This round of grants will award $30,000 each to 10 organizations in Alameda County
ASCEND: BLO, an initiative at East Bay Community Foundation, has awarded a second round of funding for programming that enables wellness, respite, and collective care for Black-led organizations in the Bay Area.
This round of grants supports Alameda County groups that focus on teachers, parents, and youth advocacy, including those that build campaigns for economic and educational justice, provide mentorship, and empower healing for youth from gender-based violence.
From its beginnings in 2018, ASCEND: BLO has prioritized wellness and capacity-building for its grantee partners, many of whom are organizational leaders.
The initiative has hosted convenings of Black-led organizations across the Bay Area, provided pop-up grants that encourage staff care, and partnered with Blooming Willow Coaching for healing-centered counseling for its foundational Accelerator and Stabilizer cohorts.
ASCEND: BLO sharpened this focus in Fall 2023 by awarding the first round of six-month, unrestricted $20,000 wellness grants to 10 Black-led organizations. With dedicated funding, recipients organized retreats and staff outings, attended arts and cultural experiences, provided bereavement support, and accessed support from Black wellness practitioners who provide culturally affirming care and healing spaces.
This year, grants to each organization were increased to $30,000, enabling an even wider range of programs and collaborations to support wellness in Alameda County.
This funding will support programming for leaders to build capacity and take care of their staff and community members amid the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and enduring systemic challenges. The grants also provide backing as many teams continue to experience burnout while providing the essential services that support liberation and wellbeing in the Black community.
What’s Next:
For our next round of wellness grants, we will be focusing on organizations that do work in Contra Costa County, or are based in the region.
Stay tuned for more details about the next round of wellness grants and how we are expanding this work to support even more leaders in their journey toward collective well-being.
Learn more about our ten second-round grantee partners:
Black Teacher Project sustains and develops Black teachers to lead and reimagine schools as communities of liberated learning. Black Teacher Project is a program of the National Equity Project.
Inner City Bliss cultivates wellness, resilience, and empowerment within BIPOC communities through culturally relevant mindfulness, movement, and nature-based programs.
MISSSEY works to prevent girls and gender expansive youth from entering circumstances of sexual exploitation and violence and supports exits for young people who are experiencing exploitation. Using a holistic, healing-centered approach, helping youth process their abuse and understand their inherent worth as important, unique, and powerful human beings deserving of safety, love, and joy.
Parent Voices Oakland advocates for affordable, accessible, quality childcare. PVO organizes and empowers families with the highest need to build effective campaigns toward economic and educational justice.
The B.I.Z Stoop helps young people earn a living wage and build businesses through coaching, economic education, and financial support.
The Oakland REACH empowers parents from the most underserved communities to demand high-quality schools for their children and to disrupt systematic education inequities in Oakland public schools.
The Mentoring Center exists to move all youth, whatever challenges they are facing, toward healthy, successful lives, by providing support, love, and opportunities for self-mastery.
The Teaching Well stabilizes schools by equipping educators with resiliency and socio-emotional skills to communicate and collaborate more effectively.
The Village Method creates welcoming, safe, and culturally affirming spaces for youth and families, making youth unstoppable through the support of a village.
Village Connect empowers individuals and families to attain greater self-awareness that can lead to positive transformation.