Type of Activity: Project Grant
Grantee: Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund
Amount: $100,000 in 2022
What is the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund?
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund (FRRC EF), a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Advocacy, works to improve society by strengthening people and communities who have been most weakened by their interaction with the criminal legal system.
This grassroots, membership organization is run by returning citizens (formerly convicted persons) dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions, and creating a more comprehensive and humane reentry system that will enhance successful reentry, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety.
Why do we think this project is important?
Before FRRC EF led the campaign to pass Amendment 4 in 2018, Florida was one of just four states that permanently barred people with past convictions from voting for the rest of their life. Florida’s law was among the most restrictive in the nation. Experts estimated that before Amendment 4’s passage, 1 in 5 Black Floridians could not vote because of felony disenfranchisement rules. Passing Amendment 4 represented the largest expansion of voting rights in the United States in 50 years.
With 7 million people in the state having a criminal background that serves as a barrier to voting, employment, housing, education and other opportunities, FRRC EF is committed to building an engaged constituency in Florida with the power to eliminate the current barriers enshrined in law, policy, and practice.
How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund?
In 2022, Democracy Fund Voice approved a one-year grant of $100,000 to Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund.
In 2019 Democracy Fund Voice approved a two-year grant to FRRCEF’s fiscal sponsor, the Tides Foundation, in the amount of $225,000. In 2021 an amendment was approved to increase the amount of the grant by $75,000, for a total of $300,000. A previous grant was made in 2018 in the amount of $200,000.