For more than 65 years, the Levi Strauss Foundation has embraced the energy and events of our time by supporting community partners who embody Levi Strauss & Co.’s values – originality, empathy, integrity and courage – and are on the front lines of driving social change in communities around the globe.
The current political environment – rife with disruptive change and tension – serves as a consequential backdrop for us to live these values in real time. We believe that the role business plays in the world today is far greater than just delivering a profit – it’s about taking responsibility and having the courage to take a stand.
This’s why, for the third consecutive year, the Levi Strauss Foundation is allocating $1.0 million to a Rapid Response Fund, which will support organizations that protect the civil liberties of highly vulnerable communities across the United States and abroad – including immigrants, refugees, the transgender community and religious minorities.
We are incredibly proud to stand alongside the pioneering organizations supported by the Fund. These organizations and their leaders are mavericks working at the forefront of some of the most pressing issues of the day, including challenging the Muslim ban, defending DACA recipients and supporting their families, protecting asylum seekers and refugees, and restoring voting rights to individuals in marginalized communities. The organizations in the Fund are also working at the center of culture to proactively change hearts and minds through communications and storytelling that promote empathy and understanding.
Rapid Response community partners include the following organizations:
San Francisco Bay Area
- Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus: Provides legal defense, rights education and community mobilization for Muslims, South Asians and immigrant youth.
- Council on American-Islamic Relations (SF Bay Area): Offers legal defense and rights education among Muslims.
- Pangea Legal Services: Provides legal defense and community mobilization for the benefit of vulnerable immigrants.
National
- Al Otro Lado: Offers direct legal services to indigent deportees, migrants, immigrants and refugees.
- American Immigration Council: Shapes public perceptions on immigrants and works toward a more fair and just immigration system through litigation, research, advocacy and communications.
- Define American: Mobilizes the power of media and culture to shift the conversation about immigrants, identity and citizenship in the U.S.
- Live Free:Organizes faith-based leaders and trains law enforcement to protect the rights of vulnerable communities in cities across the U.S.
- National Immigration Law Center: Defends and advances the rights of immigrants with low income.
- Transgender Law Center: Extends legal services nationwide to meet the needs of the transgender community and mobilizes advocates against discriminatory legislation at local and state levels.
- Undocublack: Provides access to resources, fosters community and works with a nationwide network to transform the lives of current and formerly undocumented black people.
- United We Dream: Offers legal support, rights education and community mobilization to protect the rights of immigrant students.
International
- Ascend Collaborative: Helps refugees in Greece rebuild their lives by creating work opportunities, empowering communities, supporting youth and meeting people’s basic needs so they can live with dignity.
- International Refugee Assistance Project: Protects the human rights of refugees globally through legal services and advocacy.
The organizations above are working tirelessly every day to ensure that everyone is given the opportunity to pursue their fullest potential, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or religious preference. They recognize that strong democracies are built upon inclusion and protection of the rights of the most marginalized and vulnerable. They represent the freedom to dare to do what’s right – and we are proud to support them.
Photo courtesy of Eurydice Thomas.
