Check out the latest insights from our program team and grantees.
Grantees
“Tarell Makes Man”
Joyce Awards Honoree Tarell Alvin McCraney Reflects on Artistic Growth in Chicago
Mobilizing the Community College Student Vote
Joyce Democracy Grantees Campus Vote Project and Students Learn Students Vote are mobilizing community college student voters through targeted education and engagement designed to meet the needs of a diverse and nontraditional student population.
Democracy Desk: “Unlock Civics” Advocates Expanding Voting Rights and Civic Education for Incarcerated Community Members
Two Joyce Democracy grantees, Chicago Votes and Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, discuss their inspiring voting rights work in Illinois.
Collective Engagement for Community Peace: Understanding the Black & Brown Researchers Collective
We caught up recently with Dr. Buggs, one of the nation’s leading experts on community violence intervention and using anti-racist methods to reduce gun violence, about the status of the Collective and what’s to come.
Grantee
Black & Brown Researchers Collective
Gun Violence Prevention Advocates Reflect on “Aspirational” Work During 11th Annual Vigil
In December 2023, Joyce grantee Newtown Action Alliance held it's 11th annual vigil. Hundreds of survivors, many carrying pictures of fallen loved ones, packed St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
Grantee
Newtown Action Alliance
Fresh Energy: A Midwest Climate Advocacy Leader
Minnesota-based Fresh Energy has been a leader in climate advocacy for more than 30 years, playing a significant role in what it calls “speeding Minnesota and the Midwest’s transition to a clean energy economy.”
Grantee
Fresh Energy
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Programs
Artists As Connectors: Building Racial Solidarities In The Twin Cities
Past Joyce Awards recipients discuss how the arts and artists can inspire healing by invoking racial solidarities and foster collective acts of joy, grief, and resistance.
Foundation Promotes Francisco Velasco To Controller
Formerly the Foundation’s senior accountant, Francisco Velasco has been promoted to controller.
$600m Needed for Gun Violence Research: Report
According to a joint report prepared for Arnold Ventures and the Joyce Foundation, gun violence research remains underfunded. The federal government needs to spend around $600m over five years for research and data infrastructure improvements recommended.
Source
The Crime Report
$120 Million A Year Would Close Gun Violence Research Gap
According to a new report, closing the gun violence information gap will require the federal government investing significantly more in resources towards conducting research and collecting comprehensive, transparent data.
Pivoting to a reimagined stage
The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project adapts and endures, rethinking performance space and how to reach audiences and students through a pandemic.
Joyce Joins Violence Intervention Collaborative
The Foundation is proud to join its philanthropic peers in supporting the Community Violence Intervention Collaborative, aimed at strengthening and expanding community-led, evidence-based violence intervention strategies in in 15 jurisdictions.
New project seeks to improve retention and graduation rates for students of color at University of Illinois: ‘They have a platform, they have the resources.’
On the heels of a statewide action plan that calls for greater investment in Black college students, a new coalition will examine racial equity at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and offer strategies to improve diversity.
Source
Chicago Tribune
Firearms Fix
Saving lives by stemming gun violence is the goal of a new law in Illinois that will strengthen background checks, shore up the state’s outdated gun-license system, and invest in mental health services for impacted communities.
Artist Uses Graphite to Mark Time in Tribute to Historic Art Center
Interdisciplinary artist Faheem Majeed uses graphite to mark the past, present and future of the oldest African American art center in the country–the South Side Community Art Center.
Grantee
Faheem Majeed, 2020 Joyce Awards recipient
Lightfoot expands year-old program aimed at bridging digital divide
One year after launch, Chicago Connected will expand to continue to high-speed internet service to students in Chicago. The Joyce Foundation supported the launch of the program in June 2020.
Source
Chicago Sun-Times
New Leadership For Joyce’s Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform Program
Nina Vinik will be stepping down as director of the Joyce Foundation’s Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform program at the end of June. Her successor is Tim Daly, currently the senior program officer overseeing Joyce’s gun-policy portfolio.
A Conversation With 2021 Joyce Award Recipients
2021 Joyce Awards winners together for the first time discuss their projects– four impactful collaborations spanning the visual, performing, and multidisciplinary arts that engage diverse communities in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee.
Getting The Lead Out
Illinois lawmakers mandate that utilities replace toxic lead water lines, a decades old threat. New legislation provides for state grants and technical assistance and prioritizes communities at highest risk–Black and Latino.
Joyce “Going Long With New, Longer 5-Year Plan”
Inside Philanthropy explores the Foundation’s longer new strategy, and what’s behind it.
Who Bought Guns During The Pandemic
Foundation-funded research is turning a spotlight on a protracted gun-buying surge by Americans, which accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Energy Efficiency
Under-resourced communities in Minnesota soon will receive a jolt of financial support for energy efficiency, thanks to newly passed legislation to help the state achieve its decarbonization goals equitably.