THE ROAD HOME
Butler helped launch The Road Home's HousingWorks Employment Plan, a pilot program that experiments with innovative methods of providing employment services to formerly chronically homeless individuals who live in permanent supportive housing. By bringing together a wide range of public and private agencies to collaborate across systems, this partnership helps to create a "culture of employment" among both clients and various service providers. Initial results show that the pilot generated jobs, increased access to supportive services, and provided evidence that "everyone is employable" if the right programs and supports are in place. Results and learning are being shared around the country.
NATIONAL TRANSITIONAL JOBS NETWORK
The National Transitional Jobs Network (NTJN) launched the Working to End Homelessness Initiative in 2011 with support of the Butler Family Fund. The Network promotes 'transitional jobs' to move people with labor market barriers into short-term employment that combines real work, skill development, and supportive services as a means to longer term employment. With our grant, NTJN convened programs and synthesized learning from around the country, publishing four papers on how to support employment for homeless people. NTJN's advocacy focuses on re-purposing public dollars across systems in smarter ways to better serve homeless jobseekers.
NATIONAL HOUSING LAW PROJECT
The Butler Family Fund supports NHLP's national leadership in establishing and enforcing housing rights for those most vulnerable and disadvantaged. NHLP's programs include ongoing efforts to preserve federally assisted housing stock, protect tenants from displacement, and empower residents to be active participants in the creation of policies and practices that affect their housing. Other programs include advocacy and legal support for disadvantaged communities and low-income tenants in the current foreclosure crisis and upholding the rights of people traditionally challenged in their housing security, including domestic violence survivors, people with disabilities, and immigrants and people with limited English proficiency.
EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE
Butler has been a longstanding supporter of the groundbreaking work Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) undertakes on behalf of children sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP). EJI pursues a strategy of targeted litigation, selective clemency and public education to end the extreme sentencing of youth and to reform the juvenile justice system. EJI's advocacy was critical to the Supreme Court's abolition of the juvenile death penalty. Since that time, EJI has led efforts to abolish the sentence of LWOP. In 2010 and 2012, EJI's Bryan Stephenson successfully argued separate cases before the Supreme Court which held that LWOP was an unconstitutional sentence for juveniles in non-homicide cases, and can never be mandatory in homicide cases for children 17 and under.
ATLANTIC CENTER FOR CAPITAL REPRESENTATION
The Butler Family Fund was a seed funder for the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation (ACCR). ACCR seeks to reduce death sentences in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and to assist in creating conditions that will ultimately lead to repeal of the death penalty in those states. ACCR's advocacy is changing the conversation about the death penalty by focusing attention on the inadequacies of the current system and coordinating litigation strategies, legislative reform, and public policy debate. ACCR led a successful effort to increase the fees paid to court appointed lawyers in death penalty cases and has advocated for screening of attorneys doing capital work.
CONNECTICUT NETWORK TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
Our funding of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty (CNADP) supported a campaign resulting in the repeal of the death penalty in Connecticut. In April 2012, Connecticut became the 17th state – and the fifth state in five years – to abandon capital punishment. This victory was the culmination of decades of education and advocacy by CNADP's members, volunteers, and allied organizations.