Illinois Humanities is proud to announce that new Envisioning Justice grants will provide funding totaling $150,000 to 23 organizations and individuals working throughout Illinois to address the injustice of mass incarceration. The projects receiving funding utilize the arts, humanities, and community organizing to enact change, inform public opinion, and promote a more just society through community-based approaches to accountability and public safety.
Since 2017, Illinois Humanities’ Envisioning Justice program has provided more than half a million dollars in grants to individuals and organizations working in Illinois to develop events and resources for communities disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration, and for all Illinoisans to get involved in creating a more just state.
The 2022 Envisioning Justice grantee partners include: the Chicago Community Bond Fund (Chicago), which will create a multimedia campaign about the Pretrial Fairness Act; Knox College faculty member Leanne Trapedo Sims (Galesburg), who will create a new Inside-Out Prison Exchange program with Knox College students and students incarcerated at Henry Hill Correctional Center; Sonja Henderson and the Mothers Healing Circle (Chicago), who will create an art installation in North Lawndale created by mothers who have lost loved ones to violence; and Education Justice Project (Champaign), who will develop a reentry guide and zines to share knowledge and resources to support people returning from prison.
View the full list of 2022 Envisioning Justice grantee partners below and learn about the impactful work they’re doing in their communities.
Champaign
Charleston
- Dr. Jacquelyn Beth Frank of Eastern Illinois University
Chicago
- Mashaun Hendricks
- Silvia Gonzalez
- Sonja Henderson (Mothers Healing Circle)
- Theodore Williams
- Adler University and the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education
- Chicago Community Bond Fund
- Chicago Torture Justice Center
- Chicago Votes
- Invisible Institute
- New Age Services Corporation
- Nothing Without A Company Inc.
- Parole Illinois
- Reader Institute for Community Journalism
- The Voices and Faces Project
- Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP) in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Lab at the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights
- Restore Justice Foundation in partnership with the Women’s Justice Institute
- Saint Leonard’s Ministries in partnership with Still Point Theatre
Decatur
- Shakespeare Corrected at Millikin University
Evanston
Galesburg
- Leanne Trapedo Sims, Knox College
Grand Chain
This year’s Envisioning Justice grants are funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Polk Bros. Foundation. Learn more about Envisioning Justice grants here.