The Northwest Minnesota Foundation is accepting applications for its Racial Equity Accountability Grants to support efforts aimed at improving the outcomes for individuals who have experienced homelessness.
Donor Name: Northwest Minnesota Foundation
States: Minnesota
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: Ongoing
Size of the Grant: $2,500 and $5,000
Details:
These grants – named Racial Equity Accountability Grants – support a Northwest Continuum of Care project aimed at identifying, dismantling, and de-colonizing instances of racism within the regional homeless response system. The Racial Equity Accountability Project, or REAP, is focused on improving the region’s current system of coordinated entry, which is the primary way that individuals can access supportive housing services in the NWCoC.
These goals include:
- Increasing cultural competency of NWCoC Staff:
- Grant expenses can cover costs associated with providing and organizing training and professional development for staff working with those living through homelessness
- Developing stronger relations between those living through homelessness and supportive housing staff
- This can be accomplished by providing more culturally relevant events and opportunities for the community to express their cultural identify, and provide healing
- Examples include sweat lodges, traditional ceremonies, drum circles, talking circles, community meals, support groups
- Events related to specific cultural and racial identities
- Improving outcomes for individuals living through homelessness by increasing stabilization:
- Providing job training and acquisition opportunities for individuals leaving homelessness
- Covering costs needed to maintain stable housing and employment
- clothing stipends, furniture stipends, food stipends, gas vouchers, professional development training/certifications
- Covering grant expenses related to educational development, business development, or any other form of professional development/entrepreneurship:
- scholarship and loan application costs, business development, professional development for individuals living through homelessness, certifications needed to maintain or achieve employment, etc.
Funding Information
Maximum grant awards are $5,000, with average funding expected to be between Maximum grant awards are $5,000, with average funding expected to be between $2,500 and $5,000.
Eligible Expenses
- Eligible applicants include organizations in the non-profit, public, or private sector. Eligible applicants can also include individuals that have lived through homelessness and housing insecurity.
- Expenses may include, but are not limited to: professional development, job training and acquisition expenses for individuals living through homelessness, staff and board training, purchasing professional licenses or certificates, travel, community/cultural events, technical assistance, organizational or operational audits, culture diversity education and awareness initiatives, or other efforts that increase stabile outcomes for individuals that have lived through homelessness.
- Examples of potential projects:
- Job training program for individuals living through homelessness:
- Expenses could cover clothing stipends, gas vouchers, training costs, or any other costs associated with job acquisition
- Professional development for non-profit agencies working to increase cultural competency
- Grant expenses could cover costs associated with increasing an agency’s internal capacity needed to develop staff training programs
- Expenses could include costs associated with hiring professionals to provide training and professional development opportunities with a focus on racial justice and cultural competency
- Hosting various culturally relevant events and opportunities for individuals living through homelessness
- Expenses could cover costs associated with hosting community talking circles, traditional ceremonies/events, or other culturally relevant community events
- Any other creative projects that improve outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Eligibility Criteria
501c3 nonprofits, public agencies, and tribal organizations located within the Northwest Continuum of Care’s service area that includes the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the Red Lake Nation, the White Earth Nation, and 12 counties (Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard, Kittson, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake Falls, and Roseau).
For more information, visit Northwest Minnesota Foundation.
