Deadline: 22 October 2014
The Open Society Foundations Soros Justice Fellowships under the US Programs is accepting fellowship applications from individuals willing to undertake projects that advance reform, spur debate, and catalyze change on a range of issues facing the US criminal justice system. This is a part of OSF effort to ensure a fair and accountable system of justice.
The Broad Goals
- Reduce Mass Incarceration
- Challenge Extreme Punishment
- Promote Justice System Accountability
Categories
- Advocacy Fellowships for outstanding individuals including lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, researchers, and others with unique perspectives to undertake criminal justice reform projects at the local, state, and national levels. Projects may range from litigation to public education to coalition-building to grassroots mobilization to policy-driven research.
- Advocacy Track I for individuals who are in the earlier stages of their careers in the field of criminal justice reform and who demonstrate the potential to develop into leaders in the field.
- Advocacy Track II for more experienced individuals with a proven record of achievement and expertise in the field and who are proposing new, risky, untested, or unconventional but promising ideas and approaches related to one or more specific criminal justice reform issues.
- Media Fellowships for writers, print and broadcast journalists, bloggers, filmmakers, and other individuals with distinctive voices proposing to complete media projects that engage and inform, spur debate and conversation, and catalyze change on important US criminal justice issues.
- Media Track I for new and emerging media makers.
- Media Track II for more experienced individuals- those with at least ten (10) years of fulltime work as a media maker.
Eligibility Criteria
- Fellowship projects must relate to one or more of the broad criminal justice reform goals.
- Proposals must reflect one of the following two things –
- Strong evidence that the applicant has the capacity to become a leader in the field of criminal justice reform.
- Strong evidence that the applicant puts forward a new, risky, untested, or unconventional but promising idea or approach related to one or more of the Specific Justice Fund Priorities.
- Projects that demonstrate a clear understanding of the intersection of criminal justice issues with the particular needs of low-income communities, communities of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women and children, and those otherwise disproportionately affected by harsh criminal justice policies are highly encouraged.
- Applications can be made for projects that cut across various criminal justice fields and related sectors, such as education, health and mental health, housing, and employment.
- Priority is given to applicants who are directly affected by, or with significant direct personal experience with, the policies, practices, and systems their projects seek to address (e.g. applicants who have themselves been incarcerated, applicants who have a family member or loved one who has been incarcerated and whose fellowship project emerges from that experience).
- Applicants can be based outside the US, provided their work directly pertains to a US issue.
For more information, please visit Soros Justice Fellowships.
