Bolstered by youth and parent leadership from Just and Fair Schools Fund (JFSF) partners Community Asset Development Re-defining Education, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, The Labor/ Community Strategy Center, and allies, the Los Angeles Unified School Board banned suspensions for the vague category of “willfully defiant” acts. The Board also promoted effective alternatives to suspensions; made discipline, citation, and school arrest data publicly available; and clarified the role of police in schools. Read more about this monumental victory and other JFSF developments in the latest newsletter here.

Also, watch this short video to learn more about The Labor/Community Strategy Center, youth leader Michael Davis, and this L.A. community-driven victory.

To keep informed about future JFSF updates, resources, and events, please be sure to sign up for JFSF’s monthly newsletters.

Benefits of funder intermediaries explained by Public Interest Projects Presidents Berta Colón and Michele Lord.  Read comments by Berta and Michele in Grantmakers for Effective Organizations interview by clicking here.

Click here to read more about this and other Just and Fair Schools Fund (JFSF) partner victories and developments in the latest newsletter.

To keep informed about future JFSF updates, resources, and events, please be sure to sign up for JFSF’s monthly newsletters.

Watch this series of videos to learn about the Just and Fair School Fund’s (JFSF) new grant awards, and the youth, parents, congregations, and teachers they support around the country.

JFSF is pleased to announce $3.8 million in grants over two years to 35 community organizations winning critical reform of harsh school discipline and aggressive school policing that lead to high rates of suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests of youth – most often for minor misbehavior. Every year, our nation suspends 3.3 million students, and each of these suspensions slashes a student’s chance to succeed and chance to dream. Based in 15 states and working at the local, state, and national levels, the grantees of the Fund are working to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed and dream – especially youth of color, LGBTQ youth, immigrant youth, youth with disabilities, and others who are systematically denied this chance by extreme school discipline policies.

Click here to read more about the new JFSF grant awards.

To keep informed about future JFSF updates, resources, and events, please be sure to sign up for JFSF’s monthly newsletters.

Pulitzer Prize Winners
(Top to bottom: Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan, David Hasemyer)

InsideClimate News, fiscally sponsored by Public Interest Projects since 2006, won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for national reporting. InsideClimate News reporters Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan, and David Hasemyer won the award for their in-depth reporting on “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of.”   The project began with a seven-month investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. It broadened into an examination of national pipeline safety issues, and how unprepared the nation is for the impending flood of imports of a more corrosive and more dangerous form of oil. To contribute to InsideClimate News click here.

InsideClimate News is a unique operation. It is a web-based news source with a specific focus on in-depth , investigative, environmental journalism. They work to make the issue and topic accessible to a global audience. And they do it all with a staff of seven employees working virtually across the globe in New York, San Diego and Tel Aviv.

Public Interest Projects has served as the fiscal sponsor for InsideClimate News since its inception. We are proud to have worked with David Sassoon, the site’s founder and publisher to support and nurture the growth of the project. We have witnessed the expansion of InsideClimate News from a small outfit with a staff of two to its current position as a force in the environmental reporting field. David Sassoon says “It has been a lot of hard work to start the organization from the ground up, and the behind-the-scenes support of Public Interest Projects has been invaluable.”

Public Interest Projects has served as a fiscal sponsor for nearly 30 years.  Please visit our website to learn more about our fiscal sponsorship services.

Overview

In the fall of 2010, led by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a Juvenile Justice Funders’ Collaborative supported by 5 foundations, was formed with the goal of funding state initiatives to accelerate policy reforms in state juvenile justice systems.  Public Interest Projects, a public charity with a 501 (c) (3) tax status, provided a home for the collaborative.  Public Interest Projects launched The National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems and retained M+R Strategic Services (M+R) to help design, staff and manage state campaigns.

Building on the work of local, state and national juvenile justice reformers, the National Campaign invested in 13 state initiatives during 2012. Even in today’s political climate, reforming juvenile justice has united groups across ideological and partisan divides to seek safer, more humane and more cost-effective solutions. While efforts varied from state-to-state, all were aimed at improving outcomes for youth and families by:

• Keeping youth out of the criminal and juvenile justice systems;
• Changing how youth are treated to reflect their developmental differences from adults;
• Increasing the availability and access to effective alternatives to detention and incarceration; and
• Saving taxpayers money, improving public safety, and lowering recidivism.

Donors

The foundations that make up the Juvenile Justice Funders’ Collaborative include the George Gund Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Sapelo Foundation.

Where We Work

In 2012 the Campaign retained more than 30 campaign coordinators, policy advocates, seasoned strategists, communications professionals, and lobbyists to work with public officials and advocates in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming.

The Campaign Supported Initiatives To:

• Reduce reliance on incarceration and expand community services for youth

  • Louisiana improved the Families in Need of Services process and encouraged alternatives to detention and incarceration.
  • Maryland delayed further development of a new juvenile detention center in Baltimore City with the goal of blocking construction.
  • New York enacted Governor Cuomo’s Close to Home initiative that moved more than 300 NYC youth in non-secure and limited secure sites closer to their homes.
  • Ohio revised mandatory sentencing for specified crimes and reduced collateral sanctions for youth in the juvenile and adult justice systems.

• Curtail the transfer of youth into adult systems 

  • Colorado limited district attorneys’ ability to directly file youth into adult courts.
  • Virginia amended its juvenile transfer bill.

• Limit the practice of school referrals into the justice system

  • Colorado required school districts to design detailed plans to reduce student referrals to law enforcement.
  • Louisiana established a due diligence process to ensure that all available school resources have been utilized before filing a complaint with the court system.

• Establish a policy and political framework for future reform
  

  • Massachusetts legislators and advocates continued to work to Raise-the-Age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 17 to 18.
  • North Carolina elected officials and advocates campaigned to Raise-the-Age of adulthood from 16 to 18 and are continuing to interact with a Legislative Research Commission studying the age of juvenile offenders.
  • Texas advocates worked to make the new Texas Juvenile Justice Department successful.  They also supported most of the reform recommendations of the Texas Judicial Council including making local courts the last resort in school discipline matters.
  • Wyoming advocates supported the work of the Governor’s Task Force on Juvenile Justice to improve the effectiveness of delinquency prevention and juvenile justice and youth service programs.

For more information about The National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems, contact Susan Stamler at sstamler@mrss.com or 917-438-4636

On a Chicago Tonight special edition, Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) parent leaders, their children, and Board member and Fenger High School Culture and Climate Specialist Robert Spicer, discussed the success of Peace Centers and restorative justice in empowering youth to resolve their own conflicts.

Read more about this and other JFSF developments in the March 2013 newsletter.

To keep informed about future JFSF updates, resources, and events, please be sure to sign up for JFSF’s monthly newsletters.

Photo courtesy of Dignity in Schools Campaign

On March 4, Dignity in Schools Campaign youth leaders, many from Just and Fair Schools Fund (JFSF) partners around the country, marched in Washington, DC, calling for positive approaches to school safety in contrast to proposals for school armed guards and police following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Read more about this and other JFSF developments in the March 2013 newsletter.

To keep informed about future JFSF updates, resources, and events, please be sure to sign up for JFSF’s monthly newsletters.

Supported by two Public Interest Projects funds – Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) and the Four Freedoms Fund (FFF), Colorado activists are celebrating the recent passage of the Colorado ASSET bill, which grants qualified undocumented students in-state tuition, expanding access to higher education to students regardless of their immigration status.  This remarkable bi-partisan victory reflects the powerful alliance of undocumented students, college administrators, unions, business leaders and community groups who tirelessly organized and advocated for the bill’s passage over 10 years and 7 bill attempts. In a press release from the Higher Education Access Alliance which led the ASSET Campaign, supporters expressed their excitement and hope for the future.   ”Today, we are crying tears of joy,” stated Cesiah Guadarrama, a Together Colorado leader and Westminster High School Senior. “I thank everyone who helped over these past 10 years for their support. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better graduation present than ASSET passing!”

Public Interest Projects is pleased to serve as the fiscal sponsor for Legacies of War.

Please join Legacies of War on Wednesday, April 3 from 6:00 – 8:30pm at the MANHATTAN PENTHOUSE in NEW YORK CITY (80 Fifth Ave) and Thursday, April 4th from 1:15 – 2:30pm at the UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS. These special events will celebrate the launch of our groundbreaking “Voices from Laos: Clearing Bombs, Protecting Lives” national speakers tour, which will travel to 12 cities in the month of April.

April 3rd, 6:00 – 8:30pm

Manhattan Penthouse, 80 Fifth Ave

RSVP: http://voicesfromlaosnycreception.eventbrite.com/

April 4th, 1:15 – 2:30pm

United Nations, Conference Room 2, North Lawn Building

RSVP: http://voicesfromlaosunitednations.eventbrite.com/

 Join us to:

• Learn about the UXO problem in Laos and ways in which individuals and organizations are working to clear land and save lives
• Listen to the compelling stories of Thoummy Silamphan, accident survivor and executive director of a local Lao NGO, and Manixia Thor, mother and deputy leader of an all-women’s bomb clearance team
• Find out how you can Act to raise awareness and resources for clearing Laos of deadly bombs
• View a rare public display of historic illustrations drawn 40 years ago by bombing survivors
• Hear remarks by Ambassador Saleumxay Kommasith, Permanent Mission of the Lao PDR to the UN, as well as representatives from UNDP and UNICEF
• Enjoy delicious Lao hors d’oeuvres & refreshments at the April 3rd reception, and a light lunch at the April 4th UN panel

Interested in becoming a Tour Sponsor or a Trailblazer Sponsor?

Contact mari@legaciesofwar.org.

Video: Meet Thoummy

Video: Meet Manixia

The Voices from Laos: Clearing Bombs, Protecting Lives Speakers Tour is supported by the U.S. Department of State, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, the Permanent Mission of the Lao PDR to the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, the Samuel Rubin Foundation, the Manhattan Penthouse, and IVS Pax Christi.

Legacies Leadership Circle:

Michael Hirschhorn, Geri Mannion, Cora Weiss

Host Committee:

Brett Dakin, Alex Hiniker, Nary Manivong, Thavisouk Phrasavath,

Vongvieng Saensathit, Amorette Yang