YMCA receives national grant to address poverty, racism
The YMCA of the Coosa Valley is one of 28 organizations from 18 states and the District of Columbia selected to elevate diverse voices and broaden the national conversation about poverty and economic mobility at a critical moment in the nation’s history
The organizations are recipients of $100,000 grants in the Voices for Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge, sponsored by a group of eight philanthropic organizations, according to a press release.
In light of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic early this year and the outrage against racial injustice that is gripping the United States, the effort to change the narrative around poverty and opportunity is now more important than ever, the grant announcement stated.
“With tens of millions of people newly unemployed, many of them people of color, and many facing racism and ’othering’ each day, there is an even greater need to break down the dominant perceptions about poverty and to replace them with more accurate ones.”
The YMCA of the Coosa Valley’s response to the challenge establishes Community Protectors. Here is the description provided of its plan, provided in the grant announcement:
“Community Protectors: Poverty and Racism as Christian Calls to Action
“The YMCA of the Coosa Valley in the U.S. will bring together diverse groups in small Christian communities under a common goal to overcome economic and racial divides. There is a strong belief that as individual’s personal choices cause their economic circumstances: for example, that wealth come from having faith in God. To change these misconceptions, the YMCA and Savannah Miles will partner with local pastors to present common Christian callings on eliminating poverty and racism to members of local churches. They will also provide education and training to build relationships between diverse church members and equip them with skills and tools to collectively act to overcome shared challenges. Finally, they will form a council that will meet to discuss broad-based issues and build a community action and dissemination plan.”
The Grand Challenge, launched in September 2019, is part of a multi-funded, multiyear plan to examine economic mobility and opportunity in the U.S., to create tools to help people better understand the systemic factors that lead to the presence of greater economic mobility in their own neighborhoods, and to craft and test strategies for changing the outlook for people experiencing poverty.
Its purpose is to establish ways to offer alternatives to confusing, conflicting and inaccurate accounts about what poverty is, why it happens, to whom it happens, and how to address it.
Grantees were selected from 1,225 submissions made last fall and represent a broad cross-section of geographies, cultures, media and scopes of ideas. Each submission was reviewed to determine whether it met the published eligibility criteria. The remaining applications were then reviewed and rated by a panel of more than 30 external experts with experience in film and media, social movements and nonprofits, narrative and culture change, philanthropy, economics and social science. Their recommendations were then presented to the partners for final grantee selections.
Grantees will gather over the next 18 months as a cohort to collaborate and learn from one another; receive access to research, coaching and other technical support; and incubate their individual projects, with an eye toward production and distribution of prototypes by the fall of 2021. The incubation effort will be led by Purpose, a social impact agency and public benefit corporation that uses public mobilization and storytelling to build and support movements to advance the fight for an open, just and habitable world.
Key partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Omidyar Network, Raikes Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Schultz Family Foundation.