Rochester Area Funders Support Commitment to Racial Justice Micro-Grant funding

February 28, 2022 – ROCHESTER, MINN. – In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, the Rochester Nonprofit Consortium drafted a unified statement in solidarity with all those who seek justice and racial equity. Community partners were invited to sign the Commitment to Action towards Racial Justice to express their promise to listen, learn, and act to address racism; connect to resources to apply a race equity lens in their work; and build capacity to promote wellbeing for all residents of our community. 70 organizations (“the undersigned”) spanning all sectors and areas of work that have signed the Commitment.

Today, the Rochester Nonprofit Consortium continues to organize resources, tools, and connections for undersigned organizations to carry out their commitments to act in support of racial justice. In support of those efforts, United Way of Olmsted County, Rochester Area Foundation, Mayo Clinic, and Think Bank have joined with the Rochester Nonprofit Consortium to provide financial support for undersigned organizations to take meaningful action steps towards racial justice within their organizations and the communities they serve.

“We are so grateful to United Way, Mayo Clinic Foundation, Rochester Area Foundation and Think Bank for coming together to support these impactful steps to act upon creating a more racially just community,” shares Rochester Nonprofit Consortium Director, Terri Allred

Racial Justice Commitment to Action Micro-Grant Recipients

Boys and Girls Club
$2,000
To provide training for staff Youth Development Professionals to deliver the new "Growing Up Black" outreach program. 

Cradle to Career
$2,000
To create a customized, local curriculum to train C2C network members in the core cultural competencies identified as important by students and network members.

Damascus Way
$2,000
To offer a training regarding historical trauma of Native and African Americans, the Justice System, and how specific laws have historically impacted these groups.

Exercisabilities
$2,000
To assess the current state of Exercisabilities using the INTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT INVENTORY®, IDI and to implement the Equity Logic training series for staff and key volunteers including the directors of our board.

Family Service Rochester
$1,000
To translate specific agency material for counseling into Spanish and Somali.

Indian Cultural Association of Minnesota (ICAM)

$1,000

To host an educational series of workshops to discuss the effects of colorism within the Indian community and its relation to white supremacy from outside of the Indian community.

Lifegate Services
$2,000
To offer a training focused on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging and Justice to help eliminate racial inequity by creating a welcoming, empathic, and compassionate environment where those with whom we interact will not feel less because of their belief, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or current circumstances.

Listos Preschool and Childcare
$2,000
To host two family engagement events focused on developing a healthy racial identity, seeing and understanding racism and privilege and advocating for transformation.

Next Chapter Ministries
$2,000
To contract with Abe Kamara from Three Rivers Restorative Justice to facilitate Racial Reconciliation Circles with our residents for a 3-month pilot program.

Parents of Incarcerated Sons and Daughters (POISD)
$2,000
To hire Tawanda Burks, of ELOCINA Business Consulting and Education to offer business and entrepreneurship programming for formerly incarcerated people

Red Drop Resources
$500
To have a facilitated conversation for their board, staff members, and key volunteers, and implement DEI training.

RNeighbors
$2,000
To embed equity practices in upcoming strategic planning, by reenergizing and educating our board, staff, and several key neighborhood leaders on racial justice, equity, and inclusion

Rochester Community Initiative
$2,000
To cover travel and costs for youth educators to take 4-CORE lesson plans throughout Rochester Public School classrooms in Gage and Riverside teaching lessons on topics of Diversity & Inclusion, Equity vs. Equality, Tolerance & Empathy, and Intersectional Identity. 

Sports Mentorship Academy
$2,000
To strengthen the work between the Rochester Police Department and community liaison by offering weekly listening sessions between the black community and police leaders and by funding community engagement activities and cultural competency training.

The Arc MN
$2,000
To hire BIPOC disabled creatives to complete a series of ten videos and supplemental resources to explain the ten principles of disability justice which were developed by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) genderqueer nonconforming leaders in the disability justice movement.

The Reading Center (TRC)
$2,000
To provide training for over 50 dyslexia tutors to better equip them to meet the needs of more diverse students as TRC strives to reach more struggling readers within the Rochester community and to support a new, year-long Equity and Inclusion Study Group for board and staff members of TRC.

Three Rivers Restorative Justice (TRRJ)
$2,000
To subsidize 3 members of the Community Engagement Response Team (CERT), who are predominantly people of color and currently receive no subsidy or support for the time they dedicate to help the Rochester police engage the community to deal with problems collaboratively, to participate in TRRJ and the U of MN’s next 16-hour Racial Justice Facilitator training in the spring or early summer of 2022. 

Workforce Development, Inc.

$2,000
To financially assist employers in completing the I-WE Designation process, removing any barriers in them doing so.