Cultivating Safety by Building Political Power

Community safety

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Incarceration is punitive beyond what was intended, devastating the lives of people currently incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and the families and communities they come from, including massive and multi-generational financial, emotional, and physical costs. There are currently over 95,000 people locked away in California's state prisons -- disproportionately black and brown people, and from under-resourced communities. There are thousands more outside prison who have been negatively impacted.
Every child, spouse, parent, sibling or friend can attest to the inter-generational harms from the systemically orchestrated, and often unjust, loss of a loved one to the prison system. We often feel powerless and uninformed about how we can positively engage with and shape the systems that impact our lives.
The prison industrial complex is designed to warehouse black, brown, and poor people, underscoring the importance of community organizing, culture shift and power building.

The Institute of Impacted Leaders is a 12-week organizing training program for people directly impacted by incarceration. The goal is to end incarceration by activating the power of those of us who are most harmed by it.
This funding would empower us to scale the Institute into a program that runs year round at various community-based centers, re-entry houses, and other agencies in Greater LA. We would reach out to these partners and engage their constituents in our work -- embedding our Institute into spaces and organizations throughout the LA region that serve people impacted by our state's carceral system. We have informal relationships with a wide network of LA-based organizations, and anticipate that they will embrace our power building work amongst their constituents and clients.
Initiate Justice bridges a critical gap between people impacted by incarceration and the decision makers with the power and duty to lead our society. We are a resource for people impacted by incarceration, so they become deeply engaged in efforts to transform the ways our society addresses harm and the systems that perpetuate it. We ensure that impacted people understand how they can positively change the systems that impact them. We provide education, training and tools to leverage our experiences as agents for change – through community organizing and engagement, leadership development, relationship building with decision makers, research, and advocacy for meaningful policy change.

With this program, we've empowered over 700 impacted people inside and outside of prisons to lead positive change in their communities. If we have the resources to launch this program in depth and at scale in Los Angeles County – the state’s most heavily impacted by mass incarceration – we would achieve even greater impact than we have achieved across California.
This will engage LA community members in change efforts and policy solutions that impact them and their families. Graduates of the program will be equipped to use their experiences to shape their communities into ones in which all people can thrive, to transform our criminal justice systems, and to build power in communities across LA. “This allowed me to realize we can impact not only to end mass incarceration but to change our communities. I've impacted my community in a very negative way for many years, now it's time to bring positivity, love, and healing to my community.” - Spring 2021 Graduate

We assess the program's impact by—
Following the journeys of our graduates: Many have gone on to start their own organizations, launch new campaigns, and secure work with our community partners. An example: Sandra graduated from the program in 2021 while her husband was incarcerated. Sandra then launched her own nonprofit. Now, Sandra's husband is free and participating in our 2024 LA cohort, and we are co-sponsoring a campaign with Sandra's nonprofit to improve the parole process. The relationships developed within the community: Other organizations and leaders refer their staff, members, and volunteers to the program for professional and political development. By conducting anonymous feedback surveys: Over 3 years we received an average 4.7/5 or higher rating in all 10 areas we assessed related to the program’s objectives—with most being rated at 4.9/5 or higher. A summer 2023 graduate added: “The experience was life-changing” .