The Best Ideas Bubble Up From Communities
There are solutions to overhaul our nation’s approach to justice. There are ways to develop approaches to violence that transform the lives of those harmed, hold people accountable, heal our communities, and foster racial equity without relying on mass incarceration.
Prior justice reform efforts have been limited in impact because they have been top-down. It is time to shift the paradigm and allow individuals and communities impacted by our nation’s justice systems to have agency in their transformation.
Public Welfare Foundation feels so strongly about a new, transformative approach to justice that we shifted our grantmaking approach to focus on getting resources closer to the ground where promising solutions are happening.
Jurisdictions of Focus:
Colorado
Georgia
Jackson, Mississippi
Louisiana
Michigan
Milwaukee, Wisc.
Oklahoma
Washington, D.C.
Anchoring Our Work in Communities
Driving resources to the areas of greatest need and ensuring we invest in community-led transformative justice solutions is more important than ever. We must help fund and grow systems of support that are comparable to the growing need in our communities.
Public Welfare Foundation invests in strategies to advance these newly articulated, community-created visions of justice in jurisdictions. By supporting work that is attempting to dismantle the current system, elevate leadership of those most impacted, and shift power and resources from systems to communities, we will lay the foundation for a transformative system of justice that helps inform states and communities across the country.
Each of our focus jurisdictions are working towards a transformative vision of justice and have promising community-based work underway, strong pipelines of emerging leaders, the potential for systems change, and partnerships that are ripe for collaboration. In each of these places, there are partners on the ground driving change despite inadequate funding and significant opposition. They have preceded our presence and are committed to ensuring justice becomes a reality in the places where they live and work.
The Foundation hopes this focus on jurisdictional work will help accelerate emerging ideas, organizations, and leaders who are all committed to developing an alternative vision of justice that is community-led, restorative, and racially just.
