APRIL 2004 ELLA BAKER CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN CALIFORNIA
San Francisco, California
Total Award: $215,000
Green Jobs, Not Jails
To support Green Jobs, Not Jails, a project that is creating a strategy for achieving clean water, clean air and peaceful communities through the creation of "living wage, zero pollution" jobs in urban America. This effort will greatly expand Ella Baker Center's (EBC) capacity to address the fiscal trade-off between the criminal justice system and the real needs of vulnerable communities. Green Jobs, Not Jails aims to demonstrate that a serious infusion of capital and purpose can turn things around more effectively than continued prison construction and mass incarceration of young men of color. Specifically, the project aims to 1) develop and promote the idea that much of the money spent on prisons would be better spent on creating environmentally sound, living wage jobs in urban America; 2) bring environmental, economic and criminal justice organizations in low-income communities together around this visionary agenda and cooperative strategy; and 3) build a broader values-based coalition that includes environmentally conscious business leaders and investors, environmental justice organizations, the mainstream environmental community, organized labor and public officials.
San Francisco, California
Total Award: $215,000
Green Jobs, Not Jails
To support Green Jobs, Not Jails, a project that is creating a strategy for achieving clean water, clean air and peaceful communities through the creation of "living wage, zero pollution" jobs in urban America. This effort will greatly expand Ella Baker Center's (EBC) capacity to address the fiscal trade-off between the criminal justice system and the real needs of vulnerable communities. Green Jobs, Not Jails aims to demonstrate that a serious infusion of capital and purpose can turn things around more effectively than continued prison construction and mass incarceration of young men of color. Specifically, the project aims to 1) develop and promote the idea that much of the money spent on prisons would be better spent on creating environmentally sound, living wage jobs in urban America; 2) bring environmental, economic and criminal justice organizations in low-income communities together around this visionary agenda and cooperative strategy; and 3) build a broader values-based coalition that includes environmentally conscious business leaders and investors, environmental justice organizations, the mainstream environmental community, organized labor and public officials.
