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$320,000 Going to Groups Organizing Families
and Fighting Poverty in Washington State
SEATTLE, WA (August 26, 2004) – Marguerite
Casey Foundation today announced more than $4
million in grants to 24 organizations working
to promote activism among low-income families
and communities throughout the United States.
Nearly three-quarters of the Foundation’s
grants were made to groups advocating for social
change in the Deep South and Southwestern United
States. The remaining quarter went to organizations
based in California and the Foundation’s
home state of Washington.
“As the economy continues to worsen, so
do the stresses on working families everywhere,” said
Luz Vega-Marquis, President and CEO of Marguerite
Casey Foundation. “In times like these,
it is critical for Foundations to support activism
and the organizing of parents and families to
advocate for better wages, improved working conditions,
quality education, and affordable housing and
health care for all.”
The Marguerite Casey Foundation grants are intended
to strengthen the ability of organizations helping
low-income families advocate for improvements
of public and private systems, including many
serving communities of color and immigrant populations.
National grants range in size from $150,000 over
two years to $450,000 over three years. Grants
made under the Foundation’s “Home
State Fund” are generally made to smaller
organizations over one- to two-year periods and
range in size from $25,000 to $50,000 each.
Among the grants announced today is an award of
$300,000 to Strategic Actions for a Just Economy
(SAJE), a Los Angeles-based, family-led organization
founded in 1996. With support from Marguerite
Casey Foundation, SAJE plans to provide tenants’ rights
education to hundreds of low-income families
in LA’s rapidly gentrifying Figueroa neighborhood
and pilot a new program to protect the number
of affordable housing units in the community.
SAJE will also work to place nearly 1500 new
workers in a Figueroa Jobs Program by 2007, while
increasing the annual incomes for some 300 low-income
families by 30-50 percent over that same period.
“The work of SAJE is illustrative of our
approach to community development on many levels,” said
Ms. Vega-Marquis. “They represent a coalition
of community residents who have banded together
to develop creative solutions which balance the
needs of low-income families with the challenges
of urban renewal. SAJE places the needs of working
families at the forefront of its agenda, and
is building a constituency of advocates and activists
who can advance their interests.
In addition to SAJE, the other grants announced
today by Marguerite Casey Foundation include:
- (Immokalee, FL). A three-year
$300,000 grant to support grassroots
organizing and activism of Florida workers
to hold low-wage industries -- including
day labor, construction, tourism-related
services and agricultural corporations
-- accountable to basic worker justice
and dignity.
- (Nogales, AZ). A
three-year $450,000 grant to engage more
parents and youth in Santa Cruz County
along the U.S./Mexico border to advocate
for changes in the public and private
systems that benefit the health, well-being
and economic prospects of their families.
Among the grants made to groups based in Washington
State are:
- (Washington State).
A two-year $50,000 grant to support public
policy advocacy on behalf of low-income
families, including development of a
media relations effort to address the
underlying causes of poverty in Washington
State.
- (Spokane, WA). A two-year
$50,000 grant to help support a low-power
community radio station in providing
programming to diverse communities and
underserved groups on important local,
national and global issues reflecting
the values of environmental justice,
human rights, democracy and multiculturalism.
For a complete list of grantees, please visit
the Marguerite Casey Foundation Grants
Database.
With limited exceptions, Marguerite Casey Foundation
grants are focused primarily in five regions
of the United States: the Deep South; the Southwest,
including the U.S./Mexico Border; the Midwest,
beginning in Chicago; the West, primarily California;
and the Foundation’s home state of Washington.
Most grants are provided as core operating support,
enabling recipient organizations to use the Foundation’s
resources to strengthen existing programs as
well as build new core organizational competencies.
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