NEW YORK, May 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Investors led by Justice Capital are responding to the Biden/Harris administration initiatives by making a historic move of their own: they are making an unprecedented commitment to fund and support the most effective models of public health, safety, and climate-resilient infrastructure led by Black, brown, Indigenous and front-line communities. The new efforts will dovetail with the administration’s $5 billion investment in community-led public health and safety programs and its Justice40 Initiative. The Justice40 Initiative directs 40% of the benefits of federal climate spending to “disadvantaged communities” — places that have been disinvested in for decades, but which are still innovating and creating solutions that can work for all people.
“Improvements that have been made in distressed frontline communities like Spartanburg, South Carolina, can guide other communities that face similar challenges,” said Harold Mitchell Jr., executive director of The ReGenesis Institute and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. “But folks on the ground are normally left out of planning processes, and there is no roadmap to help them. Together with Justice Capital, we will support communities like ours in owning and leading their own development to move from surviving to thriving.”
Investors, foundation leaders, and administration officials joined Justice Capital on May 19th to learn about:
- A first-of-its-kind accelerator, designed to scale best-in-class community-led public health and safety models and community-led energy, housing, and resilient infrastructure projects, all led by and serving Black, brown, Indigenous, and front-line communities.
- A fund to help these projects scale by blending traditional investment with innovative financing models that create shared ownership with community partners, while also delivering returns for investors.
The new fund reflects investors’ appetite for broadening environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing to incorporate investments intentionally made in communities that have been harmed by mass incarceration and environmental injustice. The fund is the first scaled investment vehicle allowing investors to redirect their capital into community-led projects that build climate-resilient infrastructure and alternatives to the school-to-prison pipeline in the communities most impacted by environmental injustice and mass incarceration.
The accelerator will support best-in-class local models as they come to scale and inspire other projects around the nation. Examples of these projects include:
- The ReGenesis Institute, which has remediated six brownfield and two superfund sites and leveraged almost $300 million in development to scale the housing and healthcare systems needed to serve more than 15,000 people a year. Together with Justice Capital, The ReGenesis Institute will scale affordable and transformational housing while expanding into community-owned solar, agriculture, and other sustainable manufacturing.
- Newark Community Street Team leads community-based public health and safety efforts in the community, decreasing homicide by over 40% in the last five years, saving the state more than $350 million, and contributing to the Newark Police Department not having fired a single shot in 2020, despite the tumultuous events of last year. Working with the accelerator, they will begin adding transformational housing and business ownership while scaling public health and safety models throughout the state.
- Inside Circle is led by leaders who’ve been formerly incarcerated that now lead transformational healing circles inside prison facilities and for those re-entering society, in order to address root traumas, addiction, and pain. With Justice Capital, they will partner with community-led public health and safety organizations across the country on a transformational housing model that provides co-located services, housing, and workforce training serving communities harmed by mass incarceration.
“We leverage traditional investment to scale more efficient and effective models that deliver both better outcomes to the community while also saving cities, counties, and states money. In addition, we are able to create an opportunity for shared value creation with our community partners and catalyze workforce and ownership trajectories in the most-impacted communities increasing wealth in these communities, as well,” said Christina Hollenback of Justice Capital, an investment and advisory firm that accelerates economic prosperity, expands resilient community-led infrastructure, and enhances public health and safety to support thriving Black, brown, and front-line communities.
Applications for the next round of accelerator projects will be available at https://Justice.Capital and AccelerateJustice.us in June, and successful candidates will be announced at Climate Week NYC this fall. Funds will begin to flow later this year, supplementing the unprecedented commitments made by the Biden/Harris administration.
Justice Capital is an investment fund, convening platform, and advisory firm that accelerates economic prosperity, expands resilient community-led infrastructure, and enhances public health and safety to grow thriving Black, brown, and systems-impacted communities. Our investments create better budget outcomes, generate greater tax revenue, and optimize returns for investors and community while accelerating local economic growth.
Contact:
Christina Hollenback
[email protected]
SOURCE Justice Capital
