In the past year, COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter uprising have exposed even more plainly the many places where society is failing Black, Indigenous and other people of color. We knew grassroots organizers were thinking and planning beyond the early months to address the long-term impacts on their communities, often stepping up with their own limited resources to meet the needs of their communities.
We launched the Eradicating Anti-Blackness & Covid Recovery grant in July to move necessary financial resources to organizers addressing the short-term impacts of COVID-19 and planning for the long haul with particular focus on eradicating anti-Blackness. We’re proud to announce the EACR grantees, selected by a committee of seven organizers from across our region. From the grantees to the grantmaking committee to our donors, thank you so much for being a part of this work.
Each EACR grantee will receive a grant of $30,000 over two years, for a total of $510,000 distributed through this grant.
Black Liberation Collective, Idaho | Meridian ID
Following the leadership of the Movement for Black Lives, Black PIC Prison Abolitionists, and other Black leaders across the country, BLC works to bring Black Excellence to Boise in a more unified, cohesive and inclusive effort to end police brutality, gender violence and Black oppression.
Black Power Epicenter Cooperative | Seattle OR
The Black Power Epicenter Cooperative is a Black-centered organizing space dedicated to building power and self-determination with their community. They follow the People’s Plan for Community Justice as their strategic document. Their purpose is to identify the multiple assets of their (Black) community, connect these assets to unify and strengthen their community, and invest in these assets as they work to build a liberated, self-governing, and unified community for those most impacted – specifically by the non-profit industrial complex.
Canoe Journey Herbalists | Olympia WA
“Creating pathways for community healing through intertribal/intergenerational connections to herbal medicine, the land, and Indigenous culture.” Just as canoe families and hosts prepare all year, Canoe Journey Herbalists’ program is also busy with community activities throughout the seasons. They provide Indigenous-centered, ally and community supported opportunities to harvest, grow, and craft plant medicines, all to be gifted from their no-cost herbal healing bus in support of the Intertribal Canoe Journey.
Creative Justice | Seattle WA
Creative Justice builds community with youth most impacted by the justice system. The program was launched in 2015, offering an arts-based alternative to secure detention for youth involved with King County’s juvenile court. The program envisions new opportunities to care for rather than locking up youth, using art to address systemic causes of incarceration: racism, classism, and other forms of oppression. Creative Justice advocates for court-involved young people to remain in the community, using art to amplify their voices and promote change.
Foundation for Youth Resiliency and Engagement | Omak WA
Vision: their prevention, intervention, and outreach services focus on building resilience, strengthening families, and youth-led community outreach because youth deserve healthy minds, bodies, homes and communities.
Freedom Project | Seattle WA
Freedom Project works to dismantle the institution of mass incarceration and heal its traumatic effects on their community. As a community-centered and culturally-responsive organization, they come from, are in, and are directed by the community they serve. Freedom Project offers tangible resources where they are needed most – and make space for people to show up as they are and be seen for their humanity. They organize to connect people to critical support, facilitate co-learning on racial equity, anti-oppression, compassionate communication and mindfulness, and collaborate with community partners to advocate for systemic change.
Momentum Alliance | Portland OR
Momentum Alliance is a youth-led nonprofit whose mission is to inspire young people to realize their power individually and collectively and to mentor future social justice leaders.
PDX Alliance for Self-Care | Portland OR
PDX Alliance for Self-Care’s (PDX ASC) mission is to connect marginalized and vulnerable communities with self-care resources, practitioners, education, events, and advocacy.
People of Color Against AIDS Network | Seattle WA
Founded in 1987, POCAAN is committed to providing comprehensive, multicultural awareness and prevention messages aimed at addressing health disparities experienced in marginalized communities.
Portland Freedom Fund | Milwaukie OR
Portland Freedom Fund is a volunteer-run abolitionist organization currently dedicated to reducing harms perpetuated against their Black, Brown and Indigenous neighbors by the criminal justice system through posting bail so they may navigate their case from a position of freedom.
Queer the Land | Seattle WA
Queer the Land is a collaborative project grounded in the self-determination of queer trans & 2-spirit Black/indigenous/people of color (QT2BIPOC) and the vision of collectively owning their land and labor. Queer The Land was formed in 2016 to directly address the root causes and power structures that displace their communities and destabilize the organizing work that is vital to their survival. The idea for this project comes from QTL’s collective experience: the lived experience of the housing crisis and economic displacement in Seattle. They want to build the solution ourselves as the communities most impacted by these issues. They envision Queer The Land as a fantastical community space that is a hub for organizing where the needs of QT2BIPOC are centered, and their dreams are nurtured.
Right 2 Survive | Portland OR
Right 2 Survive is dedicated to teaching about and defending the human, civil and constitutional rights of people experiencing houselessness. They are a community organization raising awareness of issues that houseless people in our community are facing.
Through public education and direct actions, they help to reduce houselessness in Portland. Right 2 Survive is increasing public understanding on what it is to be houseless, how everyday people become houseless, and how we can best help and support those seeking a way out of houselessness.
Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality | Salem OR
The Salem Keizer Coalition partners and advocates with Latino/a/x parents, schools and the community to ensure equitable educational outcomes. Their beliefs are: Latino/a/x Parents empowered are the key to their children’s educational success and Latino/a/x Parents as leaders at home, at school and in the community. SKCE is organized by Latino/a/x parents for parents.
Soar | Seattle WA
Serving King County for over a decade, Soar is dedicated to elevating community voice so King County children, youth, and families are actively engaged in policies and decisions that impact their lives.
The Montana Racial Equity Project | Bozeman MT
The Montana Racial Equity Project (MTREP) advocates equity and justice for historically marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed peoples in Montana. MTREP directs resources, energy, and time toward addressing racial inequity and injustice in Montana through community organizing, education, and base building. Their purpose is to educate and activate Montanans for that which they advocate. In working towards this, MTREP lift the voices and elevate the agency of BIPOC through an intersectional lens and develop antiracist leaders and organizers.
WA Black Trans Task Force | Tacoma WA
The WA Black Trans Task Force (WA BTTF) is an intersectional, multi-generational project of community building, research, and political action addressing the crisis of violence against Black Trans people. They provide resources for Black trans people in Washington in collaboration with community partners in order to broaden safety nets and increase avenues for justice that are typically available for white trans people.
Wa Na Wari | Seattle WA
Wa Na Wari creates space for Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation, and connection.
Sited in a 5th-generation, Black-owned home, in Seattle’s Central District, Wa Na Wari is an immersive community art project that reclaims Black cultural space and organizes for arts-based, collective solutions to displacement and the economic, creative, and cultural vulnerabilities displacement imposes on Black people.