The Innovators program provides direct investments to young women and gender-expansive people (ages 16-24) and supports their leadership development with quarterly convenings.
Donor Name: Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
State: Minnesota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Program
Deadline: 01/05/2023
Size of the Grant: $2,500
Grant Duration: 12 months
Details:
The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM) is making an impact in the state through the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN) by investing directly in the vision and leadership of young women and gender-expansive youth (ages 16-24) through $2,500 microgrants, cohort-based learning, and individual leadership coaching. Grants through the WFM Innovators program fund projects that advance gender and racial justice and are led by visionary young women and youth who are leading within their communities from the intersections of their identities and experiences.
Innovator Program Year Focus Your project should further one of the key goals of the Young Women’s Initiative. Within each goal, your project should encompass one or more of the following Blueprint for Action recommendations focus areas:
Goal 1: Build Pathways to Economic Opportunity
Focus
- Enhance Career Pathways
- Ensure young women have opportunities and pathways to high-skill, high-wage careers and jobs; increase participation in STEM fields and technical careers; and increase advancement opportunities and pay for young women in female-dominated employment sectors.
- Build Gender and Community Oriented Financial Literacy and Life Skills
- Ensure young women have access to community-specific opportunities for training and education on financial literacy, life skills, and entrepreneurialism tailored to young women, which are built on cultural, linguistic, community, and geographic assets.
- Increase Access to Childcare
- Increase access to childcare and early education opportunities that are accessible (day, time, location), affordable, high quality, and culturally appropriate for young women and their families.
Examples
- Projects that increase young women enrolling in post-secondary education
- Entrepreneurship projects and/or business ventures
- Projects that build childcare services and/or assist with accessibility to services
Goal 2 Improve Safety and Well-being
Focus
- Prevent Violence through Healthy Relationships
- Educate young women and men about healthy relationships, harmful narratives, and norms, and promoting positive self-identities to reduce violence.
- Increase Access to Women’s Health Care
- Promote access to women’s health education and services built on cultural and community strengths so that young women know about their bodies and can make appropriate and healthy choices as they grow and age.
- Increase Mental Health Support
- Increase access to culturally-specific mental health services and supports for young women in Minnesota.
Examples
- Innovation to end gender-based violence, including sex trafficking, domestic violence,
rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment - Projects addressing mental health awareness, include type of mental illnesses and the
importance to treat them - Projects supporting reproductive rights and increasing awareness of reproductive health
GOAL 3 Promote Young Women’s Leadership.
- Reframe Harmful Narratives
- Promote messages that ensure young women can experience the world without limitations.
- Develop Young Women Leaders
- Develop the capacity of young women for political and civic leadership.
- Ensure Community Spaces and Conversations
- Support communities to create their own multigenerational spaces to hold conversation and dialogue about gender, race, place and other intersecting identities within and across communities.
Examples
- Projects increasing your leadership skills and understanding of social issues to create solutions for gender and racial equity
- Community engagement efforts that drive greater participation in addressing climate change
- Project increasing public policy engagement (ex: voting, running for office, advocacy)
Funding Information
Grant Type Monetary Investment – $2,500
Project Period
The funds must be used within 12 months.
Criteria
The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota will accept applications from eligible applicants in the state of Minnesota which include the following:
- Identify as a young woman or gender-expansive person between the ages of 16 to 24 years old.
- Their definition of young woman is anyone who identifies as a woman and is inclusive of cisgender, transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary people.
- Residence and impact must be in the state of Minnesota for the entire grant period.
- Priority given to young women identifying with one or more of the following communities: Black/African American, African Immigrant, American Indian, Hispanic/Latina, Asian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ+, Disabilities, Greater/Rural Minnesota.
- Citizenship in the United States is not required.
For more information, visit Innovators Program.
