Freedom Labs is the name of a national partnership between left-of-center police-abolitionist organizations PolicyLink, BYP100, the Center for Popular Democracy, and Law for Black Lives. ^{1 2} Freedom Labs is known for hosting “intensive” workshops to help local left-progressive organizers and nonprofit volunteers who advocate for taking funds away from the criminal justice system and the police and diverting them to other policies and initiatives that allegedly “strengthens their communities.” These workshops, along with training sessions, attempt to teach their participants skills, connect community members, and promote other left-progressive local campaigns. ³

Activities

The first two Freedom Lab regional workshops occurred in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in November 2019 and Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2020. ⁴

Freedom Labs collaborates with Defund the Police, a project that hosts web resources for activists and organizers to learn more about the police abolitionist movement and its related events, legislation, organizations, and policy proposals. Defund the Police also provides information on budgeting, training, and campaigning to interested readers and members. ⁵

Partners

PolicyLink

PolicyLink describes its commitment to the issue as a support for “historically-disinvested communities to build power, create safety, and become more free” by advocating for defunding the police and constructing alternative, radical left-progressive approaches to law enforcement. ⁶

BYP100

BYP100 is a left-of-center activist group which promotes defunding the police. It leads a national campaign called “She Safe, We Safe” which aims “to put an end to the different forms of gender violence that Black women, girls, femmes, and gender non-conforming people face everyday.” The campaign hosts events, webinars, a “story collection project” which invites people to send in their stories about gendered violence and other forms of oppression, and “actions.” ⁷ BYP100 additionally advocates “bold shifts” in economics which would put an end to discrimination, mass incarceration, and the policing of black neighborhoods and instead create a “more economically just society” for the benefit of “Black people, including women, queer, and transgender folks.” ⁸

Center for Popular Democracy

The Center for Popular Democracy is a left-of-center organization that focuses on voter mobilization and policy development. ⁹ The Center has received donations from left-progressive foundations such as the Wyss Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation. ¹⁰

Law for Black Lives

Law for Black Lives is a national community of self-proclaimed “radical lawyers and legal workers” aligned in their left-progressive views on race and criminal justice reform. ¹¹ Its webpage describes itself as the “Black femme led legal arm of the Black Liberation movement” and provides legal support, training, education, and research to interested clients and activists. ¹²

1. “About.” Defund the Police. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://defundpolice.org/about/.
2. “Community Safety and Justice.” PolicyLink. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.policylink.org/our-work/just-society/community-safety-justice.
3. “Community Safety and Justice.” PolicyLink. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.policylink.org/our-work/just-society/community-safety-justice.
4.  “Community Safety and Justice.” PolicyLink. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.policylink.org/our-work/just-society/community-safety-justice.
5. “About.” Defund the Police. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://defundpolice.org/about/.
6.  “Community Safety and Justice.” PolicyLink. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.policylink.org/our-work/just-society/community-safety-justice.
7. BYP100. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.byp100.org/.
8.  “Agenda to Build Black Futures.” BYP100. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.agendatobuildblackfutures.com/
9. “About Us.” The Center for Popular Democracy. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.populardemocracy.org/about-us.
10. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted March 31, 2017.
11. Law for Black Lives. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.law4blacklives.org/.
12. “Mission Statement.” Law for Black Lives. Accessed 19 February 2022. https://www.law4blacklives.org/our-work-1.