Just Matters

To shape a future of work that offers opportunity, security, and prosperity for all people and communities, we’ll need to think outside the box.

Addressing the future of work is central to our mission, and also essential to the stability and success of our democracy.

In an executive order, Governor Andrew Cuomo restored voting rights to over 24,000 New Yorkers currently on parole. It's an important step forward for criminal justice reform, for voting rights, and for racial justice.

Addressing sexual harassment and sexual violence in the workplace among social justice organizations is long overdue.

10 pressing tech issues and trends that exist at the nexus of technology and social justice.

The right to protest has always been essential to movements for human rights and social justice. But around the world, there is a big gap between the promise of that right, and its reality.

Otto Scharmer, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says companies and nonprofits must adopt a new mindset and pursue new forms of collaboration.

Protecting human rights defenders and social leaders in Colombia—like Temistocles Machado, who was killed last month—remains an uphill battle.

It quickly became clear that our focus on inequality demands that we think seriously about disability issues.

Earlier this summer, the Ford Foundation launched an interactive tool called Your American Dream Score, which aims to help each of us examine the factors that have helped us succeed or held us back, and to start conversations about the role of inequality and opportunity in our lives.

The people responsible for the safety and health of our loved ones are paid less than parking lot attendants, and rarely receive health insurance or other benefits. According to PHI, home care workers in the US, like Vilma, are 89% female and make a median annual income of $13,300.

Privilege is very comfortable. But fighting the kind of inequality that leads to great suffering for so many will require disrupting that privilege, and breaking down some of the barriers that enable and preserve it.

Darren Walker reflects on four of his commencement speeches, addressing how around the world, democracy and democratic values are under siege, and our responsibilities to protect democracy. 

The Ford Foundation will continue to be a major funder in this field, supporting human rights actors and practices within all our efforts to overcome inequality.

Ford Foundation shares some lessons for organizations considering starting a hiring program for formally incarcerated people.

Your American Dream Score aims to help us examine the many experiences, systems, and institutions that have helped—or hindered—our path to where we are today, and to jump-start honest discussions about the role of inequality and opportunity in our lives.

The global refugee crisis poses a range of challenges to host countries but also economic and cultural opportunities. Policy solutions that ensure refugees’ dignity and help build their skills, talents, and assets will ensure that migrants can live full lives and contribute to their new communities.

Bringing the Truth Home tells the story of the 34 miners shot down in Marikana during their strike for a living wage in 2012, attempting to right the prevailing narrative. 

It has now been a year since the courageous environmental activist and indigenous leader Berta Cáceres was murdered in Honduras, and those responsible still have not been brought to justice.

The power of the Women’s March can't be sustained without people coming together to resist the sources not only of their own oppression but also of each other’s.

How can creative and documentary work help build a fairer and more just society?

We need an immigrant rights movement that decreases fear and expands opportunities for all.

10 pressing tech issues that exist at the nexus of technology and social justice.

In a New Year's message, Darren Walker reminds us that we share a human aspiration to live in dignity.

Today’s divisive climate makes it more urgent than ever to lift up vibrant art and creative expression that unifies and humanizes people through stories, art, and cultural practice.

The Ford Foundation recognizes four grantees that recently received special awards for their outstanding work and dedication to advancing human rights in Mexico and Central America.

The Ford Foundation recognizes four grantees that recently received special awards for their work and dedication to advancing human rights

America Divided, a new documentary series from EPIX, explores narratives around inequality in education, housing, healthcare, labor, criminal justice and the political system.

Ford Foundation staff recap Episode 5 of America Divided and discuss domestic workers' rights and voter suppression

Ford Foundation staff recap episode 4 of America Divided and discuss the influence of big money in politics and protecting the rights of undocumented immigrants. 

The Ford Foundation recaps episode 3 of America Divided, a docu-series about rising inequality in the United States.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, discusses why he created the web, why access to the Internet is a human right, and what it really means for the Internet to be open “for everyone" following a screening of Foreveryone.net, a documentary by Jessica Yu about his great invention. 

Javier Ciurlizza, the Ford Foundation’s Andean Region representative, discusses the strategy behind the opening of a new regional headquarters in Bogotá, Colombia, inequality in Colombia, the historic peace agreement, and what’s ahead for the region.

El 5 de septiembre de 2016, la Fundación Ford abrirá una nueva oficina regional en Bogotá (Colombia), la cual se convertirá en la sede central de nuestras labores en la Región Andina. Javier Ciurlizza, director de la fundación para esta región, habla sobre la estrategia que motivó el traslado, así como la desigualdad en Colombia, el histórico acuerdo de paz y lo que le espera a la región en el futuro.

Access to the Internet is critical for freedom of expression in modern societies and for enjoying cultural, social, and economic rights. Government's role in protecting this human right includes not blocking free speech, but also providing the disenfranchised with a voice.

Real change will require hard work by every one of us who values fairness and safety. Activists must be willing to sit down with police and politicians to propose specific solutions. Police officials must listen and find the will to implement them.

If we change the approach to development, large sporting events like the Olympics can reduce, rather than drive, inequality.

The global inequality of opportunity is what's driving the current migration crisis.

The Movement for Black Lives has created an opportunity for philanthropy to see and learn from new and dynamic forms of social justice leadership and infrastructure.

There is a close link between child marriage and the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Yet the interventions designed to respond to these two issues are often not integrated. 

Unlike traditional scholarships based primarily on academic achievement, social justice fellowships use non-traditional ways to recruit talented individuals and extend higher education opportunities to leaders from marginalized communities.

Twitter conversation with Nigerian actress and award-winning filmmaker Stephanie Okereke Linus about her film, Dry.

Upcoming censuses in Colombia and Peru present opportunities for greater inclusion, for every person to count and be counted.

With increasing xenophobic political rhetoric and brazen incidents of violence against American Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities, the Ford Foundation hosted a dialogue with leaders to strategize ways to advance inclusion. Here are the highlights from the discussion.

An interview with the filmmaker of Wilhemina's War, the story of an African American grandmother living in the rural south and fighting to help her granddaughter survive the health risks and social stigma of living with HIV.

To mark Black History Month, we asked three racial justice advocates to reflect on what it means to commemorate and celebrate black history in a moment when racial justice is at the center of the national conversation.

While tipping remains a favored practice in the United States, it has created a system of unfair pay that disproportionately affects women and people of color—a system that has roots in America’s ugly history of slavery and racial discrimination.

What Flint can learn from a new generation of civic activism and engagement among diverse Detroit communities.

Ford staff recount their most memorable social justice moments from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

43 years after Roe v. Wade, reproductive justice is as important as ever, and goes beyond the right to abortion and contraception.

Foundation staff weigh in on Obama's final State of the Union, and  his takes on criminal justice reform, raising the minimum wage, climate change, discrimination, and inequality

Michelle Alexander speaks candidly to Ford Foundation staff about the state of racial justice in America.

Farhana Khera, President of Muslim Advocates, discusses the need to build coalitions with other movements to bend the arc of justice.

Landesa honored with Hilton Humanitarian Prize for "extraordinary contributions to alleviating human suffering"

The pope’s visit to a Philadelphia prison puts a spotlight on the immorality of our justice system and the urgent need for reform.

Supporting INGOs that are based in the Global South, the Ford Foundation can contribute further to the realization of rights.

The best thing about Berta Cáceres receiving the Goldman Environmental Prize, and being recognized internationally for her grassroots efforts to protect the environment, is that it means she is still alive.

Mario Bronfman, former representative of the Mexico and Central America office, reflects on the foundation's commitment to Cuba.

Program officer Louis Bickford deliberates the complex nature of the international human rights movement.

Consulta previa--the right of indigenous groups to be consulted on matters that affect them is a very important issue for Latin America.