We’re delighted to share another update from the 2022 Collective Grants Committee! Since our last update, the committee has been conducting conversations with 15 organizations in our three priorities: Mental Health and Housing, the School to Prison Pipeline, and Community Cultural Preservation.
This year, informed by WaWF members, grantees, and the broader community, we made significant changes to our grants program. To learn more about those changes please click here. To learn about the selection of our three priorities click here.
As a reminder, with these grants we seek to support organizations that are reflective of and embedded in the communities they serve, draw on the strengths and assets of these communities, and are accountable to these communities in order to achieve the long-term goals of increasing equity and reducing disparities.
We’re excited to share a bit about the six organizations that will be on the ballot this year. If you’re interested in learning more about what the committee learned during their conversations, please read the Voter’s Pamphlet which will be shared in the member newsletter. We hope everyone will join us at our Grant Award Celebration on June 14th to hear from our new grantees and connect as a community! Click here to register.
Mental Health & Housing
Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos: Builds multiracial working-class power in rural disinvested counties in WA State to organize for a just, green economy that serves people and the land.
New Beginnings: To empower survivors and mobilize community awareness and action to end domestic violence.
Community Cultural Preservation
Salish School of Spokane: Dynamic Salish Language Revitalization powering cultural renewal and building a stronger, healthier community.
Wa Na Wari: To create space for Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation, and connection.
School to Prison Pipeline
CHOOSE 180: To transform systems of injustice and support the young people who are too often impacted by these systems.
Community Passageways: We create alternatives to incarceration for youth and young adults by rebuilding our communities through committed relationships centered on love, compassion, and consistency.
Next up, the WaWF membership will vote to determine which organizations will receive a $100,000 Collective Grant. The three organizations that are not selected will receive a $25,000 Merit Award. All six organizations will also be offered an optional $5,000 Leadership and Self-Care grant.
The following organizations were considered in the Conversations Phase of the grant process but will not advance to the Ballot Phase. In recognition of their investment in our grant process they have been awarded a $3,000 Merit Award. As wonderful organizations doing important work in our community, we hope that you will learn more about them and consider supporting them individually!
Mental Health & Housing
Elizabeth Gregory Home: To provide a welcoming and respectful refuge where homeless and at-risk women have access to compassionate care.
Innovations Human Trafficking Collaborative (IHTC): To engage first responders, tribes, and other stakeholders in eliminating human trafficking through solution-based knowledge and trauma-informed strategies, and to empower survivors to heal and build self-sufficient, affirming lives.
LifeWire: To end domestic violence (DV) by changing individual, institutional, and societal beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that perpetuate it.
Community Cultural Preservation
Densho: Documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished.
Na’ah Illahee Fund: To support and promote the leadership of Indigenous women and youth in the ongoing regeneration of Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.
The South Seattle Emerald: To amplify the authentic narratives of South Seattle and surrounding communities.
School to Prison Pipeline
Project Girl Mentoring Program: To foster the advancement of young women of color to make positive life choices and to maximize their authentic potential.
South King County Discipline Coalition: To end disproportionate discipline of students of color and interrupt the school to prison pipeline through anti-racist organizing, leadership development, and advocacy strategies that center parents and youth directly affected
WA-BLOC: To build and nurture intergenerational leaders through transformative education and revolutionary social action.