Deadline: Sunday, October 19, 2025 11:59pm
About Us
The Detroit Justice Center (DJC) works alongside communities to create economic opportunities, transform the justice system, and promote equitable and just cities. DJC is founded on the belief that we cannot build cities that work for everyone without remedying the impacts of mass incarceration. This mission requires innovative ways of community lawyering—rooted in defensive and offensive fights for racial justice and economic equity—that build up our poorest residents through direct services and novel approaches to land use, housing, and employment.
We strongly encourage people of color, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and individuals with past involvement in the justice system or who have loved ones currently or formerly in the justice system to apply. Our values guide our work and internal operations and we seek a consultant who aligns with them.
Request for Proposals
During the 2020 uprisings in the wake of the George Floyd killing, DJC was fortunate to see an influx of support from community members and other organizations. One such donor was Red Bull Arts Detroit, an organization though now defunct, supported artists in Detroit for many years. Their donation sparked the idea that we could take their $10,000 donation and use it to fund an artist residency. Every year since, we have been afforded the opportunity to grant one Detroit artist $10,000 and one year to complete new work that answers the prompt “imagine a world without policing or incarceration.” Now, as we have recently announced our fourth artist in residence, Jenin Yaseen, we have been fortunate enough to receive a large grant from the Mellon Foundation that allows us to expand the residency, grant artists $20,000 per cycle, as well as awarding a second artist per year who is from Michigan and is formerly incarcerated.
In order to grow our residency program with care, we are seeking a formerly incarcerated artist to consult with our team on the expansion. The right candidate will have connections to other formerly incarcerated artists in Michigan as well as experience applying for artist fellowships, grants, and awards and will be able to help our team design a user friendly application process.Candidates do not need to have experience in arts administration, although such experience is welcome and appreciated.
Scope of Work & Deliverables:
We are looking for a consultant to collaborate with staff to expand our artist residency statewide and attract formerly incarcerated applicants. We are looking for assistance in formatting the residency, tailoring it to adapt to formerly incarcerated applicants, assistance in compiling a contact list of people and organizations that work with system impacted artists, and assistance in identifying a selection panel of 3-5 people.
Process:
Once selected, the consultant will meet with our residency team at least once a week for six weeks, between October and December 2025, as well as carrying out tasks for the residency between 20-30 hours prior to December 31, 2025. During this time, the contractor will help oversee the rollout announcement of the formerly incarcerated artist residency program with the intention of launching applications in early January 2026.
Budget: $5000 (fixed contract)
Application Instructions: Submit proposal of no more than five pages that outlines:
- Your approach for this project, imagining your ideal application process
- A projected workflow for all deliverables
- A resume
Please submit application materials to media@detroitjustice.org to apply by Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 11:59 pm. This is a remote position, and you do not need to be based in Michigan to apply.