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Journey for Justice (J4J)

  /    /  Journey for Justice (J4J)

Journey for Justice (J4J) is an emerging alliance of grassroots community-based organizations from cities across the United States representing constituencies of youth, parents, and inter-generational organizations who have been impacted by the closing, turnaround, and charter expansion of schools in communities of color. The goal of the Alliance is to bring the voice of those directly impacted by discriminatory school actions into the debate about the direction for public education in the 21st century and to promote equality in education for all students and sustainable, community-driven school reform for all school districts across the country.

 

ACTIVITIES & RESULTS

Thinkinc. was engaged through alliance member and longtime client, Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) (website.) to provide strategic media relations consulting services to gain national and Chicago-based media attention to promote J4J’s emerging national campaign for community-driven school reform.

May 2019 – Sixty-five years after the Supreme Court ordered an end to the “separate but equal” doctrine, we helped Journey For Justice get coverage of their We Choose Equity: Fund-Our-Future National Day of Action events in Washington and across the country. The group is pushing for passage of the Keep Our PACT Act, now pending in the U.S. Congress, which would mandate fully funding equal-opportunity laws.

August to September 2017 – When the leadership was preparing for simultaneous actions to fight school privatization, in cities across the country, we were asked to get them coverage. Using press materials, social media, we helped craft a message that could be used by each of the diverse groups, from major cities to medium-sized towns. On the ground, the message was being delivered in a series of tactics, including a rally and a bus tour.
Thinkinc. was up to the challenge of alerting media about a range of upcoming events across a broad swath of the country stretching over a period of months. Organizations did the nitty gritty and got coverage for their work. Their fight continues. Their fight continues.

August 2013 – As the nation commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which served as a compelling force for civil rights progress, J4J alliance members sought to leverage this timing to raise awareness of the perpetuation of race and class bias in access to quality education. Alliance members and activist groups from 25 cities across the country planned local actions on the anniversary, that while commemorating the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and civil rights activists, called for an end to the discrimination and the violation of human and civil rights resulting from current education policy and reform.

Working with J4J alliance members, Thinkinc. developed the media strategy and key messaging to draw media interest and create national and local coverage opportunities. Through a series of media alerts leading up to the anniversary and detailed press releases on the day of, Thinkinc. assisted the allied cities in promoting their actions to their local media, publicized the Chicago-specific actions and tied together the local initiatives to promote the overarching J4J campaign messages to the national media.

Thinkinc. developed a comprehensive media list including education reporters, political policy reporters, progressive media outlet reporters, media outlets with new and traditional media, as well as national and local news publications in Chicago and the 25 constituent Journey for Justice cities.

Thinkinc. conducted media outreach, facilitated interviews, organized press relations with key spokespeople from the coalition, assisted with onsite media relations for the Chicago press conference in advance of the local event and on the day of Chicago’s rally, and carried out follow-up media relations for story placement. (View Program Page | Download Media Kit)

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January 2013 Thinkinc. was retained by Journey for Justice to provide strategic media relations consulting services to gain national and Chicago-based media attention, as well as provide support for alliance members in local media markets, for the Journey for Justice Community Hearing with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the U.S. Department of Education Auditorium in Washington, D.C. The Hearing kicked off the J4J national campaign calling for a moratorium on discriminatory school closings and the replacement of failed reform strategies with the J4J proposal for community-driven, sustainable school transformation. (View Program Page | Download Media Kit)