PolicyLink, the Communities First Infrastructure Alliance, and Race Forward’s Government Alliance on Race and Equity are excited to announce a 2023 Transformative Justice Infrastructure Fellowship for public sector leaders who play strategic roles in embedding equitable approaches to local infrastructure investments. 

The Transformative Justice Infrastructure Fellowship will support a cohort of 19 infrastructure-related public sector leaders from across the country, who embody practices of systemic change and transformation in the transportation, water, housing, planning, and environmental sectors. For decades, people of color and low-wealth individuals, particularly those living in frontline communities in the United States, have disproportionately been negatively impacted by public infrastructure investments. To help turn this curve back towards justice, we explicitly sought out government practitioners who were leading efforts in their local communities to advance new and innovative decision-making practices with the current influx of infrastructure dollars.

We did not want to miss this organizing opportunity, as the US is currently experiencing a once-in-a-generation wave of infrastructure investment. A historic surge of funding — including the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), $437 billion from the climate portion of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and $1.9 trillion in flexible discretionary funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) stimulus package — presents an enormous opportunity to embed community-led solutions, justice, and climate priorities in US infrastructure investments. To meet this moment, racial and climate justice advocates and equity-oriented government practitioners across the country, are working to ensure the implementation of these funds centers the needs and aspirations of communities and empowers them to direct funding to community-identified and led projects.