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Zealous

Challenging injustice
through media,
storytelling, and the arts.

what we do
Our Mission: A policy and media landscape that follows facts and makes decisions based on reason rather than fear. Enduring and transformative policy changes that actually achieve health, safety, and Justice.

our work

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Zealous: Institute

Zealous skills up and convenes current and future legal practitioners, local and national advocates, and directly impacted leaders on storytelling, communications, and policy advocacy.

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Zealous: Storytelling

Zealous builds award-winning, cutting-edge advocacy projects and campaigns that harness technology, arts, data, film, and firsthand storytelling to translate complicated issues into engaging formats

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Zealous: Media Support

Zealous amplifies critical perspectives and voices by building relationships between local experts and advocates and media outlets to influence coverage and popular culture on issues of health and safety.

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Zealous: Facilitation

Zealous builds bridges and strategic alignment between and among expected and unexpected national and local organizations, allies, and advocates.

our latest

Institute: Chicago Transformation Collab

A galvanizing summit and festival to imagine a safe and just Chicago.

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Website & Digital Archive: This is Defense

Public defense is about OUR HEALTH. Our safety. Our COMMUNITIES. About racial justice. About fairness. About accountability. About ALL OF US.

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Animated Film: The Courtwatchers

Injustice happens in empty courtrooms. It doesn't have to be this way anymore.

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Media Support: Teen Vogue Commentaries

Zealous has launched an ongoing series in Teen Vogue of commentaries by local advocates and people who are system impacted on a range of issues more people need to know about.

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First Hand Digital Archive: Silenced

A growing digital archive of approximately 100 letters shared by people caged in solitary confinement in Michigan. An immersive arts/advocacy experience and a growing collection of art inspired by the letters.

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Institute: National Training

The launch of the Zealous defender community. An immersive, national media and movement building training. 52 defenders, representing 42 different offices, in 27 different states.

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First Hand Digital Archive: Shedding Light

State violence inside Texas county jails is kept hidden, invisible. This is a growing, digital archive of first hand accounts from those inside and their loved ones. To shed light on the routine atrocities.

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Campaign & Website: For The Sixth

A campaign to end user pay and fully fund public defense in Louisiana. The first in a series of a national education and action initiatives to make the Sixth Amendment mean something.

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Film & Campaign: Still In Prison

A campaign to topple a racist law in Oregon and free the people it imprisons.

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Billboard: Need to Talk

We produced a billboard to engage New Yorkers and the country in an urgent, nuanced conversation about what “defund the police” really means.

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Film & Campaign: 132 Calls

Cassandra Greer-Lee made 132 calls to request help to protect her husband Nick from COVID-19 in the Cook County Jail. No one answered or responded. He died. Now she is fighting to ensure no one else suffers the same fate.

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Digital Archive: Gasping for Justice

Zealous designed a campaign with local defenders to amplify the voices of people in Prince George's County, MD jail. We didn't have cell phone footage. But we had sworn statements.

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Media Support: Police Violence

Zealous helps leverage defender perspective in local and national press. Most recently, Zealous lead a team of defenders to analyze videos of police violence for the New York Times.

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