Deadline: 12 October 2016
The Open Society Foundations is currently inviting applicants for its 2017 Soros Justice Fellowships with an aim to reduce the destructive impact of current criminal justice policies on the lives of individuals, families, and communities in the U.S. by challenging the overreliance on incarceration and extreme punishment, and ensuring a fair and accountable system of justice.
Categories
- Advocacy Fellowships: The Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowships fund lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, researchers, and others with unique perspectives to undertake full-time criminal justice reform projects at the local, state, and national levels
- Media Fellowships: The Soros Justice Media Fellowships support 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 U.S. criminal justice issues.
- Youth Activist Fellowships: The Soros Justice Youth Activist Fellowships will support outstanding individuals aged 18 – 25 to take on projects of their own design that address some aspect of the U.S. criminal justice system.
Funding Information
- Advocacy Fellowships come with an award of $85,750 – $110,250, depending on level of experience.
- Media Fellowships come with an award of $58,700 – $78,000, depending on level of experience.
- Youth Activist Fellowships come with an award of $20,000 – $60,000 , along with access to a range of training and professional development opportunities.
Eligibility Criteria
- All projects must, at a minimum, relate to one or more of the following U.S. criminal justice reform goals: reducing mass incarceration, challenging extreme punishment, and promoting fairness and accountability in systems of justice.
- The Foundation strongly encourage applications for 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; as well as applications for projects that cut across various criminal justice fields and related sectors, such as education, health and mental health, housing, and employment.
- The Foundation welcome applications from individuals 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, or applicants who are survivors of violence or crime).
How to Apply
Interested applicants are required to submit a letter of intent (LOI) of no more than two pages, single spaced, that describes the proposed project through the given website.
Eligible Country: United States
For more information, please visit Soros Justice Fellowships.