Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative

Posted by on November 9, 2009

Dear friend,

I was pretty surprised to learn recently that some states use the literacy levels of 3rd graders to predict prison population growth. The lower the number of readers, the more prisons these states plan to build.

Tackling the issue of education reform would help get to the root of this kind of problem. And we have a long history of funding grassroots organizing for education.

But because the rate of incarceration has risen so dramatically in our region, Bread & Roses Community Fund has also made a commitment to fund organizing for reform in our criminal justice system.

The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative provides grants for criminal justice reform activism. If you do criminal justice reform work or you know an organization that does, please click here to learn how to submit a grant application before the November 16th deadline:

http://www.breadrosesfund.org/go/phoebus

The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative was created to support organizers whose work addresses police accountability, racially-biased sentencing policies, the growth of the for-profit prison industry, the criminalization of youth, the death penalty and much more.

The fund was established in the year 2000 as a unique partnership between the Phoebus Fund family foundation and Bread & Roses Community Fund.

Bread & Roses convenes grantees, organizes site visits, arranges grant review meetings, and provides all administrative support for the Fund. Final decisions on Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative grants are made jointly by family members and criminal justice reform activists.

There are 10 current Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative grantees including Books through Bars which distributes free educational materials to prisoners; Human Rights Coalition which is working to eliminate the use of solitary confinement; and Youth Art & Self Empowerment Project which offers art, spirituality and leadership development workshops to youth incarcerated as adults in Philadelphia who are leaving the prison system.

Learn more about the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative, including application criteria, and see a list of current grantees here:

http://www.breadrosesfund.org/go/phoebus

Pennsylvania’s incarceration rate rose by 22% in a five-year period from 1998-2007 according to a study by the Justice Policy Institute.

Funding grassroots organizing to address the root causes of these issues and to address the injustices incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people face has to be a priority for local progressives.

Please help me spread the word about the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative or make a donation to support Bread & Roses Community Fund’s work for racial and economic justice in our region.

Sincerely,
Casey Cook
executive director