Fund to Award $6-Million to Help Minorities, Immigrants

Several foundations have formed a partnership — the Racial Justice Collaborative — to provide grants to community groups working with civil-rights lawyers to help minorities and immigrants fight economic and social disparities.

This fall, the Racial Justice Collaborative is expected to begin distributing an estimated $2-million for each of three years to support efforts related to education, voting rights, environmental and land-use policies, immigrant access to welfare benefits, labor rights for immigrants and low-wage workers, and other matters.

The collaborative expects to award $50,000 to $100,000 per year for each organization. The money will help community groups and lawyers pursue lawsuits to fight for their causes and avail themselves of other “nonlegal tools,” such as organizing people and engaging in advocacy work.

Some foundations involved in the project — including the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the Open Society Institute, and the Levi Strauss and JEHT Foundations — will support the work of organizations throughout the country.

Other foundations will earmark their money for work in specific states and regions, including projects in California and North Carolina.

Public Interest Projects, a New York organization, will administer the collaborative fund.

The Racial Justice Collaborative has its roots in a report released two years ago by the Rockefeller Foundation, “Louder Than Words: Lawyers, Communities, and the Struggle for Justice.” One of the report’s conclusions: that lawyers can play a key role in identifying and then changing the economic, political, social, and cultural structures that cause racial divisions (The Chronicle, April 5, 2001).

Information about the Racial Justice Collaborative may be obtained on its Web site, http://www.racialjusticecollaborative.org. The Rockefeller Foundation’s report, “Louder Than Words,” may be found online at http://www.rockfound.org/louderthanwords.