The current approach to public safety is not working — for children, for families, and particularly for Black and brown communities that have been devastated by mental health crises, substance use health crises, and criminalization. We must end our public safety system’s instinct to criminalize and replace it with an instinct to provide care.
The People’s Response Act emphasizes an inclusive, holistic, and health-centered approach to public safety by creating a Division on Community Safety within the Department of Health and Human Services — because communities and experts agree that public safety is a matter of public health. It is a central component of a movement that embraces an affirmative approach to public safety that will save lives, and build systems of care that are rooted in improving the well-being of all communities. This approach must be equitable, health-centered, and preventative to stop violence and harm before it occurs while ensuring that every community has what it needs to flourish.
The People’s Response Act provides grant money for programs like
The JusticeLA Coalition – a coalition of over 30 grassroots organizations – stopped Los Angeles County’s $3.5 billion jail expansion plan. In 2021, the first supportive housing for houseless people was built on the site of the proposed staging area for the expansion. Dynamic land use projects are currently being designed and implemented as alternatives to incarceration and in the direction of the development of a care-first infrastructure. Read more here.
The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls works to develop directly impacted women to build hyper-local and community led systems of accountability, safety, and empowerment that includes participatory defense and alternative community safety models. Read more here.
In 2019, Women on the Rise – a collective of formerly incarcerated women – successfully fought for the closure of Atlanta City Detention Center. Now, these same women are working with the City of Atlanta to repurpose the jail into a community-led holistic care center. Read more here.
In 2016, Detroit activists and physicians had an idea: what if gun violence was treated as a public health issue? Detroit Life is Valuable Everyday (DLIVE) was founded as a partnership with Sinai Grace Hospital to provide public health interventions that work holistically to address the trauma of gun violence. Physicians work with violence intervention specialists to create engagement, mentorship, and peer support. Learn more about DLIVE here.
In 2017, Colorado passed legislation that provided $4 million a year to reinvest and reimagine public safety in two cities disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration. The funds resourced a grant program that focused on community-led violence prevention and economic empowerment. Grants were distributed to community-based organizations to develop a range of employment programs, educational support, and create public spaces for people who have been justice impacted. Read more here.
In St. Louis, the Freedom Community Center works to create community safety through a model that centers building collective power through healing and community-based accountability. They work to reinvest in communities that have high rates of violence. Read more here
Adalah Justice Project
Advancement Project
Alliance of Families for Justice
American Civil Liberties Union
American Friends Service Committee
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Appleseed Foundation
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky (BLACK)
Black Lives Matter Global Network
Black Political Cultivation Arizona
Black Political Cultivation AZ
BLD PWR
Center for American Progress
Center for Law and Social Policy
Center For Legal And Evidence-based Practices
Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research
Center for Policing Equity
Children’s Defense Fund
Civil Rights Corps
Climate Critical
Coalition on Human Needs
Color Of Change
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces
Drug Policy Alliance
Elephant Circle
Equal Justice USA
Equal Justice USA Evangelical Network
Equity and Transformation (EAT)
Essie Justice Group
Faith and Works Collective
Flint Rising
Freedom Action Now, Inc.
Freedom, Inc.
Frey Evaluation, LLC
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Health Advocacy International
Highlander Research & Education Center
Hudson/Catskill Housing Coalition
Human Impact Partners
Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Watch
Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice
In Defense of Black Lives
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Louisiana Center for Health Equity
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
March For Our Lives
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, INC
Metro East Organizing Coalition
MomsRising
Movement for Black Lives
Movement for Family Power
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Association of Social Workers
National Black Women’s Justice Institute
National Black Worker Center
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
National Council of Churches
National Urban League
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
One Love Global
OPJL
Organizing Black Inc.
PAD Initiative
Parents Across America
Parents Organized for Public Education
Partners In Health
People’s Advocacy Institute
Power U Center For Social Change
Pretrial Justice Institute
Prevention Institute
Prison Policy Initiative
Public Advocacy for Kids (PAK)
Public Justice Center
Reparations United
Sacred Heart Community Service
Showing Up for Racial Justice
Southern Center for Human Rights
Southern Poverty Law Center
Sustain the Culture
TGIJP / Transgender People In Florida Prisons Projects. (TPIFPP)
The Futures Institute
The National Domestic Violence Hotline
Tribe of Eli Movement
Union for Reform Judaism
United Church of Christ
United Women of Color Vera Institute
Washington Defender Association
WAVE Educational Fund
We Are Revolutionary
Youth Over Guns
