An Occasional Note From the Director of U.S. Programs

Greetings. As we described in our December newsletter, OSI's US Programs has developed a number of new and reorganized funding initiatives to advance a more open society today in the United States. We are now recruiting to fill important leadership positions to direct these new programs. We are also dividing programs that had all been previously housed within our Justice Fund into two funds, a Criminal Justice Fund and an Equality and Opportunity Fund, and we are hiring directors to lead both funds.

Our Criminal Justice Fund will bring together our grantmaking and programmatic initiatives to end the over-reliance on incarceration and harsh punishment and to secure equal justice, especially for people of color and the poor. Areas of focus include death penalty reform, improving public defense, and ending racial profiling; promoting sentencing and incarceration alternatives; reorienting public policies and resources to promote successful re-entry after prison; and drug policy reform.

Our Equality and Opportunity Fund will include our grantmaking and other initiatives to ensure justice and equality, to prohibit arbitrary and discriminatory government action, and to lift barriers that prevent people from participating fully in economic, social, and political life. The Fund will provide ongoing support for immigrants’ rights; racial justice; women’s rights; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. By bringing these issues together under a new umbrella, the fund will have the flexibility to provide more support for partnerships that transcend communities, identities, and issues.

As we bring them on board, the program directors and campaign managers will work with me and with our dedicated, experienced existing staff members in U.S. Programs to continue to advance justice and opportunity in the United States.