Divest/Invest: From Criminalization to Thriving Communities

NFG’s Funders for Justice created this website toolkit for funders because they believe that our collective investments in housing, education, health, transportation, food security, and jobs will fail if we do not also proactively work to divest this nation’s resources from criminalization.

As Zachary Norris, FFJ Field Advisor and Executive Director of Ella Baker Center for Human Rights notes, "Too often, conversations about public safety revolve around punishment and fear. Safety is about more than that — it’s about having a living wage job, healthy food, and being able to afford childcare, healthcare, and housing.”

Jenny Arwade, FFJ Field Advisor and Co-Director of Communities United, explains: “The dominant narrative has focused on how communities have suffered chronic disinvestment which is devastating enough. Then to hear how many trillions of dollars have been invested in these same communities to incarcerate, deport, and tear apart families…”

This website is ultimately an organizing tool for YOU — grantmakers, donors, and funder affinity groups — to help you in confronting mass criminalization. Ask yourself, your co-workers, and your colleagues from other funding institutions: What does a safe community look like to you? And then ask your grantees and other field partners the same question. From there, we ask you: What action can you take to support communities to get to their own vision of safety? Learn about possible answers and solutions with this toolkit.