The NAPD Fund for Justice, Inc. yearly provides one or more Creative Advocacy Grants. Grants are made in the spirit of the inductees in the Public Defense Hall of Fame, and are awarded to public defender organizations that seek to engage in creative advocacy that demonstrate public value through community engagement on an issue critical to client advocacy. Issues may include: an educational campaign; public policy initiative regarding criminal justice reform; public defense independence; workload advocacy.
Criteria for receiving financial assistance include:
• Program applicant is doing public defense work
• The proposed initiative will systematically improve outcomes for clients
• The proposed initiative has the support of the public defense program’s leadership
• Demonstrated financial need
The deadline for applications is November 16. Grants will be made in December. Depending on the substance of the grant request, members of the National Association for Public Defense Communicators Group, Workload or Systems Builders Committees will make up part of the award review committee, and will support the approved work in ways identified with the grantee.