Ford Foundation Grants $5.3 Million for Devolution Initiative
The Ford Foundation today announced $5.3 million in grants to organizations that propose to create or strengthen collaborations between policy analysis and grassroots organizations in eleven states. The grants are part of the Foundation's Devolution Initiative, which seeks to help state-based groups respond effectively to the shift in responsibility for social welfare programs from the federal government to the states.
In this initial phase, funds for core support and coalition building have been awarded to multi-issue, state-based organizations in eleven states in the Northwest and in the South--two of the poorest regions in the country. Nine collaborations in Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Washington were selected to receive three-year grants. Two collaborations in formation in North Carolina and Tennessee were selected to receive planning grants of up to eighteen months.
All of the grants are intended to strengthen and encourage collaboration among key policy analysis and grassroots civic organizations so they can become more effective in state policy debates. The organizations awarded grants are known for their success in building alliances, convening diverse constituencies, expanding political participation in communities, and developing rigorous policy research and analysis.
The Foundation's Devolution Initiative is intended to assist diverse state groups to recognize areas of mutual interest and to encourage the inclusion in state policy debates of perspectives reflecting the interests of low income and other vulnerable populations. These include issues of job security, wage levels and benefits, allocation of state resources for poor communities, and the relationship between environmental policies and community development.
The grantees are:
Greater Birmingham Ministries, Inc. (Alabama) $500,000
This 29-year-old inter-racial, interfaith organization, in conjunction with Arise Citizens Policy Project, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, the Federation of Child-Care Centers of Alabama and the Alabama Coalition Against Hunger seeks to craft a statewide agenda on family economic security issues and development strategies for low-income communities.
Kentucky Coalition, Inc. $500,000
The Kentucky Coalition, a 17-year-old statewide organization concerned with a range of economic and environmental issues affecting the state's low-income communities, in partnership with the Community Farm Alliance, the Democracy Resource Center, Kentucky Youth Advocates and Appalshop, proposes to weave together the existing work of the partners and map out a strategy for working in new areas of the state toward long-term sustainable economic change.
Southern Echo, Inc. (Mississippi) $500,000
Southern Echo is the lead organization for a partnership comprised of community empowerment agencies in primarily black counties in the Mississippi Delta. The partnership will engage in joint training, skill-building and strategy development to increase policy capacity on substantive issues such as equity in public education and environmental protection from corporate farming.
Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment (South Carolina) $500,000
CAFE, an 18-year-old organization which supports and empowers workers not represented by unions, is joined by South Carolina Environmental Watch, South Carolina United Action and South Carolina Fair Share Education Fund to create a lasting infrastructure for policy groups and community organizations, engage in multi-county training, draft an alternative state policy agenda and conduct public education campaigns on substantive economic issues.
Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (Texas) $500,000
The Southwest Regional Office of the nation's leading consumer advocacy organization, the Center for Public Policy Priorities and ACORN are co-conveners of a developing statewide network to increase local participation in state decision-making processes, foster the development of regional coalitions and development of an alternative state budget.
Idaho Women's Network Research and Education Fund $500,000
This ten-year-old statewide coalition of 26 organizations defending reproductive choice, civil rights and economic justice for women, in a tripartite coalition with the Idaho Citizen's Network Research and Education Fund and United Vision for Idaho, propose to expand their cooperative work to increase citizen participation and address the effects of devolution on welfare reform and related social policies.
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada $500,000
This statewide coalition was founded in 1994 and has quickly grown to a membership of 30 organizations. Working in conjunction with the University of Nevada's Department of Economics, the Alliance will formulate an alternative state budget and develop policy analysis on key economic issues such as unemployment insurance and livable wages.
Rural Organizing Project (Oregon) $500,000
This six-year-old statewide network of over sixty local groups committed to fighting discrimination is joined by the Oregon Center for Public Policy, CAUSA and the Fair Share Research and Education Fund in an effort to build a permanent statewide coalition to advance economic justice and democracy in the state. The team seeks to increase popular understanding of basic economic principles and the economic impact of state policies at the local level through training and coordinated educational campaigns on livable wages, tax fairness and other economic issues.
The Washington Association of Churches (www.thewac.org) $500,000
This 23-year-old ecumenical organization has been instrumental in forming church coalitions around critical economic issues. Together with Washington Citizen Action Education and Research Fund and the Washington State Labor Council, it proposes to conduct a three-year statewide program of policy research, advocacy, education and organizing to deepen civic involvement and capacity-building on economic security issues.
North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center (info@ncjustice.org) $150,000
The Justice Center, a sixteen-year-old statewide legal and economic advocacy organization, along with five collaborating partners seek to build through a planning process a collaborative alliance of policy and community activist groups to address the complexities of welfare reform in North Carolina.
Save Our Cumberland Mountains Resource Project (Tennessee) $150,000
This 26-year-old environmental and economic justice membership organization in Appalachia collaborates with nine other veteran organizations to build their partnership as a long-term strategy toward changing the discourse on key social and economic issues in Tennessee.
Additional grants to regional and national organizations will support documentation, monitoring, technical assistance and evaluation of the Initiative.
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.