Our Programs
Ambassador Program
Our flagship fellowship program equips formerly incarcerated leaders, activists and advocates with the creative and technical skills to produce, message test, and nationally distribute short films, for systemic change.
“I’ve learned that a story can be used as a call for action. A story can be used to set things in motion that change not only the narrative but change policies and change laws.”
– Represent Justice Ambassador
Film Impact Campaigns
Our Open Call model provides pro-bono impact campaign support to independent films helmed by system-impacted individuals. To date, selected films include SXSW Audience Winner Songs from the Hole, and BET Original, Kemba. We have also led national impact campaigns for the feature films, Apart, On These Grounds, Sansón & Me, Master of Light and Just Mercy.
“They helped me see this is not just about me, it is through me that this story gets to be told. They supported me in shifting from ‘I don't wanna talk’ to 'there's a story to be told about an issue that's impacting everybody’ and they would be there with me to walk me through it.”
– Represent Justice Film Participant
Community Storytelling
Represent Justice is piloting two community storytelling projects in California and Louisiana, bringing community organizations together to collaborate on joint short film projects that address resonant narrative gaps and advocacy needs.
“Represent Justice made me feel seen, cared for, respected, and safe. I didn’t know that it could be that way, that I deserved this.”
– Represent Justice Community Partner
Speakers Bureau
Launching in October 2024, the bureau will feature exclusively formerly incarcerated leaders who are trained and primed to leverage their personal stories to inspire hope and change.
Our Theory of Change
Our theory of change involves building up a critical mass of system-impacted storytellers using film and media to mobilize audiences to take action to transform the legal system.
Stories told in an intentional, strategic way can create new frames for audiences to understand the issues driving mass incarceration. With every new storytelling campaign, we deepen and influence the discourse around our key areas while also building the narrative power of system-impacted storytellers and community organizations working to end mass incarceration across the country.
The story campaigns we support will align with our four-pillar approach to systemic change:
Narrative Change: Reaching and influencing targeted discourse around, responses to, and framing of issues related to mass incarceration, including changes in language, stories, storytellers.
Cultural Change: Engaging audiences and decision-makers within spaces and institutions that set societal norms and characterizations of various system-impacted communities and modifying relationships between institutions and those communities.
Capacity-Building Change: Creating opportunities and pathways that leverage storytelling for system-impacted individuals to grow in their leadership and build their narrative power to better sustain themselves and their communities. This includes building narrative infrastructure that places narrative power in the hands of impacted storytellers and provides organizations working in legal reform with the mass distribution of the firsthand stories of impacted communities.
Structural Change: Engaging audiences in top-down political or legislative change that will directly affect future policy outcomes or business practices.
Our Methodology
Narrative Transportation Theory
To the extent that individuals are absorbed into (or lost in) a story well told, or transported into a narrative world, their real-world beliefs may be affected by their experience of the story. By being transported, psychological barriers are reduced and the story becomes a powerful tool for persuasion and belief change.
— Source: Melanie C Green, Ph.D.
Narrative Accretion
Narrative Accretion is the recognition that stories on certain subject matters add up, that the whole may often be greater than the sum of its parts. Any one story may unearth and explore important new areas, especially pressing or unseen contemporary issues and moments. But ultimately stories build upon and contribute to an ongoing dialog with viewers about issues such as rape or criminal justice reform or poverty.
— Source: Jeffrey P. Jones, Ph.D.
Our Issue Priorities
Represent Justice is a committed partner in the movement to reimagine the justice system and create real demand for change. We currently do this by focusing on shifting narratives surrounding criminal legal issues related to the following four issue priority areas:
Gender-Inclusive Justice: The women’s prison population has grown by over 700% since 1980, and over 80% of women entering the legal system have experienced some form of sexual, partner, or caretaker violence. Represent Justice aims to illuminate the unique factors driving the incarceration of women, as well as the barriers they face upon reentry. We aim to challenge harmful stereotypes and narratives surrounding gender and uplift the voices of BIPOC, transgender, and other women who face disproportionate rates of incarceration. Our focus includes sentencing relief for survivors of abuse and violence, ensuring the dignified treatment of women in the legal system, and promoting policies that promote family unification.
Youth Justice: The U.S. leads the world in youth incarceration, with over 60,000 youth confined on any given day. Represent Justice seeks to end harmful practices in youth incarceration by shifting the narrative to "treat children like children." We aim to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline, advocate for diversionary programs, and prevent extreme sentencing for minors. Our efforts also aim to keep youth out of adult courts and promote alternatives that respect their capacity for change.
Alternatives to Incarceration: With two-thirds of justice-involved individuals struggling with substance abuse or mental illness, we envision a society with greater community investments in alternatives to incarceration. By shifting focus from punishment to treatment and support, we desire to help normalize solutions such as substance abuse treatment, mental health services, bail reform, and community-led violence interruption programs. Our goal is to challenge the idea that incarceration ensures safety and instead focus on community-based initiatives that address root causes of crime.
Reentry and Opportunity: With over 3.8 million people in the United States currently under legal supervision and surveillance (e.g., pardon, parole), barriers to reentry continue to fuel recidivism. Our work seeks to illuminate the systemic obstacles system-impacted individuals face, such as disenfranchisement, lack of access to housing and jobs, and costly court fees. We aim to co-create a world without these barriers by advocating for policies that allow formerly incarcerated individuals to reclaim their rights and rebuild their lives. Our programming also is intentional about showcasing the positive impact of system-impacted leaders, inspiring hope and creating further opportunities for meaningful reintegration into society.