Inspire Change is an initiative dedicated to conversations and actions that lead toward equality and social justice going forward.
Looking to inspire change in communities nationwide, Inspire Change is open to all NFL teams and players and looks to lead improvements in three areas: education and economic advancement, community-police relations and criminal justice reform.
Below is a list of Inspire Change social justice grant recipients:
- Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice: Alabama Appleseed documents and confronts drivers of poverty and inequity within Alabama's criminal punishment system, creates coalitions to identify and move evidence-based solutions, and changes systems through legislative action.
- Alliance for Safety and Justice: Alliance for Safety and Justice is a national organization that aims to win new safety priorities in states by reducing incarceration and barriers for people living with a past conviction, advancing policies that help communities most harmed by crime and violence, and expanding constituencies and support for justice reform.
- Anti-Recidivism Coalition: ARC advocates for transformational criminal justice reform, empowers people to achieve their dreams, and supports people as they make their way back into society.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America supports 240+ agencies across the country as they create long-term, 1-to-1 mentoring relationships that empower youth to reach their full potential. The BBBSA mentoring model is a proven, long-term strategy for bridging gaps in academics and income while connecting communities across racial and economic divides.
- Campaign for Black Male Achievement: The CBMA is a national membership network that seeks to ensure the growth, sustainability, and impact of leaders and organizations committed to improving the life outcomes of Black men and boys.
- Civil Rights Corps: Civil Rights Corps are leaders in landmark litigation and high-impact advocacy that empowers communities to change the unjust legal system.
- City Year: City Year helps students and schools succeed. Fueled by national service, City Year AmeriCorps members serve in schools all day, every day as student success coaches, preparing students with the skills and mindsets to thrive and contribute to their community.
- : For more than 50 years, CLEO has worked to bring greater diversity to the legal profession by fulfilling its mission to “inspire, motivate, and prepare students from underrepresented communities to succeed in law school and beyond.”
- Community Justice Exchange is a national hub that provides support to community-based organizations that are building a new vision of community justice through bottom-up interventions in the criminal legal and immigration detention systems.
- Dream Corps: Dream Corps closes prison doors and opens doors of opportunity. We bring people together across racial, social, and partisan lines to create a future with freedom and dignity for all.
- Gideon’s Promise: Gideon’s Promise is building a public defender movement to amplify the voice of impacted communities and transform criminal justice.
- King Center: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Social Change (“The King Center”) serves as a resource dedicated to educating individuals and organizations in utilizing the strategies and methods of nonviolence as taught by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to create a more just, humane and peaceful world.
- Metro Family Services: Metropolitan Family Services empowers families to learn, to earn, to heal and to thrive. Part mentor, part motivator, and part advocate, Metropolitan has provided essential human services since 1857 and been an engine of change that empowers Chicago-area families to reach their potential and positively impact their communities.
- NAF: NAF solves some of the biggest challenges facing education and the workforce by bringing education, business, and community leaders together to transform the high school experience for students in underserved communities nationwide.
- National Urban League: The National Urban League is a civil rights and urban advocacy organization with 90 affiliates serving 300 communities, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of nearly 2 million people nationwide. The League promotes economic empowerment through education and job training, housing and community development, workforce development, entrepreneurship, health, and quality of life.
- Operation HOPE: Operation HOPE is a nonprofit, for-purpose organization working to disrupt poverty and empower economic inclusion for low and moderate-income youth and adults.
- Success for All Foundation: The mission of the Success for All Foundation is to develop and disseminate research-proven educational approaches to ensure that all students from all backgrounds achieve success in school.
- United Negro College Fund: UNCF envisions a nation where all Americans have equal access to a college education that prepares them for rich intellectual lives, competitive and fulfilling careers, engaged citizenship and service to our nation. UNCF works to build a pipeline of under-represented students who become highly qualified college graduates, and to ensure its network of 37-member HBCU institutions is a model of best practice in moving students to and through college.
- Vera Institute of Justice: The Vera Institute of Justice is a justice reform change agent studying problems, testing solutions, harnessing the power of evidence, and driving public debate to urgently build justice systems that ensure fairness, promote safety, and strengthen communities.
- VOTE: VOTE is a grassroots organization founded and run by formerly incarcerated people (FIP), and their families and allies. They are dedicated to restoring the full human and civil rights of those most impacted by the criminal justice system and to improve public safety in Louisiana and beyond without relying on mass incarceration.
For more information about the NFL's Inspire Change program, visit here.