Why Powerbuilding and Systems Change?

Powerbuilding is about creating and sustaining movements that empower communities to influence and reshape the systems that impact their lives. Systems change involves addressing the root causes of systemic inequities and working towards solutions that foster long-term justice and equality. The Black Equity Fund recognizes that real progress happens when communities have the tools, resources, and support needed to drive these changes from within.

Grants of up to $100,000 are available through the Black Equity Fund for Black-led and Black-serving organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Applications are being accepted through September 13, 2024.

The Black Equity Initiative – Inland Empire (BEI-IE) and the Inland Empire Funders Alliance (IEFA) have established a Black Equity Fund, an effort to raise and grant $5 million over 2 years to Black led/Black empowering organizations in the Inland Empire region.

The Fund assists nonprofits that are focused on systems change and power-building work in the Fund’s priority areas of civic engagement, criminal justice transformation, housing justice, health equity, education equity and economic liberation.

Interested organizations can review grant guidelines, determine eligibility and submit their application here. All interested applicants should submit through the online portal as emailed applications will not be accepted.

Applicants with questions regarding their grant requests should send an email with the subject titled “Questions” here.

Together, we can build a more equitable and just region. Apply today and join us in shaping the future!

Stay up-to-date on the good work IECF is doing through the power of philanthropy. Sign up for our monthly eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters.

The post New Powerbuilding & Systems Change Grant Opportunity Opens! appeared first on IECF.

Why Powerbuilding and Systems Change?

Powerbuilding is about creating and sustaining movements that empower communities to influence and reshape the systems that impact their lives. Systems change involves addressing the root causes of systemic inequities and working towards solutions that foster long-term justice and equality. The Black Equity Fund recognizes that real progress happens when communities have the tools, resources, and support needed to drive these changes from within.

Grants of up to $100,000 are available through the Black Equity Fund for Black-led and Black-serving organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Applications are being accepted through September 13, 2024.

The Black Equity Initiative – Inland Empire (BEI-IE) and the Inland Empire Funders Alliance (IEFA) have established a Black Equity Fund, an effort to raise and grant $5 million over 2 years to Black led/Black empowering organizations in the Inland Empire region.

The Fund assists nonprofits that are focused on systems change and power-building work in the Fund’s priority areas of civic engagement, criminal justice transformation, housing justice, health equity, education equity and economic liberation.

Interested organizations can review grant guidelines, determine eligibility and submit their application here. All interested applicants should submit through the online portal as emailed applications will not be accepted.

Applicants with questions regarding their grant requests should send an email with the subject titled “Questions” here.

Together, we can build a more equitable and just region. Apply today and join us in shaping the future!

Stay up-to-date on the good work IECF is doing through the power of philanthropy. Sign up for our monthly eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters.

The post New Powerbuilding & Systems Change Grant Opportunity Opens! appeared first on IECF.

Led by professional artists with more than 50 years of combined experience, the professional ensemble shares stories of cultural and historical relevance through the cultural arts—including such things as stilt walking and song—and has established a strong educational arm in the process. Along the way, it has performed at many universities and schools, and established ties to the entertainment industry.

“The arts are always engaging,” says Dr. Adama Jewel Jackson, Founder and Director of African Soul International. “We always say the drums get them [students] in, then we can teach them more about their culture. The drum is very attractive because of its power and the connection with music—a connection that for many of us was forcibly taken. And unfortunately, people have lost it because the power of the drums were illegal here. People could not congregate and play the drums because they were so unifying.”

To that end, connecting and building up cultural resilience remains a key goal for the nonprofit today.

“We remind students of our ancestors of antiquity, which built everything from Sankoré University in Timbuktu to over 200 different pyramids in Sudan and in Egypt,” Jackson says. “It’s about that rich cultural history that many of us unfortunately are not connected to.”

Jackson and the creative community she built within African Soul International have long been champions for the arts but importantly, how the arts can strengthen one’s understanding of the power of their lineage. A bevy of educational programs, performances, and community-building filter into the mix within the organization, and Jackson’s passion for educating individuals about the power of their own, well, “soul,” is always key.

“We know that our children hear negative imagery regularly,” she says. “They hear conversations, songs, and read news articles that could give them the impression that they may not even need to have hope because maybe people who look like them aren’t successful, and maybe people who look like them don’t achieve. We need to combat that because it’s not true. We stand on a very rich legacy of success, resilience, and of positivity and impact.” 

Recently, African Soul International received a grant from the IE Black Equity Fund via Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF). Jackson says the grants fueled creative efforts for a unique cultural arts program the organization offered at Savant Preparatory School, a Black-owned charter school based in San Bernardino.

In fact, the technical assistance grant the organization received helped produce a performance during Black History Month.

“It helped us to continue building our ability, to do more within San Bernardino, and to offer programming for families and youth,” Jackson says, noting the importance of informing students about the contributions African Americans have made to this country and the world at large.

“The grant was just another way to help us to have a more realistic and accurate view of ourselves as world citizens, and as contributors to the world,” she says. “We want to make sure that our children know that they come from a group of people who contributed to the world, who helped to shape the world, but who also left them the blueprint for how they can impact in their own generation.”

Looking ahead, Jackson’s vision for the organization includes reaching as many new students as possible. She is also keen on creating unique partnerships.

“We’re always looking for people to sponsor the kids and support our organization,” she says. “A lot of our kids are low-income and inner-city young people whose parents may not have the disposable income to help them take classes and to travel. We like to take them to different dance conferences—just one, so they can get an experience of being on the road and being out of their immediate community, but also so that they can actually get to study for a master artist and people from different places in the world.

“That really expands their knowledge of the world and how they see themselves,” she adds. “When our students meet some of our professional artists from Senegal and they speak four or five different languages, it really helps, especially African American kids, to see themselves in the world very differently.”

Learn more about African Soul International at africansoulinternational.org.

This story originally appeared in the Press Enterprise, May 2024

Learn more about the good work we’re doing at IECF through the power of philanthropy. Subscribe to our free monthly eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters.

The post Spotlight on African Soul International: Grant helps Southern California nonprofit beat unique cultural drum appeared first on IECF.

EEP Scholarship Recipients

Creating legacies is key for the Evelyn E. Perkins (EEP) Foundation. The organization was co-founded in 2006 by Michelle Heard, Danessa Jackson, and Trudi Perkins, the daughters of the late Evelyn E. Perkins, an intrepid educator in the region.

Since its inception, the nonprofit’s EEP Scholarship Foundation has granted nearly $50,000 in scholarships to high school students from single-parent homes in several Inland Empire school districts in San Bernardino County, Los Angeles County, and Riverside County.

It has allowed single-household students to overcome financial and higher learning obstacles.

“Education has always been at the highest level of concern with my family,” says Michelle Heard, EEP President. “I come from a long line of educators. But my mother, specifically, started with the Monrovia School District in 1965. They were not even desegregated until 1970. My mother influenced the math lab there. She was listed as one of those influential educators who helped with the Monrovia School District. We’re very proud of our legacy.”

EEP Board of Directors

There’s mindfulness in how EEP is structured. The directors and board members are a diverse mix of business individuals, active and retired educators, community leaders, a former principal, an attorney, the clergy, and others who are passionate about education, And, even more so, perhaps, the impact it can have on young people and throughout the community. Preparing students for future leadership also comes into play.

Through events, workshops, scholarships, and other outreach, the organization strives to help those seeking a secondary education. Based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., the nonprofit assists students who are U.S. citizens in single-parent homes, who carry a minimum 3.0 GPA throughout high school and a letter of acceptance from an approved two-year or four-year college.

“We have a lot of like-minded people on our board who understand the value of education, expanding the parameters of your thinking, and being able to convey that to other young people,” Heard says. “Hopefully, these will help to improve not only human relationships but ways to manage all the worldwide challenges we’re all going through.”

Recently, the Evelyn E. Perkins Foundation received a grant from the IE Black Equity Fund through the Inland Empire Community Foundation. The grant will allow the organization to expand on its various outreach programs.

“Because all of our recipients generally are from single-parent homes, they may have disproportionately not enough funds to either begin a college education,” Heard says. “And even if they have the potential and the grades, college education or college tuition may not be a priority.”

She goes on to point out that the most recent Census Bureau report states that in the U.S., more than 25 percent of households are single-parent households.

“And 80 percent of them are headed by just single mothers,” she adds. “With the banning of Affirmative Action, there’s been a lot of discrepancies on how students are even selected, too. We’re hoping this grant will help us continue to do this work with our workshops, which we’re preparing for spring.

Typically, those occur in May, when many students are finishing the school year. Heard says the workshops inspire as much as they prepare students for getting into college.

“It allows them to enhance their skills in writing because essay writing is a very important component of applying for an application for any college,” she adds. “We know the importance of being able to express yourself in writing and filling out the application properly because that can be one of the things that disqualifies you from the very beginning.

“Being able to have workshops is another benefit of the grant so we can continue to improve the types of information being shared with attendees.”

More at evelyneperkinsfoundation.org.

This article originally appeared in the Press Enterprise, February 2024

Learn more about the good work we’re doing at IECF through the power of philanthropy. Subscribe to our free monthly eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters.

The post Spotlight on Evelyn E. Perkins Foundation: offering opportunities for college prep appeared first on IECF.

Bullying is among the most important issues parents face when raising their children. According to stopbullying.gov, nearly 20 percent of students ages 12-18 experience some form of bullying in the United States.

“Parents may be more aware of the consequences of bullying and less aware of how to stop it or how to address it, “says Shannon O’Brien, Executive Director of Children’s Resources, Inc., a San Bernardino nonprofit organization that empowers families to thrive socially and emotionally through parent education seminar and youth programs.

“Parents know that if bullying continues, it puts kids in serious jeopardy—falling behind academically, having emotional problems, depression,” O’Brien adds. “They know the consequences of it, but when they come to our workshops, what they want to know is, ‘How do I nip it in the bud early?’”

Those workshops become a vital lifeline for many parents. Between its Anti-Bullying Workshop series and its Cyber Bullying guide, Children’s Resources aims to provide parents with valuable resources.

“Usually, parents they tell me, ‘Okay, I didn’t know that these were the elements [of bullying], and this is how it operates; now I can catch it whether it’s sibling-on-sibling bullying or friend-on-friend in the community. I can see it when it’s happening and I can stamp it out early on,” O’Brien notes. “We talk about different avenues to address the issue and give parents skills that they can instill in their children for life, like how to set boundaries, and how to boost your child’s self-esteem and confidence.

“This is not just for middle school,” she adds. “These are tools that they can use when they’re 50, 60 years old. Our hope is that they get more out of it than just dealing with the present-day situation. It’s really about setting them up for a much better future.

Recently, Children’s Resources, Inc. received a grant from the Black Equity Fund through the Inland Empire Community Foundation. The goal of the fund is to help advance racial equity and to support long-term investments and commitment in Black-led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. 

“The grant was extremely helpful because during the holidays when the schools aren’t in, there’s a lag between our programs,” O’Brien says. “The grant helped bridge a gap, helping us keep the offices open, and cover our operational expenses while we’re waiting to host more programs in the community.”

Joining forces with her husband, Jason O’Brien, who is president of the organization, the couple launched the nonprofit hoping to create children’s programs at schools, but they discovered that parents needed support, too. Soon enough, they were approached by a local school district official to expand.

That was back in 2007. The couple made a big pivot at that point and began helping parents by offering various workshops, and then working with kids in summer when school was out. 

“Throughout the year we would work with parents and help them with issues related to emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and academic achievement,” O’Brien explains. “We added the anti-bullying series in 2010 because parents were asking for it. They would come to our workshops on the other topics, and on the evaluation feedback forms, they said they would love something on bullying.”

The O’Briens have been at the helm of the valiant nonprofit for about 20 years now. During that time, the organization has provided educational programs and scholarships for Inland Empire students and families.  

Noteworthy initiatives sprouted—from “Bully Proof,” a parent educational workshop for the San Bernardino City Unified School District to offering a Teen Anti-Bullying Leadership Institute in collaboration with the City of Fontana. 

O’Brien also served as the Chairperson of the Sigma Gamma Rho Youth Symposium at Kaiser High School and Wayne Ruble Middle School.

Moving forward, O’Brien notes that she’s about to dive into planning summer youth programs and suggests parents visit the organization’s website for updates. In between, she will continue to offer resources and host various workshops for parents in winter and spring.

“I want people to know that in the coming months, that they can come knock on our door, she shares.

Visit childrensresources.net for more information.

Learn more at iegives.org

This story originally appeared in the Press Enterprise January 2024.

Learn more about the good work we’re doing at IECF through the power of philanthropy. Subscribe to our free monthly eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters.

The post Spotlight on Children’s Resources Inc.: helping children and parents appeared first on IECF.

In the ever-busy 2020s, nobody is fully immune from stress, anxiety, and even grief.

The result is Blueprints and Pathways, a non-profit, community-based organization whose sole mission is to alleviate sometimes overbearing challenges.

“Our mission is to help African Americans make decisions that improve their overall life satisfaction, and we want to impact the community in a positive way,” Robert Gipson says. “We provide roadmaps based on evidence-based practices to address stress and stress management.”

The genesis for Blueprints and Pathways began in 2022. Gipson was working on his doctorate at California Baptist University when he was struck with an impulse to help others. Through a series of cohorts, he acquired vital information to help him form the nonprofit and soon became its founder and executive director.

“There is a unique experience of stress for African Americans that we experience from racial trauma, generational trauma, and just the history of the African American experience—from slavery and inequities,” Gipson says. “That is a separate layer of stress we experience outside of the normal human stress we all experience. Our goal is to comprehensively address those stresses and reduce them utilizing evidence-based practices with an outcome of having increased life satisfaction.”

The way the organization implements all that is by focusing on the four pillars of mental health: diet and nutrition, physical exercise, stress management, and social health. For instance, stress management can be in the form of any therapy or Christian counseling, which the organization will offer. There is also peer-to-peer group support and therapeutic techniques for coping with stress management.

Access to a bevy of resources also filter into the mix.

Recently, Blueprints and Pathways received a Black Equity Fund grant through the Inland Empire Community Foundation. Gipson says the grant funding will, “definitely help us in the sense of getting up and running and really working the program.”

One of the unique components of the group’s mission to aid in easing stress is pinpointing those stressors.

“Social determinants of health also impact us,” Gipson notes. “So, for instance, if I don’t have an education or income, or my business is not doing well, I may need access to networking. We’re deeply looking at things like that and also connecting people to resources.”

He goes on to say that currently, the organization is working with small cohorts of three to five individuals at a time. Gipson and his trained partners offer myriad activities—from hikes out in Claremont Wilderness Park to engaging with a counselor, mental health educator or even a holistic practitioner trained in something like reiki.

“The hikes, for instance, may be a 30- to 40-minute walk in nature and we’d discuss some of the stresses that we are experiencing and ways to mitigate them,” he says, “and different kinds of coping skills. At the same time, it truly allows for social connection with others.”

“That’s one big way the grant was great for us,” he adds. “It is a technical assistance grant that will help grow and scale the nonprofit model we have.”

Gipson is enthusiastic about the possibilities ahead and believes 2024 and beyond will prove to be fruitful.

“We are starting off small, but ultimately we want to use the results and the outcomes through evaluations and testimonials and then start collecting quantitative data on the mental and psychological changes,” he says. “That will support further growth and expanding the model and the entire program.”

Reach out to Blueprints and Pathways at blueprintsandpathwaysatgmail.com.

Learn more at iegives.org.

This story originally appeared in the Press Enterprise January 2024.

The post Spotlight on Blueprints and Pathways: new nonprofit geared to reduce stress for African American Community appeared first on IECF.