FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2017
Press Contact:
Bilen Mesfin, [email protected], 510-681-5978
Support through Arc Toward Justice Fund bolsters movement building to foster racial equity
Oakland, Calif. — Akonadi Foundation announced today nearly $1.4 million in grants to 15 organizations to advance racial justice movement building in Oakland. The grants are part of the Foundation’s Arc Toward Justice Fund, one of its two main program areas.
The latest cohort of Arc Toward Justice grantees are driving policy and systems change to remove barriers to opportunity for communities of color in Oakland, in areas such as juvenile justice, the school-to-prison pipeline, and barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated people. The latest set of Arc Toward Justice Fund grants also reflect a re-commitment to multi-year support for grant partners; nine organizations received two-year grants ranging from $50,000 to $150,000.
“We are proud to support organizations in Oakland that are committed to advancing racial justice by challenging power structures that dehumanize and demean communities of color,” said Lateefah Simon, president of Akonadi Foundation.
Arc Toward Justice Fund grantee organizations have a proven record of building power and local leadership in Oakland’s most marginalized communities of color and participating in coalitions and alliances to challenge structural racism through strategic policy and systems change and direct action. The 2017 Arc Toward Justice Fund grantees are:
- Asian Pacific Environmental Network
- AYPAL: Building API Community Power
- Bay Area Black Worker Center
- Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network
- BAY-Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth
- Black Organizing Project
- Californians for Justice Education Fund
- Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ)
- Eastside Arts Alliance
- Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
- Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network
- Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
- National Center for Youth Law
- Public Advocates
- Urban Peace Movement
Launched in 2013, the Arc Toward Justice Fund focuses on long-term efforts to advance racial equity in Oakland and create a climate of compassion, respect, and dignity for young people in the city. Through the fund, Akonadi Foundation seeks to stop the criminalization of youth and young adults of color, end the school-to-prison pipeline, and build responses to harm that nurture wellness and well-being. For more information about the Arc Toward Justice Fund and current and past grantees, please visit www.akonadi.org.
About the Akonadi Foundation
Akonadi Foundation is guided by a vision for a racially just society. Since its founding in 2000, the Foundation has given over 1,600 grants totaling $35 million to nonprofit organizations, primarily in the Bay Area as well as across the country, to support and nurture racial justice movement building and to eliminate structural racism. Akonadi Foundation shifted its grantmaking in 2012 to focus solely on Oakland, in order to concentrate its financial and human resources on building a localized racial justice movement. Through an ecosystem grant making lens, Akonadi focuses on sustaining community power and racial justice movement building through its two primary program areas: the Arc Toward Justice Fund, which focuses on youth of color, and the Beloved Community Fund, which funds public cultural and arts events rooted in Oakland. For more information: Akonadi.org. On social media @akonadi_oakland