Black-Led Social Change encompasses organizations, ideas and strategies led by individuals who identify as Black and who aim to build power and positive outcomes within the population.
By investing in more Black-led ideas and strategies, we seek to:
1.
Diversify solutions and thought leadership in United Way’s work.
2.
Better understand the unique strengths, opportunities and challenges within communities.
3.
Collaborate on strategies that reduce racial disparities in outcomes.
Our Black-Led Social Change initiative includes Champions of Change, a one-year leadership and design program that brings together community leaders with diverse backgrounds, skills and perspectives who are driven to imagine and bring to life solutions to the problems most impacting the Black community of Greater Cincinnati.
In 2019, the first class of Champions designed our Black Empowerment Works grant program. Throughout its first four cycles, Black Empowerment Works funded more than 130 Black-led projects and illuminated an ecosystem of Black-led organizations interested in building connections and strengthening the position of Black leaders to drive change at scale.
Moving forward, we plan to evolve our investment beyond funding to intentionally foster a connected ecosystem of Black-led changemakers positioned to drive collaborative improvement in the Black community.
Champions will participate in a series of liberatory leadership and design experiences. They will co-design and test solutions to build collaborative efforts to problems disproportionately affecting the Black community.
Directly funding Black-led grassroots projects addresses the underinvestment in solutions and ideas led by Black people and rooted in communities, as many of these projects or organizations are not positioned or resourced to change the root causes or community conditions holding racial inequities in place.
Champions of Change offers an opportunity to support a strong ecosystem and leverage the power of those closest to the problems so they can participate in United Way’s efforts to solve them.
For questions about the Champions of Change program, email [email protected] or call 513-762-7200.
Black Empowerment Works is an equity-focused grant program that promotes Black self-determination, social mobility and economic prosperity by providing resources and funding to grassroots/community-based, Black-led work.
In 2019, the first class of Champions designed our Black Empowerment Works grant program. Throughout its first four cycles, Black Empowerment Works funded more than 130 Black-led projects and illuminated an ecosystem of Black-led organizations interested in building connections and strengthening the position of Black leaders to drive change at scale.
Moving forward, we plan to evolve our investment beyond funding to intentionally foster a connected ecosystem of Black-led changemakers positioned to drive collaborative improvement in the Black community.
Champions will participate in a series of liberatory leadership and design experiences. They will learn alongside grassroots leaders, systems-change leaders and other experts; build knowledge and skills to facilitate collective action; and use their power to design and test collaborative solutions to problems disproportionately affecting the Black community.
Directly funding Black-led grassroots projects addresses the underinvestment in solutions and ideas led by Black people and rooted in communities, as many of these projects or organizations are not positioned or resourced to change the root causes or community conditions holding racial inequities in place.
Champions offers an opportunity to support a strong ecosystem and leverage the power of those closest to the problems so they can participate in United Way’s efforts to solve them.
For more details, read our Black-Led Social Change case studies and reports here.
For questions about the Champions of Change program, email [email protected] or call at 513-762-7200.
We believe that Champions come from all walks of life and represent diversity in age, gender, income, education level, life experiences, abilities and more.
We’re looking for people who:
Black Empowerment Works is an equity-focused grant program that promotes Black self-determination, social mobility and economic prosperity by providing resources and funding to grassroots/community-based, Black-led work.
For questions about the Black-Led Social Change program and any subsidiaries, email [email protected] or call 513-762-7118.
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