Harness Community

Harness Community (Harness) is a national network of cultural influencers, media makers, and social justice leaders who use storytelling and popular culture to re-imagine and build a more equitable world. Founded in 2016 by America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan Piers Williams, Harness convenes and guides its network of more than 600 cultural organizers to elevate the voices and experiences of historically marginalized communities and bring them into mainstream debate. It also taps its community of influential artists and culture makers to wield their influence in Hollywood to shape the storylines and characters portrayed in popular culture as well as to use their reach and popularity to bring attention to important social justice issues, movements, and events. This grant provides general operating support for Harness to put these strategies into practice through campaigns and initiatives to increase the civic participation and political power of historically marginalized communities and to grow the volume of humanizing, authentic and nuanced stories by and about members of underrepresented and misrepresented communities in popular culture.

Harness Community (Harness) is a national network of cultural influencers, media makers, and social justice leaders who use storytelling and popular culture to re-imagine and build a more equitable world. Founded in 2016 by America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan Piers Williams, Harness convenes and guides its network of more than 600 cultural organizers to elevate the voices and experiences of historically marginalized communities and bring them into mainstream debate. This X-Grant supports Harness’s Mainstage event, a one-day convening that brings together more than 300 of its members and other civic leaders, storytellers, and industry professionals. The goal of the event is to align narrative strategies and storytelling efforts to create the conditions for a stronger, more inclusive, and participatory democracy.

Harness Community (Harness) is a national network of cultural influencers, media makers, and social justice leaders who use storytelling and popular culture to re-imagine and build a more equitable world. Founded in 2016 by America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan Piers Williams, Harness convenes and guides its network of more than 600 cultural organizers to elevate the voices and experiences of historically marginalized communities and bring them into mainstream debate. It also taps its community of influential artists and culture makers to wield their influence in Hollywood to shape the storylines and characters portrayed in popular culture as well as to use their reach and popularity to bring attention to important social justice issues, movements, and events. This grant provides general operating support for Harness to put these strategies into practice through campaigns and initiatives to increase the civic participation and political power of historically marginalized communities and to grow the volume of humanizing, authentic and nuanced stories by and about members of underrepresented and misrepresented communities in popular culture.

Harness is a national network of cultural influencers, media makers, and social justice leaders who use culture and storytelling to re-imagine and build a more equitable world. Founded in 2016 by America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan Piers Williams, Harness is committed to centering the voices and priorities of those most impacted by structural inequities in its work. In 2020, Harness launched the Protect the Sacred initiative to help slow the spread of COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation by organizing Native youth as leaders in their community. Since then, the initiative has grown to embrace a broader mission of educating and empowering the next generation of Native leaders and allies to use transformative storytelling and community building to strengthen Indigenous sovereignty and protect Indigenous elders, languages, and medicine ways. This X-Grant supports Harness to host a national Native Youth Summit in September 2022, as part of its Protect the Sacred initiative, to build the leadership skills of Native youth and support their efforts to increase Native participation in the 2022 midterm elections.