Culture & the Family

OCPA receives Innovation Prize from Heritage Foundation

April 19, 2023

Staff

WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation today announced that it has selected the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs as a recipient of the Heritage Innovation Prize.

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs will receive a $250,000 award over two years in support of its Preserve and Empower Oklahoma Families Initiative, OCPA’s strategy to reposition the nuclear family in Oklahoma as the most powerful and active force in Oklahoma culture and the public-policy making process.

The Preserve and Empower Oklahoma Families Initiative will take place over three years. The Innovation Prize will help in the creation and operation of a Center for Culture and Family, a coalition in Oklahoma, and creation and advocacy of policy proposals that protect, defend, empower, and advance the nuclear family in Oklahoma.

“Advancing the interests of families is essential for the well-being of our entire nation,” said Heritage President Dr. Kevin Roberts. “At Heritage, we’re committed to reclaiming our culture from the grip of the Left’s radical ideologies that threaten our country’s foundations. We are honored to award the Innovation Prize, made possible by the generous support of fellow Americans, to the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs, recognizing their efforts to empower and defend families.”

“At OCPA, we are working to shape culture, policy, and politics for freedom in Oklahoma,” said Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. “We know the family is the primary institution that people must rely on if they are to have the best chance to thrive and embrace limited government. Across our country, the attacks on the family in the areas of fiscal and social policy have risen to a level the freedom movement can no longer ignore. It’s time for freedom infrastructures to expand our focus to address the critical threats in fiscal and social policy that endanger the family. On behalf of OCPA, I thank Heritage for awarding us an Innovation Prize for our Preserve and Empower Oklahoma Families Initiative.”

The Heritage Innovation Prize recognizes and provides substantive financial awards totaling up to $1 million annually to results-oriented nonprofits for projects involving research, litigation, education, outreach, or communications, particularly those focused on empowering parents in education, holding Big Tech accountable, countering the threat of the Chinese Communist Party, securing America’s borders and reducing crime, ensuring free and fair elections, reducing the growth of spending and inflation, and promoting life and family formation.

This is the third round of Heritage Innovation Prizes to be awarded. In 2022, winners of the Prize included the Alliance Defending Freedom, Alliance for Opportunity, Americans United for Life, Charlotte Lozier Institute, Defense of Freedom Institute, Forge Leadership Network, Independent Women’s Forum, State Financial Officers Foundation, and Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Each organization was awarded a grant ranging from $60,000 to $500,000, some of which will be received over several years. These awards are sponsored by The Heritage Foundation’s robust endowment for innovative conservative projects.