Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI) is currently accepting applications for
Strategic Opportunities Support (SOS) which is an emergency, rapid response
fund.
CJI’s SOS Rapid Response Fund has always
provided flexible and immediate funding to organizations responding to changing
political landscapes and working to build collective power at critical
junctures.
CJI’s mission is to end
mass criminalization and incarceration by building and strengthening the
infrastructure of the grassroots criminal justice movement to fundamentally
transform the U.S. criminal legal system.
SOS Grant ranges are between $2,500 to $5,000 (max). In the coming months, SOS
will continue to respond to crisis and opportunities across the spectrum of
work, giving priority to the following categories:
- Organizing
that responds to opportunities or dangers affecting the health, safety, or
human rights of incarcerated and directly impacted people based on
Covid-19 policies or practices.
Examples may include, but are not limited to:
- Campaigns
to secure the release of incarcerated people to protect health and safety
during Covid-19. This may include calls to reduce risk by reducing the
overall prison population, such as campaigns to release people detained
for technical parole violations, and/or people serving sentences of one
year or less. It may also include campaigns to secure the release of
people who are vulnerable to the virus such as people over 50 and people
with underlying health conditions.
- Mobilizing
to make prison and jail communication free of charge in response to
Covid-related bans to in-person visits. Such campaigns may support policy
change and educate the public about the price of calling prisons in a time
when telephone communication is the only way families can speak with
incarcerated loved ones.
- Campaigns
that demand emergency wages for incarcerated people who are making hand
sanitizer, masks, and other Covid-related materials.
- Organizing
to support the rights of formerly incarcerated and directly impacted
people to effectively participate in the electoral process.
Examples may include, but are not limited to:
- Mobilizing
community action to re-enfranchise incarcerated or formerly incarcerated
people by introducing or supporting legislation that restores their voting
rights and/or reduces obstacles to the restoration of their voting rights,
such as unpaid court fines and fees.
- Organizing
to include the rights of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in
voting rights campaigns that have gained momentum due to COVID 19. This
may include campaigns to increase access to voter registration, expand
early voting, and expand voting by mail, all of which disproportionately
affect incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who are often left
out of campaign strategies and materials.
- Community
education campaigns that explain the rights of incarcerated and formerly
incarcerated people and combat widespread misinformation about their
eligibility to vote.
Compelling applications will:
- Support
a movement-building activity or effort;
- Take
advantage of “unforseen” political developments or opportunities that
could advance the movement against mass
criminalization/incarceration/state violence;
- Oppose
expansion of criminalization (especially those that would criminalize
constitutionally protected behavior, activity, association or
populations);
- Support
actions or activities to expose, oppose or halt state actions, policies or
programs that expand criminalization, incarceration, or state violence or
advance restorative principles;
- Foster
new connections between and among different communities;
- Are
built on collaboration.
What follows is a simple
application requiring a few brief answers regarding the project for which
support is south, verification of 501c3 status of organization or fiscal
sponsor, and project and organizational budgets.