GRANTEE PARTNERS

Abilities Dance Boston is a dance company using dance as a tool to promote intersectional disability rights in Greater Boston and beyond. Run by people who identify as disabled, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQIA+, their productions are informed by the lived experiences of disabled artists with intersectional voices. Abilities Dance is the only employer in Massachusetts explicitly hiring disabled dancers.

The Asian American Women’s Political Initiative (AAWPI) is the country’s only political leadership organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander women. They work to ensure Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women have a voice in our democracy. AAWPI built an infrastructure to support low-income and immigrant AAPI women in Massachusetts interested in government and politics, women who so rarely see themselves reflected in power but are the leaders their communities need. For over a decade, their groundbreaking political leadership program has been changing the face of political power in Massachusetts.

Asian Women for Health (AWFH) is a peer-led, community-based network dedicated to advancing Asian women’s health and wellness through education, advocacy, and support. They are a diverse group of individuals working together across differences in age, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic and educational levels, to address individual, community-wide and systemic barriers that affect Asian women and their loved ones. AWFH envisions a world where Asian women are well-informed, have access to care that is culturally appropriate and high-quality, and are inspired to live happy, healthy lives.

The Association of Haitian Women in Boston (AFAB) is a nonprofit community-based organization dedicated to empowering low-income Haitian women and their children. AFAB is committed to providing the necessary tools for Haitian women to improve their social, economic, and political status. They seek to improve the lives of Haitian women in Boston with formal economic literacy training to help unemployed and low-income women achieve success in addressing their economic condition with pertinent information about financing, budgeting, identity theft, credit scores, and credit cards.

Birth Equity & Justice MA (BEJMA) is a coalition that elevates the voices and experiences of birthing people, advances maternal health policy, and builds community power through a lens of justice and equity by centering Black and Brown leadership and creating a broad and inclusive table. After holding the first statewide town hall on maternal health equity in June of 2020, BEJMA (previously known as the Massachusetts Covid-19 Maternal Equity Coalition) released “Giving Birth in a Pandemic,” a report with six key policy recommendations. They envision a racially just and equitable world in which birthing people experience health, joy, and bodily autonomy.

The Dominican Development Center (DDC) is a nonprofit organization led by immigrant residents of Boston, Massachusetts, working to improve the quality of life for immigrant communities across the city. Through anti-racist visions, values, and practices, DDC raises awareness amongst immigrant communities (primarily Black and Latinx women, though all genders, races, and communities are welcome) about issues that may affect their communities, including immigrant and domestic workers’ rights, current laws, legal procedures, and human rights. In addition to offering educational programs, DDC also facilitates leadership development and community organizing to better advocate for immigrant and domestic worker’s rights in Massachusetts and at the national level.

Essex County Community Organization (ECCO) is a multi-faith network of 59 congregations and the North Shore Labor Council that works to create a world where everyone belongs, where all can thrive, and where everyone has a say in the decisions that shape their lives. ECCO seeks to advance the power of immigrant women through its Women’s Leadership Group, which launched an immigrant-women-worker-owned cleaning co-operative called Shine Together. This co-operative is the first of its kind in the North Shore of Boston and emerged from the struggles of immigrant women leaders’ daily experiences. Shine Together creates a community-based alternative to the brutal economic systems that push immigrant women and those living in poverty to the margins of our society. Through channeling the co-op’s energy into leadership development, business training, political education, and local organizing campaigns, ECCO hopes to create more opportunities for immigrant women and non-immigrant women of color to address the root causes of poverty and step into their own power.

For Black Girls Inc. is dedicated to championing the empowerment of Black women and girls through a multifaceted approach encompassing education, literacy, arts, community, and advocacy. Since its inception in 2018, For Black Girls Inc. has been at the forefront of creating pathways to equity and opportunity for Black women and girls of all backgrounds. Their vision is clear; to forge a society where every Black girl and woman, irrespective of her circumstances, enjoys unfettered access to the resources and support necessary to realize her boundless potential.

The Grimes King Foundation is committed to improving the lives of elderly African American/Black women living in or on the edge of poverty in Boston.

Love Your Magic is a grassroots organization committed to the healthy development of Black and Brown girls. Founded in 2017 by a group of Black and Brown women educators in Boston, Massachusetts, Love Your Magic began as a conference designed to respond to and disrupt the disproportionate amount of Black and Brown girls that were being “pushed out” of schools. Their work equips girls with the tools to advocate for themselves and their communities by providing a space for girls to tell their stories, develop their self-esteem, and celebrate each other.

The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) works to ensure the wellbeing, safety, and lived equity of all trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people in Massachusetts. Dedicated to ending discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression, MTPC develops leaders and builds coalitions, broad-based participation, and community power. MTPC is the only statewide organizing and advocacy organization focused solely on its communities – led by trans people, for trans people.

Matahari Women Workers’ Center is a Greater Boston organization where women of color, immigrant women, and families come together as sisters, workers, and survivors to make improvements in ourselves and society and work towards justice and human rights. Their goal is to end gender-based violence and exploitation.

Melanin Mass Moms is a network of moms of color in Massachusetts raising their children, empowering one another, and adjusting their crowns as they take on the challenges of melanin motherhood. They work to bridge the gap between community resources and health disparities for mothers of color as they navigate all stages of motherhood. Melanin Mass Moms provides mental health resources, postpartum support, and avenues for advocacy aimed to increase access to community wide resources.

Propa City Community Outreach started as a support group in 2011 to unite the community and support families in the process of healing in a positive way. They provide education, advocacy, public awareness, and support services to families in their community experiencing all types of loss. Utilizing Facebook groups, blogs, in-person and online trainings and workshops, convenings, videos, resources, and targeted services, Propa City Community Outreach not only impacts families experiencing loss, but also young people in the community, hospitals and service providers, and other community organizations.

Sisters Unchained is a prison abolitionist non-profit organization dedicated to supporting young women and girls with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parents. They are a refuge space where young women of color can focus on loving and improving themselves and their communities in the way they see fit. Sisters Unchained believes that community-based alternatives to incarceration will lead us to a more liberated future.

Small House partners with young adults to help them build their own pathway out of homelessness and be the creator of the kinds of lives they want to live. An emerging organization, Small House ​​is building a program that will provide transitional-style housing and coaching to young adults.

The mission of Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education (SPACE) is to support, educate, empower and inspire parents to be better advocates for their children, more specifically, their children with special needs in schools, in health care, and in the community. Primarily serving parents of children with autism and intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, and behavioral health challenge, SPACE works with disabilities agencies, school administrators, special education teachers, health care providers, behavioral health practitioners, direct support professionals, and other medical and scientific personnel working with children with disabilities to improve their conditions, their prognosis, and their abilities to become more independent and make choices for themselves.

Student Immigration Movement (SIM) is a grassroots organization using the power of storytelling to uplift and connect young people — regardless of background or status. Through inclusive spaces, they nurture self-discovery, leadership, and empathy, all while inspiring a brighter, more compassionate future. They have a global community of changemakers who are shaping the world, one story at a time.

Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE) is a grassroots organization founded and led by immigrant women of color, dedicated to educating, advocating for, and advancing the rights of immigrants, refugees, and low-income women and their families. Established in 2010, WEE was created in response to the urgent need for a community-based organization rooted in lived experience. Through leadership development, community organizing, advocacy, and a broad range of culturally responsive services, WEE works to close persistent gaps in access, opportunity, and equity—supporting and guiding women and their families as they reclaim their power, build confidence, exercise their rights, and lead change in their lives, their communities, and beyond.