ZEALOUS IS A NATIONAL ADVOCACY AND EDUCATION INITIATIVE WORKING TO TOPPLE THE HISTORIC IMBALANCE OF POWER OVER CRIMINAL JUSTICE MEDIA AND POLICY. WE DO THIS BY SUPPORTING AND TRAINING PUBLIC DEFENDERS, ADVOCATES, AND PEOPLE WITH DIRECT EXPERIENCE TO HARNESS THE POWER OF MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY, STORYTELLING, AND THE ARTS.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL: TRANSFORMATIVE AND ENDURING POLICY CHANGE TO END MASS CRIMINALIZATION.
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Our Work
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Zealous: Institute
We design and implement trainings, law school courses, and toolkits on media, storytelling, communications, and policy advocacy.
Zealous: Campaigns
We support local partners to develop cutting-edge social justice advocacy campaigns that harness technology, arts, media, and firsthand storytelling strategies.
Zealous: Support
We build relationships between journalists & public defenders, advocates, and directly-impacted people to amplify perspectives and insights.
Zealous: Community
We forge and strengthen a wide-ranging, national collaborative advocacy tapestry between expected and unexpected allies & co-conspirators for Justice.
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Our Latest
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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Project: 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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Project: 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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Campaign: Still In Prison
A campaign to topple a racist law in Oregon and free the people it imprisons.
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Campaign: 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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Campaign: 132Calls
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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Campaign: 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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Campaign: 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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Analysis: 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.
