategy Center, Denver, Colo., and $80,000 over one year to advocate for day laborers and construction workers.

  • InterValley Project, West Newton, Mass., $120,000 over one year to advocate for fair wages and benefits for construction and health care workers.

  • Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, New York, N.Y., $80,000 over one year for the Together: Building a Movement for Domestic Workers' Justice Project.

  • Minnesota ACORN, St. Paul, Minn., $50,000 over one year to coordinate a grassroots organizing and public education effort around the need for paid sick days as a workers' right in Minnesota.
      
  • Nashville Coalition for Economic and Racial Justice, Nashville, Tenn., $320,000 over one year for four organizations organizing for a workers' center and promoting a local living wage policy.

  • National Employment Law Project, New York, N.Y., $150,000 over one year to fund a merger with the Brennan Center Economic Justice Project and to press for enforcement of the minimum wage law in the restaurant industry.

  • RealBenefits, Boston, Mass., $75,000 over six months to undertake initial development of universal benefits applications in Illinois and Missouri.

  • Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, New York, N.Y., $90,000 over one year to advocate for fair wages and benefits for food service employees.

  • Voices for Vermont's Children, Montpelier, Vt., $50,000 over one year for coalition-building to create a strategic plan of action to secure paid sick days for Vermont workers.

  • Women Employed Institute, Chicago, Ill., $40,000 over one year to fund advocacy and public education efforts to build support for paid sick days in Illinois.

  • Workforce Investment Partnership, Washington, D.C., $125,000 over one year   to advocate for fair wages and benefits for service sector workers. 
The Foundation has made two grants under its Special Opportunities program in response to new HIV/AIDS data, released last November by the District of Columbia government, that determined Washington, D.C. to have the highest AIDS case rate of any city in the nation.  D.C. public health officials estimate that one in 20 District residents has HIV and one in 50 has AIDS.  Their report asserted that the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been particularly severe on the city's African American population.  African Americans comprise 57 percent of the city's population but 81 percent of new HIV cases and about 86 percent of people with AIDS, according to the report.  It said that nine of 10 District women who tested positive for HIV were African American.  These grants are:
  • DC Appleseed Center, $75,000 over one year to conduct an in-depth analysis of innovative, prevention approaches being used in other major U.S. cities with high rates of HIV/AIDS, particularly among African Americans, and to assess the District government's performance in responding the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

  • Washington AIDS Partnership, $175,000 over one year for AIDS advocacy and service delivery and for technical assistance to community-based organizations working against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.