We create and implement media communications, and policy advocacy trainings, original curricula, educational tools, and movement-building events.
Advocacy Campaigns
We launch coordinated national and local defender policy advocacy campaigns, strategic projects and partnerships, and cutting-edge new media advocacy.
Technical Support
We provide technical assistance to defenders and defender offices to maximize their advocacy impact.
Community-Building
We build and nurture our national coordinated community of media and movement-savvy public defenders.
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Our Mission
Zealous activates, trains, and supports public defenders, in partnership with local organizations and the people and communities they serve, to move their advocacy outside of court. Our goal is to end mass criminalization.
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.
EXPLORE
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.
