Click photo to read NPR article “San Francisco Program Aims To Make Fines More Fair For The Poor”

In the next few months, Ken Fisher and I will be busy creating four videos to support the efforts of the City of San Francisco’s Treasurer’s Office of Financial Justice to reform the fees and fines that impact low-income and people of color disproportionately.

The SF Financial Justice project was born out of DOJ’s 2015 Ferguson Report, which found that government programs and  courts levy fines and fees on residents, partly to generate revenue to  balance public budgets. These fines and fees are disproportionately levied on low-income communities and communities of color, and often  push these vulnerable individuals into poverty or the criminal justice  system.

Ken and I are excited that our local governmental leaders are incredibly innovative and see the benefits of visual storytelling as an integral part pushing legislative change.