Research & Advocacy Grants Program

NOTE: The small grants program is not funded for 2010-2011. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

PRRAC's Small Grants Program for Research/Advocacy funds social science research tied directly to ongoing advocacy projects. Our purpose is to support, encourage, and disseminate action-oriented research; to make connections between and among those who engage in action, advocacy, organizing and research; and to build public awareness about the various dimensions of and challenges faced by those at the intersections of race and poverty.

The grants in 2006-2009 were funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with additional support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

2008-09 Grants

Last year's Small Grants program focused on the Seattle-King County region. We are convening all grantees on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at Seattle University. Contact Chester Hartman (chartman@prrac.org) for more information.

Accepted Proposals
"King County Opportunity Mapping – Mapping to Promote Equitable Community Development" submitted by Steve Fredrickson, Northwest Justice Project (& Kirwan Inst. at Ohio State Univ.)

"The effect of displacement and spatial relationships on access to comprehensive pediatric health care," submitted by the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children, Seattle.

"New Beginnings: The Path to Affordable Housing for New Immigrants to Southeast Seattle," submitted by Amy Clark, Wash. Low Income Housing Alliance.

"Comparative analysis of neighborhoods which have faced or are currently facing annexation," submitted by Columbia Legal Services and the White Center Comm. Dev. Assn.

"Securing the Spectacular City: Sweeps and the Suburbanization of Homelessness," submitted by Adam Hyla, Editor, Real Change.

"Assessment of Kent School District’s Use of Discipline," submitted by the ACLU of Washington.

"Reducing Racial Disparities in Health Care," submitted by Washington CAN! Education & Research Fund.

"Seattle Housing Authority Housing Choice Voucher Participants’ Experience in the Housing Market," submitted by Martha Galvez (NYU Furman Ctr. for Real Estate & Urban Policy).

"Impact of Tenant Screening Policies on People of Color in King County," submitted by John Midgley, Columbia Legal Services.

"Maintaining Social Networks in a Gentrifying Community," submitted by Deidre Bowen, Mako Fitts, Gary Perry, Seattle University.

"New Curriculum Modules on Racism & Health for Environmental Justice Youth Corps Program in South Seattle, Washington," submitted by Linn Gould, Just Health Action.

2007 Grants

Thanks to another generous grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, we are pleased to announce the following Small Grants for 2007:

The Current State of Union Organizing at the Turn of the Millennium: Unionization as an Anti-Poverty Strategy and Successful Strategies for Organizing Workers of Color: Asst. Prof. Dorian T. Warren, Columbia Univ. Political Science & Public Affair & Kate Bronfenbrenner, Director of Labor Education Research, Cornell Univ. School of Industrial & Labor Relations.

Indicators of School Re-Segregation in Response to United States Supreme Court Decisions Concerning Consideration of Race in School Assignment: Cedar Grove Inst. for Sustainable Communities, North Carolina.

Resisting the Raids: A Community Documentation, Action Research and Advocacy Project: Community Writing & Research Project, PRAIRIE Group, College of Education, Univ. of Illinois-Chicago & The Telpochcalli Community Education Project-Chicago.

Technology of Mobilization Project: National Center for Schools and Communities, Fordham University, with the Bronx-based Sistas and Brothas United (SBU)

Zoning Barriers to Fair Housing & Educational Equity in Metropolitan Boston: Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston.

Moving Forward: Supporting Voucher Portability in Illinois: John Bouman, Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law & Housing Action Illinois

Empowering Poverty Advocates: Support for Hands-On Training for Legal Services Advocates in GIS Race Mapping: Legal Services of Northern California.

2006 Grants

The following PRRAC grants were made possible by generous support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation:

Parenting and Schooling in Diverse Families: Prof. Amy Lutz, Syracuse Univ. Dept. of Sociology and Prof. Pamela Bennett, Johns Hopkins Univ. Dept. of Sociology.

Racial Disparities in Massachusetts’ Mandatory Minimum School Zone Law: Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative.

Racial Disparities & Disturbing Discipline Practices in Our Middle Schools: Dan Losen, Harvard Civil Rights Project and Prof. Russell Skiba, Ctr. For Evaluation & Educ. Policy, Indiana Univ. School of Education.

A Survey of the Acceptance of Voucher Holders in Suburban Cook County [IL]: Lawyers Comm. for Better Housing.

The Effects of School & Classroom Racial Composition on Educational Outcomes: Prof. Roslyn Mickelson, UNC-Charlotte Dept. of Sociology.

Are States using the LIHTC Program to Enable Families with Children to Live in Low-Poverty and Racially Integrated Neighborhoods?: Jill Khadduri, Larry Buron and Carissa Climaco, Abt Associates. (This research is also supported by the National Fair Housing Alliance.)

Legalized Usury: The Expansion of Payday Lending in Ohio: The Housing Research and Advocacy Center, Cleveland, OH

In addition, thanks to a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support PRRAC’s research and advocacy on health disparities, we are pleased to announce these additional research/advocacy projects:

Reducing Occupational Injuries & Illnesses Among Latino Poultry Workers in No. Carolina: Prof. Sara Quandt, Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine Dept. of Epidemiology & Prevention and Francisco Risso, Western No. Carolina Workers Center.

Food, Justice and Community: Motivations & Obstacles to Food Security in West Oakland, CA: Alison Hope Alkon, Univ. Calif.-Davis and Dana Harvey, Environmental Justice Inst.

For Grants prior to 2006, see this descriptive listing.

General Information

Maximum grant is $10,000. Average grant is $7,500. Co-funding is acceptable.
Two threshold criteria:
1. Proposals must be for research on an intersection of poverty and race
2. The proposed research must be designed from the outset to support a planned and specified advocacy agenda (i.e., litigation, community organizing, public education, legislation, etc.)
Grant funds the research and dissemination (generally, dissertations and books will not be funded unless they clearly meet the required advocacy link; PRRAC grant funds may not be used to cover overhead)
Eligibility criteria - Applications are welcome from the following:
1. Advocate/social science research teams
2. Advocacy groups - either with the capacity to carry out the research themselves or that need outside research assistance
3. Social science researchers at colleges, universities, research centers, etc.
Grantee must be tax-exempt 501(c)(3)s or have a tax-exempt fiscal sponsor
Through our network, we can put advocacy groups in contact with appropriate researchers who can assist them, and put researchers in contact with advocacy groups that can make use of their work.
In this grant cycle, we gave preference to work in the areas of housing, education and health, as well as to work carried out in the cities where the Casey Foundation has its Making Connections sites: Denver, Des Moines, Hartford, Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Oakland, Providence, San Antonio, and Seattle.

Reports on the research supported by our grants and the follow-up advocacy work aided by this research will appear in later issues of Poverty & Race. Further details about and contact inf. for these projects is available from us on request (chartman@prrac.org).

You can view a descriptive listing of the 100+ such grants PRRAC has made in the past.

Guidelines for Submitting Grant Proposals

Please direct your inquiries to:

PRRAC's Director of Research Chester Hartman, 1200 18th St. NW #200, Washington, DC 20036, or email it to chartman@prrac.org

Questions? phone Chester at 202/906-8025

Reports on Grants

How to Apply for Grants

Search for: