Bend-It Collective, Seattle, WA – $6,600: Bend-It is a collective of activists and artists working to empower, build community among, and create meaningful alternatives for queer young people and their friends. This grant will help Bend-It transform from a single annually organizational effort into an ongoing collective that builds community among queer youth year-round. The resources from this grant will go towards stipends for organizers, supplies, promotional materials, etc.
Center Pole Foundation, Garryowen, MT – $7,000: The Center Pole Foundation empowers Native American reservation youth through knowledge, experience and global awareness and trains them as agents of change; to promote the exchange of information ideas and understanding between Indian reservations and the mainstream; and to conduct projects to promote a just future for Native communities. This grant will support the development of a community arts and cultural archive on the Crow Indian Reservation.
Khmer In Action, Seattle, WA – $5,000: Khmer in Action requests funds to create a video documentary that specifically speaks to gang violence in the Khmer communities of Seattle. This documentary will provide an avenue for gang members to speak about their experience in a safe setting, and educate Khmer community members about the struggles that are unique to local youth and young adults.
Montana Human Rights Network, Helena, MT – $5,000: The Montana Human Rights Network requests funds to continue holding public education events around their Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate exhibit. The exhibit is built around art that uses or responds to the hate, bigotry and anti-Semitism in white supremacist books that were acquired by MHRN. In 2009, the exhibit will travel to five Montana towns.
Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER), Olympia, WA – $6,600: POWER is an organization of low-income parents and allies advocating for a strong social safety net while working toward a world where children and care giving are truly valued, and the devastation of poverty has been eradicated. POWER requested funds for “Power Hour”, a weekly radio broadcast by low-income parents that uses humor, music, poetry, drama, and call-in discussions to education and invite the larger community to join the movement for economic justice.
Stonewall Youth, Olympia, WA – $6,600: Stonewall Youth supports, informs and advocates for LGBTQQ youth under the age of 21. This grant will fund their multi-media performance that allows participants to address the issues they are faced regarding sexuality, gender, class and age.
Thin Air Community Radio, Spokane, WA – $6,600: Thin Air Community Radio serves the Spokane area with progressive perspectives and provides non-commercial community programming to diverse populations and unserved or underserved groups. This grant will assist KYRS in the production of a Native American radio program, and Asian program, and to start a local news department. This work will expand their ability to promote progressive perspectives, enrich social justice community organizing, and build power.
UNETE, Medford, OR – $6,600: Unete requests funds to continue their Encuentro de Raices project to include other indigenous groups and empower immigrant women in self expression and art using video, traditional arts and cultural awareness. The Encuentro de Raices program arose our of the need for educational equality in immigrant and farm worker communities in Southern OR and the lack of quality mentoring programs for Latino youth.