University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), advances knowledge, addresses pressing societal needs and creates a university enriched by diverse perspectives where all individuals can flourish. The award supports the creation of the Center on Race and Digital Justice (the Center) at UCLA, which focuses on deep and lasting public impact that foregrounds accountability and repair from extant and emerging harms from digital technologies. The Center informs policymaking, builds strong networks of coordinated work at the intersection of race and digital justice, collaborates with grassroots organizers, conducts academic and legal research, hosts public lectures, and supports new thinkers and leaders.

The UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative (LPPI) addresses key U.S. policy challenges affecting Latinos and other communities of color, focusing on research, advocacy, mobilization, and leadership development. 

In early 2022, the LPPI convenes an online, two-day discussion to continue a conversation on the systemic impacts of the U.S. criminal justice system on Latinx communities.  The opening plenary on day two brings together two MacArthur Fellows,  historian Kelly Lytle Hernández (2019) and social justice organizer Cristina Jiménez Moreta (2017) alongside two other leading experts,  Nicole Porter of The Sentencing Project and Lex Steppling of Policy, Dignity, and Power Now and sets the stage for finding common ground amongst various movements working toward multi-racial community justice, from decriminalizing immigration to reshaping the narrative around public safety. 

The intended audience includes state and local lawmakers, directly impacted individuals, community organizers, nonprofit leaders, academics, and others  interested in identifying and championing policy solutions that address the unique impacts of the criminal justice system on growing Latinx communities.

The Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity is a University of California, Los Angeles-based organization that undertakes analyses and provides technical advice to improve law enforcement. In a collaboration with Foundation-funded researchers at Northwestern University who are undertaking a comprehensive evaluation of major reforms in the Chicago Police Department, the Consortium will examine one aspect of this broader reform effort--whether police reform results in changes in police officers’ treatment of citizens and whether improved police-minority community relations result.

In support of the Network on Youth Mental Health Care (over four years).

To analyze the treatment of depression in disadvantaged populations (over two years).