Two New Fellows Selected With The Shriver Center on Poverty Law

Phoenix AZ

06 May, 2021

3:27 PM

Description

Press release from the Human Services Campus: May 6, 2021 PHOENIX, Ariz. - Human Services Campus Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender and Program Director Richard Crews have been selected to join 45 others as new Fellows with The Shriver Center on Poverty Law. The 47 Fellows will participate in the 2021 Racial Justice Institute (RJI), a leadership program that equips and coordinates anti-poverty advocates to affirmatively advance racial equity. The past year has laid bare the systemic inequities and structural racism that many communities experience daily. In response to a national call to support Black lives, organizations have been challenged to examine their practices and dismantle barriers to opportunity. Legal aid and public interest advocates are key to achieving important systemic changes in their client communities; however, sustainable change must be grounded in an understanding of key race equity concepts and specialized tools. "We are in the midst of unprecedented times in our county and being selected as a Shriver Center for Racial Justice Institute Fellow is both a humbling and important opportunity to be part of the process to address and develop solutions for issues that are causing so much upheaval and anger," Schwabenlender said. The Shriver Center's Racial Justice Institute grounds advocates in a commitment to race equity as an integral and essential part of anti-poverty advocacy and prepares them to tackle these issues on behalf of the communities they serve. Following seven months of intensive training, Racial Justice Institute fellows join a growing national network of nearly 300 alumni advancing race equity issues across the country. "This is an amazing opportunity at a pivotal time in our nation's history to build capacity to confront and disrupt racial inequity with change leaders from around the country, while simultaneously creating impact that will be felt and implemented locally in Arizona," Crews said. This year's RJI Fellows include a diverse group of public interest lawyers, legal aid attorneys, community advocates, executive leaders, and even a judge. They come from 16 organizations advancing justice in 10 states, including 11 organizations new to the RJI. "The COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, combined with the racial reckoning during the past year, have exposed racial disparities experienced daily in the communities that anti-poverty advocates serve," said Kimberly Merchant, Director of the Racial Justice Institute and Network. "The Racial Justice Institute equips these advocates to take a strategic, explicit approach to eliminating racial disparities, dismantling barriers to opportunity, and strengthening communities of color." The 2021 Fellows come to the Racial Justice Institute with experience in a wide range of advocacy areas, including criminal justice reform, healthcare, second chance opportunities, economic justice, disability justice, immigrants' rights, and affordable housing. Under the intensive seven-month RJI program that begins in May, the 2021 Fellows will be exposed to a core set of racial equity concepts that they can apply to the advocacy in which they are currently engaging. "This year's Fellows are working with communities facing many systemic challenges, including individuals experiencing discrimination in the criminal justice system, people with disabilities facing intersectional issues and discrimination, and families of color harmed by the child welfare system," said Janerick Holmes, Associate Director of the Racial Justice Institute and Network. "RJI will offer these Fellows a framework to contextualize structural racism, systems thinking, social cognition and implicit bias that they can use to confront and impact racial disparities in the communities they serve." Entering its eighth year, the Shriver Center's Racial Justice Institute has cultivated nearly 300 advocates, representing more than 90 organizations in 31 states and the District of Columbia. Fellows emerge from the program ready to help shape policies that support a more racially just society and continue to work in concert as part of the Shriver Center's Racial Justice Institute Network. For more information about the Shriver Center on Poverty Law visit www.povertylaw.org. For more information about the Human Services Campus, visit www.hsc-az.org. This press release was produced by the Human Services Campus. The views expressed here are the author's own.