Reentry & Economic Mobility Grants

Reentry & Economic Mobility Grants is sponsored by Louisiana Justice Fund. These grants support workforce development, advocacy, and integrated services to improve employment access for formerly incarcerated individuals in Louisiana.

The Justice and Mobility Fund - Blue Meridian Partners The Justice and Mobility Fund - Blue Meridian Partners Home Our Investments The Justice and Mobility Fund The Justice and Mobility Fund The Justice and Mobility Fund is a philanthropic collaboration that invests in boosting the economic and social mobility of people impacted by the criminal justice system.

The Justice and Mobility Fund scale s the impact , reach, and influence of solutions to problems caused by interaction with the criminal justice system, both nationwide and in targeted regions. Reducing convictions and incarceration and mitigating their negative downstream effects is critical to giving people greater access to jobs, educational opportunities, and housing that would help break the cycle of poverty .

Mass incarceration is one of the most critical civil rights issues of our time. 77 million Americans have criminal records and millions more interact with the justice system each year. Involvement in the criminal justice system severely disrupts economic stability and access to opportunity for individuals, families, and whole communities.

Arrests and incarceration can limit people’s ability to get an education, maintain stable housing, connect to employment opportunities and public benefits, and more. Despite reform efforts, insufficient attention is paid to developing and scaling interventions that provide economic opportunity for people affected by the system.

Americans have criminal records and millions more interact with the justice system each year The Justice and Mobility Fund brings significant new resources to the criminal reform field to scale solutions that both mitigate interaction with the criminal justice system and reduce the negative impacts of having a criminal record.

The collaboration focuses on creating opportunity after incarceration, providing justice impacted people with jobs, education, and other supports that help break the cycle of poverty and recidivism.

committed to organizations addressing the impact of justice system engagement Launched in 2019, The Justice and Mobility Fund—a philanthropic collaboration between Blue Meridian Partners, the Ford Foundation, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies—invests in boosting the economic and social mobility of people impacted by the criminal justice system.

The collaboration was inspired by research showing that involvement with the criminal justice system presents significant and long-term barriers to economic and social mobility and impacts millions of people across the US. The Justice and Mobility Fund made a series of investments from 2019-2025 and is now in its concluding phase.

Blue Meridian will continue to invest in scaling strategies that boost mobility for people impacted by the justice system through our active portfolios. The Justice and Mobility Fund focuses on creating opportunities for justice-impacted people in order to mitigate the damage that engagement with the system caused.

Through a scale readiness initiative, we invest in organizations to create and implement action plans to prepare for transformative growth. These strategies have a keen focus on reentry services and pathways to sustainable employment. Just Safe works to replace over-incarceration with new safety solutions rooted in prevention, rehabilitation, and support for crime victims and people living with past convictions.

Just Safe organizes key constituencies, builds campaigns and coalitions, and cultivates state leaders and other influential decision-makers as champions of reform. These efforts have helped reduce incarceration and increase access to services and supports for communities disproportionately engaged with the justice system.

Just Safe is focusing on 10 states with the highest incarceration levels in order to drive effective reforms that reduce incarceration and boost investments in alternatives focused on shared safety for all. Learn more about Just Safe The Clean Slate Initiative One in three Americans has a criminal record, which acts as a lifelong barrier to economic mobility.

The costs of having a criminal record can last a lifetime due to restrictions on employment, housing, education, and occupational licensing. Currently, tens of millions of Americans are eligible for record clearance, yet the process for doing so is typically costly and extremely cumbersome for the individual, resulting in most eligible people not benefiting from record clearance.

Working with state partners, The Clean Slate Initiative advances policies to automate record clearance for all eligible criminal records and expand the range of records that can be cleared, with the goal of increasing economic and social opportunity for millions of Americans.

Learn more about The Clean Slate Initiative Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a national nonprofit that drives transformation of the U.S. education and workforce systems to achieve economic advancement for all. JFF launched the Center for Justice & Economic Advancement in 2022 to focus on removing barriers to quality jobs for individuals with records of arrest, conviction, or incarceration.

Through partnerships with employers, education and training providers, corrections agencies, and others, the Center promotes education, training, and fair chance employment both within correctional facilities and in communities.

Through its key initiatives—Fair Chance Corporate Cohort, Normalizing Education Resource Center, and the Normalizing Opportunity campaign—the center will help JFF reach its North Star goal: By 2033, 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs.

Learn more about JFF’s Center for Justice & Economic Advancement Vera Institute of Justice Justice system involvement carries devastating lifelong consequences, impeding social and economic mobility for individuals and whole communities. Today, the United States is the most incarcerated country in the world.

Operating for nearly 60 years, the Vera Institute of Justice works to create fair justice systems and develop ideas, research, and analysis to fight mass incarceration and end disparities. Vera partners with directly impacted people and government officials at all levels to build systems that ensure fairness, promote safety, and strengthen communities.

Learn more about Vera Institute of Justice Center for Policing Equity Center for Policing Equity (CPE) re-envisions new models of public safety and targeted services addressing violence that enable communities to thrive, as well as promotes data-driven approaches that reduce disparities in law enforcement.

A research and action organization, CPE uses data-driven approaches to social justice and science to create levers for social, economic, cultural and policy change. By right-sizing and right-purposing policing, CPE seeks to build fair public safety systems for all.

Additionally, CPE empowers vulnerable communities to engage with and shape their public safety systems, thereby promoting economic mobility and helping to maintain trust between communities and public safety systems. The Justice and Mobility Fund’s investment in CPE will support their strategic vision for reforming policing and improving community safety.

Learn more about Center for Policing Equity Learn more about Michigan Justice Fund Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion/Let Everyone Advance with Dignity (LEAD) is a community-based framework that redirects individuals facing behavioral health challenges or poverty away from jail and prosecution to voluntary, low-barrier care coordination and case management.

LEAD case managers work with law enforcement, prosecutors, and service providers to coordinate a holistic response, helping participants avoid harmful justice system impacts and move toward stability. A strong research base indicates that, when implemented with fidelity to the model, LEAD reduces crime, improves housing stability and lawful income status, and decreases jail and prison usage as well as felony case filings.

Purpose Dignity Action (PDA), based in Seattle, supports LEAD and similar diversion efforts nationwide in urban and rural communities across diverse states. The Louisiana Justice Fund (LJF), housed at the Foundation for Louisiana, is a collaborative funder initiative investing in community-led reforms that reduce incarceration rates, improve reentry outcomes, and expand economic mobility for justice-impacted people.

LJF unites national and local funders around a shared strategy informed by local needs. Its plan strengthens the ecosystem of justice organizations and leaders, advances narrative change, and drives systemic reforms across Louisiana. Through these efforts, LJF aims to dismantle barriers to opportunity and foster coordinated investments that create lasting impact for individuals and communities engaged with the justice system.

Learn more about the Louisiana Justice Fund Responsible Business Initiative for Justice The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) is an international non-profit organization working with companies to champion fairness, equality, and effectiveness across systems of punishment and incarceration.

Through their recently launched Unlock Potential program, RBIJ collaborates with major employers to create meaningful, long-term career opportunities for high-risk youth as a way of preventing future incarceration.

In partnership with Job for the Future’s Center for Justice and Economic Advancement, RBIJ is accelerating the adoption of Fair Chance Hiring practices within its existing network of ~500 employers while growing the number of employers interested in hiring job seekers with records.

Learn more about Responsible Business Initiative for Justice Major social issues of our time – such as criminal justice reform – are heavily influenced by coverage in mass media, including film. One Community’s Represent Justice campaign is working to shift culture and public opinion of incarcerated individuals and increase awareness and engagement around criminal justice reform.

Capitalizing on the film Just Mercy, the Represent Justice campaign seeks to reach people across the political spectrum and in a variety of settings, including schools, churches, and prisons, to create public demand for a fair legal system, dignity for system-impacted communities, and an end to extreme sentencing and mass incarceration.

Learn More about One Community Scale Readiness Investments The Justice and Mobility Fund focuses on creating opportunities for justice-impacted people in order to mitigate the damage that engagement with the system causes. Through a scale readiness initiative, we invest in organizations to create and implement action plans to prepare for transformative growth.

These strategies have a keen focus on reentry services and pathways to sustainable employment. Anti-Recidivism Coalition The Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) works to end mass incarceration in California. To ensure communities are safe, healthy, and whole, ARC empowers formerly and currently incarcerated people to thrive by providing a support network, comprehensive reentry services, and opportunities to advocate for policy change.

Additionally, through grassroots policy advocacy, ARC is dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system so that it is more just and equitable for all people. ARC’s action plan focuses on replicating its Apprenticeship Readiness Programs in the counties that receive half of all residents returning from CA prisons.

Learn more about Anti-Recidivism Coalition With a national affiliate network in 19 states, OIC of America (OICA) delivers workforce development programs to people left out of opportunities, with a particular focus on providing pathways to the middle class. Their high-quality skill development opportunities enable economically disadvantaged and unemployed people of all backgrounds to become productive, more fulfilled members of society.

OICA’s action plan focuses on making their highest quality training opportunities accessible to more justice-impacted people across their network and re-envisioning their central office to offer complementary capabilities to their local affiliate offices.

Learn more about OIC of America STRIVE helps people with the biggest barriers to employment obtain the training and support they need to achieve upward mobility by providing a pathway to life-changing careers and opportunities through comprehensive professional training, intensive personal support, and self-empowerment. Ultimately, STRIVE seeks to create an inclusive economy with upward mobility for all.

STRIVE’s action plan supports the opening of at least two new STRIVE-operating sites and increasesing people served by roughly 5x. Rubicon Programs equips and empowers participants to develop the economic mobility to move out of poverty.

Rubicon’s service areas include building financial literacy; finding immediate employment while working toward long-term career goals; resourcing participants to manage their health; and connecting participants to peer networks of support.

Rubicon’s action plan will enable them to leverage their strong track record in California’s East Bay to offer a comprehensive view of how public systems can better serve justice-impacted individuals by creating economic mobility as well as position Rubicon as an essential thought-leader on system transformation and amplify their voice.

Learn more about Rubicon Programs A New Way of Life Reentry Project’s (ANWOL) mission is to empower communities by helping justice-impacted women heal, excel, and lead by developing and providing holistic, culturally competent, individualized reentry resources for justice-impacted individuals.

These services include housing, case management, pro bono legal services, advocacy, and leadership development for people rebuilding their lives after incarceration. ANWOL’s action plan will build their capacity to codify and deploy its model through a network of national replication sites. Learn more about A New Way of Life Click here to learn more about our Past Investments .

News About The Justice and Mobility Fund Recidiviz Named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026 --> From Prison to Possibilities; Allies Support Reentry Assistance Bill --> Majority of Marylanders Favor Clean Slate Act --> OIC Trailblazer Seeks to Enhance Learning Experience for Philly Students --> Columbus expands program giving formerly incarcerated residents a second chance --> Breaking through Barriers: A Modern-Day Guide To Second Chance Hiring --> Jobs for the Future Awarded $19.

5 Million Grant to Expand National Fair Chance to Advance Initiative --> Reentry Program Boosts Participant Incomes by 123% --> Foundation Feature: The Anti-Recidivism Coalition Builds Pathways to Reclaim Freedom --> We are currently invested in the following 11 organizations. The Place Matters portfolio aims to improve economic and social mobility in communities across...

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