Today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced 10 finalists for the Racial Equity 2030 challenge, an open call for bold solutions to drive an equitable future for children, families and communities across the globe. The Challenge is awarding $90 million to help build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in the systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities.
Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) in conjunction with Latino Community Development Center (LCDC) are among these finalists, who were selected from applicants from 72 countries. “This is an amazing recognition of the work and the impact we have built during the last 21 years,” said LCCU/LCDC CEO and President, Luis Pastor. “Now is the time to expand our footprint of opportunity by building a bigger table at which we can all collaborate and dream together.”
Applications were evaluated during a five-month review process – involving peer applicants and multi-disciplined experts from across the world – based on four criteria: whether they were game changing, equitable, bold and achievable.
“The overwhelming response of this Challenge has demonstrated the urgency of racial equity in nearly every corner of the world,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “Each of these visionary finalists embodies a deep commitment to community and local leadership. We’re proud to partner with them as they unveil their bold and game changing solutions to advance racial equity in the next decade.”
The 10 finalists’ projects are listed below in alphabetical order:
- 574+ Strong: Creating Regenerative Food Economies in Indian Country: The Intertribal Agriculture Council and partners will address poverty and food insecurity in Native communities through programmatic and policy solutions that build regenerative and just food economies.
- 50,000 Pastoralist Women: Agents for Change, Transforming Communities: Pastoral Women’s Council, Ujamaa Community Resource Team, and Engishon Microfinance Ltd., will support pastoralist women in Tanzania to address root causes of oppression, thereby transforming society to achieve social and economic justice for all.
- Building a Bigger Table for Latinos in the South: The Latino Community Development Center and Latino Community Credit Union will ensure a seat at the table for Latinos in the New South by leveraging this model of financial inclusion, civic engagement, and cultural pride.
- Building an Anti-Racist Public Education System in Brazil: ActionAid, the Brazilian National Campaign on the Right to Education, CONAQ, UneAFRO Brasil, Geledés, and Ação Educativa will work together to transform the Brazilian school network into the world’s first anti-racist education system harnessing youth, education and black movements and triggering a national healing process.
- Ending Systemic Labor Exploitation: This project will enable migrant worker-led community-building, advocacy, and activism to end migrant worker exploitation and achieve greater racial equity.
- Healing Through Justice: A Community-Led Breakthrough Strategy for Healing-Centered Communities in Illinois, U.S.A.: Communities United and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago will bring to scale “Healing through Justice,” a youth-led movement for healing to make breakthroughs in supporting and sustaining community-led approaches to healing-centered communities.
- High Road Kitchens for Racial Equity and One Fair Wage in the U.S.:
One Fair Wage will expand its High Road Kitchens program to provide restaurants with subsidies if they commit to its Racial Equity Toolkit & Training Program, which trains restaurants to desegregate their staff racially and raise wages for workers of color. The team will work with the U.S. Department of Labor to make this a federal program, supporting thousands of restaurants to increase wages and racial equity for hundreds of thousands of workers.
- Indigenous Lands Initiative: Securing Land Ownership Rights for Indigenous Communities in Mexico and Central and South America: The Indian Law Resource Center, the Interethnic Association of the Development of the Peruvian Amazon, and the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon will design and build an indigenous-led institution that provides essential technical and legal assistance to help Indigenous peoples secure ownership of their lands and works to speed up and improve Indigenous land titling processes in Mexico and Central and South America.
- Kawailoa: A Transformative Indigenous Model to End Youth Incarceration in Hawai’i and Beyond: Partners In Development Foundation and partners (Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, UH John A. Burns School of Medicine, Kamehameha Schools, Lili‘uokalani Trust) will replace youth incarceration with a Native Hawaiian restorative system that trains youth and empowers community.
- Overcoming Environmental Racism by Knowing, Using, and Shaping Law in Kenya, India, Sierra Leone and the U.S.: Namati, its partners, and members of the Legal Empowerment Network equip frontline communities with the power of law, so they can protect their own well-being and, ultimately, make systems of environmental governance more equitable.
The work of the 10 finalists’ projects reflects the complexity of achieving racial equity and the structural changes that are needed to achieve meaningful, long-term change, including access to economic opportunity, improved governance and justice, and social well-being.
The Racial Equity 2030 Challenge is being managed by Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that helps donors find and fund solutions to the world’s greatest challenges, including racial and gender inequity, economic opportunity and climate change.
“The finalists of the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge have proposed inspiring ideas to redress one of the most pressing issues of our time,” said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. “By partnering with like-minded applicants, these teams have the potential to build on each other’s work and achieve transformative change in the world. We are looking forward to following their progress as a cohort, across communities, borders and continents.”
Each of the 10 finalist teams will receive a one-year $1 million planning grant, which includes nine months of capacity-building support to further develop their project and strengthen their application.
Among the finalists, five awards totaling $80 million will be announced in the summer of 2022. Three Awardees will each receive a $20 million grant and two Awardees will each receive a $10 million grant. Grants will be paid out over eight years to coincide with W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s 100th anniversary in 2030.
More information about the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge and the finalists can be found at https://racialequity2030.org.