Advancement Project Education Fund

Opportunity to learn (quality Education and schoolhouse to jailhouse) we are leaders of the police free schools national campaign working to dismantle the school policing infrastructure and eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline; and, we fight for liberatory Education by working to end the dismantling, defunding, and privatization of k-12 public schools. Following two years in which dozens of school districts across the country made commitments to remove police from schools, 2022 saw a dramatic backlash, as students returned to school for the first time since the covid-19 quarantine. In august, we convened the police free schools campaign in chicago, coinciding with the five-year anniversary of the campaign. This spring we released a new toolkit to support partners who wish to file complaints about the harms school police officers inflict on students. Additionally, in december 2022, we released a new research brief, #assaultatspringvalley: an analysis of police violence against black and latine students in public schools, providing data analysis of these police assaults on students and painting a clear picture of how school policing jeopardizes the physical safety and health of black and latine students, girls, students with disabilities, and students attending predominately low-income schools.

Justice projectwe are building power to decarcerate and decriminalize communities of color, advancing the ability of black and historically oppressed people to determine what they need for safe, stable, healthy, and free communities. The summer of 2022 was the second anniversary of the historic uprising in the aftermath of the tragic murders of george floyd and breonna taylor. Communities across the country were much more receptive to progressive, reform-minded prosecutors and defund the police campaigns. To support this, this year we continued preparing our second cohort in dc of the police abuse litigation corp (palc) as part of the policing Project, a national collaborative to provide infrastructure and training for black and brown lawyers who want to challenge policing, those who collaborate with them, and those who Fund them. Over the past year, we have continued our work with east baton rouge parish prison reform coalition (ebrpprc), focusing on their organizational development and campaigns development. In 2022, we provided support as they partnered with voices of the experienced, fair fight initiative, the bail Project, promises of justice initiative, and robert f. kennedy human rights to found the freedom campaign, a grassroots campaign to depopulate and shut down the east baton rouge parish prison

Power & democracy (right to vote and voter protection)advancement Project's power & democracy program grounds its work in our mission: to fulfill america's promise of a caring, inclusive, and just democracy. We are working at the national, state, and local levels to protect and expand access to voting. We protect voters' right to exercise their power at the polls by combatting voter suppression and increasing voter engagement across the country; and, we expand the electorate by fighting for the affirmative right to vote for all citizens and restoring the right to vote for formerly incarcerated individuals and impacted communities. This year, we continued our litigation in Florida and Georgia confronting the barriers they erected to prevent people from exercising their right to vote. To support our state-based partners during the 2022 midterm elections Advancement Project staff traveled to Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. Staff worked with state-based partners to answer calls across the states on election day.

Communicationson october 22nd, Advancement Project released findings from a multi-state poll and focus groups of gen z voters of color (black, latine, indigenous, and asian american and pacific islander) in Michigan, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia. We released our findings at a press conference we organized that included leading racial justice groups naacp, unidosus, national congress of american indians, and asian & pacific islander american health forum. On june 6th, we launched how cops get off, a three-part animated video series narrated by our board member jesse williams that breaks down a major structure in our culture and laws that keep cops in power and unaccountable. We also created a toolkit to help our partners and supporters join the campaign and promote the videos on their own social media channels.

Formationwe believe that impacted people must be at the forefront of change-- they must set the agenda to meet the needs of their individual communities-- and that change can only be created by building power at the grassroots to transform systems. We know that power starts at the community level, it is accountable to local power, and it is key to making real and sustainable change. We do this through our formation network of grassroots organizations focused on racial justice.

General programsour projects and programmatic work center on issues that are entry points for communities of color to transform racist systems and institutions and hold them accountable. Our core programs are power & democracy, opportunity to learn, and justice Project.

Fellowshipsin 2022, we had fellows in many of our programs. They focused on our criminal justice work specifically around police and gender violence and police contracts. We also had a fellow working on the right to Education including a historical timeline and support for litigation.

Immigrationour immigrant justice program challenges policies that criminalize migration. We focus on a multi-racial approach, pushing for reform that recognizes the humanity and dignity of all immigrants.