The Open Society Foundations has announced its 2021 cohort of Soros Equality Fellows.

Launched in 2017, the program provides leadership development training, networking, and other professional support aimed at helping fellows create new ideas in the racial and social justice movement. Each of the nine fellows will receive stipends of $143,000 over eighteen months to address challenges rising from care work, immigration policies, and racial disparity.

This year’s fellows include Loira Limbal, who will direct a feature length documentary, Sacrificial Care, in which she explores the historical reasons why care work is so undervalued in the United States, from the slavery era to the present day; Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, who aims to support the long-term sustainability of environmental efforts by investing in succession strategies for people of color through leadership development, mentorship, and narrative interventions; and Octaviana Trujillo, who will create a publicly accessible toolkit for Native American and other Indigenous peoples to help them protect and maintain access to sacred sites at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We are living in a time of enormous economic and racial challenges and this work has never seemed more urgent,” said Open Society-U.S. program officer Andrew Maisel. “The expertise and creativity of the incoming Soros Equality Fellows is what we need to rebuild a fair and inclusive society, and will put us on the path toward a brighter future.”