The Washington Women’s Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of this year’s $100,000 Pooled Fund Grants and $5,000 Merit Grant Awards. Each of these organizations works to increase equity in Washington State by promoting justice, building community, and confronting disparities.
Washington Women’s Foundation funds organizations that support people affected by racial and gender inequities and are accountable to the communities they serve. We’re delighted to share our 2021 Pooled Fund Grantees and Merit Grant Awardees!
2021 Pooled Fund Grantees
Arts & Culture: Look, Listen, and Learn
Look, Listen and Learn (LL+L) inspires and advances learning in young children of color by offering locally produced television shows and other programming anchored in research about what works best to promote school readiness and success. LL+L will use the grant to produce three full episodes of their second season, which has been planned with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities in mind. The grant will also fund family focus groups and surveys to inform and strengthen their programming.
Education: Palmer Scholars
Palmer Scholars helps underrepresented youth of color achieve their dreams and end generational cycles of poverty by helping them overcome financial, cultural, and social barriers in their pursuit of higher education. Recognizing that a college degree is not the only pathway to success, self-esteem, and a family wage, Palmer Scholars began serving young adults interested in pursuing the trades through their Palmer Pathways Program. This grant will help meet Scholars’ financial needs as they progress through the intensive Palmer Pathways Program. Funds will be used to cover the costs of trainings, certifications, and tuition, provide salary support for staff who will work alongside these youth, and support the cost of tools, PPE, and other supplies needed by the scholars.
Environment: Nurturing Roots
Nurturing Roots builds community through farming and heals community through relationships. The heart of their work is a 1/4-acre urban farm in South Beacon Hill, a richly diverse BIPOC community with limited access to healthy food choices. Nurturing Roots uses this land to address inequities: the food they grow feeds food insecure community members, and the urban farm improves their environmental surroundings. This grant will make help pay a livable wage for the Executive Director and part-time Farm Ambassador. Our grant will also fund professional development training for staff and key volunteers.
Health: Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho
Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho (PPGWNI) provides exceptional reproductive and complementary health care services, honest education, and fearless advocacy. They operate 11 health centers spread across 9 counties in a medically underserved region. For many patients, PPGWNI is their only source of healthcare. This grant will support their Migrant Farmworker Health Clinic Initiative which provides free health clinics to Latinx agricultural workers and their families on farms and in rural communities.
Human Services: Community Credit Lab
Community Credit Lab (CCL) gets affordable credit to people who have been discriminated against by the traditional financial system so they can build personal, community, and generational prosperity. Historically, BIPOC communities have had inequitable access to affordable loans. CCL supports lending partners with designing lending programs that increase affordability and access and shift traditional power dynamics. This grant will be used to hire a Partnerships Manager who will steward CCL’s partner relationships in support of building an equitable community lending model in Washington State.
2021 Merit Award Winners
Arts & Culture: International Examiner
The International Examiner (IE) is the oldest and largest nonprofit, pan-Asian Pacific American publication in the Pacific Northwest. Named after the historic and thriving multi-ethnic Chinatown-International District of Seattle, IE’s coverage has since broadened to include diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities across the Puget Sound. Given the recent increase in anti-AAPI violence, their role as a trusted news source providing timely, accurate, and culturally sensitive coverage of relevant AAPI issues is more important than ever.
Education: Quinault Indian Nation Education Department
The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) Education Department provides academic support and advocacy, life and career skill-building, and promotes a positive self-identity within the family and tribal context. QIN provides full services to K-6 grade students and partial/seasonal service to Grade 7-12 students. Grade 7-12 youth are currently grappling with increased vulnerability to substance abuse as well as physical and sexual violence and need additional services to reduce risky behaviors and improve academic outcomes.
Environment: ECOSS
ECOSS is a community-based organization with 27 years of experience educating and empowering businesses and diverse communities to implement environmentally sustainable practices. ECOSS reaches about 10,000 people each year in municipalities, businesses, and communities across the Puget Sound. They build bridges between residents, industry, and government that lead to collaborative and practical environmental solutions. They prioritize engagement and empowerment of immigrants, refugees, BIPOC, non-native English speakers, and other frontline communities who are most impacted by environmental degradation.
Health: Ttáwaxt Birth Justice Center
Ttáwaxt Birth Justice Center ensures birth justice and whole-family healing through Indigenous practices, systems, and spaces that support the complete birth journey as well as child-rearing and grief recovery. Ttáwaxt Birth Justice Center provides pregnancy and birth-related support, care, and advocacy on the Yakama Nation Reservation and in hospital settings before the baby is born, during delivery, and after birth. Ttáwaxt Birth Justice Center recently launched a statewide Indigenous Birth Justice Network with three tribes where the Ttáwaxt Birth Justice Center team helps others by contributing their knowledge and experiences. Ttáwaxt Birth Justice Center is building a vision of Indigenous Birth Justice with strong matriarchs from many places and backgrounds with passion, kindness, dedication, and the force of their ancestors.
Human Services: Project Feast
Project Feast provides culinary training to low-income immigrants and refugees, preparing them for careers or entrepreneurships in the food industry. Their programming revolves around a 400-hour culinary skills apprenticeship, which includes training in a commercial kitchen, small business workshops, entrepreneurial support, transitional employment, and public events highlighting the stories and cuisines of the diverse apprentices. Project Feast helps immigrants assimilate into the U.S. while honoring their food, experiences, and cultural identities.