Stories for Justice Community Change Study

About Independent Television Service 

Independent Television Service (ITVS) is the largest funder, co-producer, presenter, and community engagement partner for independent documentary film in the U.S. public media system. ITVS partners closely with filmmakers to tell untold stories of unseen communities. Each year, they bring 40+ films to national and local audiences. People of color co-produce 65% of ITVS films; women co-produce 60%. ITVS received the Peabody Award for Institutional Excellence and the Television Academy’s Governor’s Award for their leadership in providing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the field of journalism and non-fiction storytelling.

About Stories for Justice

ITVS’s Stories for Justice strategy will use documentary storytelling to support increased understanding about the inequities of the U.S. justice system and inspire local civic dialogue about reform. Partnering with filmmakers, ITVS is co-producing 20+ documentary films and docu-series that address a wide range of criminal justice issues. Those films are distributed widely by their public media series, Independent Lens, through a multi-year
partnership with PBS.

In select communities, ITVS is working closely with local organizations including public media stations, criminal justice reform organizations, and law schools to host a range of events that provide viewers an opportunity to discuss the issues raised in the films with each other and community leaders. Working with criminal justice reform experts, they are developing discussion guides, tools, and other supports to help partners host events that foster productive discussion, educate viewers about the criminal justice system, and spark action for criminal justice reform.

About the Opportunity 

ITVS is seeking an evaluation contractor to help understand the extent to which their efforts contributed to changes in targeted communities. The qualitative study should address the following research questions:

• How did policies or structures around mass incarceration change in the targeted communities?
• What role did ITVS play in bringing about those changes? What role did other partners play? What factors helped or hindered ITVS’s and its partners’ efforts?
• How can Stories for Justice content and activations further amplify reform efforts in these and other communities?

Qualifications

• Expertise in criminal justice reform
• Experience with relevant methods such as policy studies and community-based participatory research
• Demonstrated ability to successfully recruit community decision-makers (including elected officials and grassroots community groups) to participate in interviews or focus groups

How To Apply

The narrative proposal should be no longer than 8 pages and should include:

• Brief plan for the proposed study
• Description of key staff
• Description of relevant prior work
• Budget and budget narrative

Narrative proposals should be submitted to Grace Anglin, the Research and Evaluation Director at ITVS at grace.anglin@itvs.org, with the subject line “Proposal: Stories for Justice Community Change Study”.

Proposals are due by March 12, 2021.