Good Tidings News from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation
Uncomfortable conversations led to difficult questions: Are we who we say we are?
Have we been welcoming to all people?
What is racial equity?
The first participants in the Nonprofit Equity Assessment Program supported by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation spent months exploring these questions to determine how to pursue racial equity for their organizations. For the Virginia Stage Company and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the examination ranged from their organizations to their programming. Did their boards and staff welcome people of all backgrounds and races? Did their programming actively invite every audience? For the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, their driving question was fundamental to their mission: are we welcoming to all girls? “We always had a commitment to diversity and pluralism,” said Tracy Keller, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast. “It’s always been embedded. But maybe it stopped being at the fore. We came to a time that our community needed to be focused on it again.”
Virginia Stage Company Producing Artistic Director Tom Quaintance at the Wells Theatre Gary Ryan, former executive director of the Virginia MOCA, noted several major exhibitions that focused on racial equity and justice. “From a content perspective, we live it,” Ryan said. “From the staff and the board there was work to be done. More thoughtful work
Tracy Keller, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast than just trying to get to the right numbers.” The Wells Theatre, home to the Virginia Stage Company, grappled with its history: it opened as a segregated theater, with a separate entrance and balcony for People of Color. “We’re not going to erase that past,” said Producing Artistic Director Tom Quaintance. “How do we make the theater welcoming to people of all backgrounds and races? How do we make the staff welcoming to all backgrounds and races?” The Foundation’s Equity Assessment Program provided funding and a facilitator, consultant Maureen White, for 18 months to help nonprofit organizations evaluate their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and to develop a plan of action to embed racial equity into the day-to-day operations and culture of their organizations. The Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, the Virginia MOCA, and the Virginia Stage Company were the first three recipients of grant funding for the program. This spring, two new recipients, the Virginia Zoo and the LGBT Life Center, were selected for the next round of the C O N T I N U E D P. 2 program. Like many
Spring/ Summer
2024
Recent Grants
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The Hampton Roads Community Foundation awarded $494,251 in grants to eight nonprofit organizations during its March Board meeting. These competitive grants were awarded for work toward vibrant places and environmental stewardship. The grants awarded were:
........................................................ Horizons Hampton Roads, Inc. , $84,200 over three years to support “Our Choices – Our World” environmental stewardship program ........................................................ LGBT Life Center, $75,000 to support the opening of a new clinic and pharmacy in Norfolk ........................................................ Girl Scout Council of the Colonial Coast , $45,000 to support renovations to the Norfolk Lodge at Camp Skimino in Williamsburg ........................................................ Wetlands Watch , $35,000 to support the expansion of an environmental education curriculum to Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ environmental studies program ........................................................ Genieve Shelter, $25,000 to support the construction of a new safe house ........................................................ Lynnhaven River NOW, $17,035 over two years to support the Watershed Leadership Academy ........................................................ Peninsula Community Foundation , $10,000 to support Give Local 757. ........................................................ Additionally, the community foundation provided a grant of $203,016 to support the M inus 9 to 5 initiative at Eastern Virginia Medical School. This program was launched in 2016 by the community foundation to focus on early childhood alignment, coordination, and systems building. It moved to EVMS in 2018. Since its launch, Minus 9 to 5 has brought in more than $9 million in early childhood funding, secured 368 child-care slots for underresourced families, and is improving quality in 1,600 classrooms. The grant funding will support operating expenses.