Women’s Fund of Rhode Island awards $50K in grants to 6 organizations

PROVIDENCE – The Women’s Fund of Rhode Island announced $50,000 in grants for six organizations Tuesday.

The grants are for proposals to advance gender equity and help level the playing field for women and girls in Rhode Island, according to the nonprofit whose mission is to eliminate gender inequity in the state through systemic change.

“The [2018] process was very competitive,” WFRI Executive Director Kelly Nevins said in a statement. “Thirty-four nonprofit organizations submitted proposals for a combined request of $269,000 in funding. Each proposal was subject to a rigorous review by a team of community volunteers with training in gender-lens giving. These programs clearly rose to the top.”

The 2018 grant recipients:

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  • Blackstone Valley Prep received $10,000 to host a one-month summer camp in 2019 to cultivate civic engagement and leadership for girls in eighth-grade through 11th-grade.
  • Planned Parenthood received $10,000 to support the work of the Rhode Island Coalition for Reproductive Freedom by engaging more than 50 volunteers in phone banking, canvasing and meeting with legislators.
  • Sojourner House received $10,000 to provide programming to all 10th-grade health classes in Providence Public Schools to educate about and mitigate abuse and harassment.
  • Young Voices received $9,000 to fund the organization’s work with policymakers to influence change related to a policy brief designed to improve graduation rates of low-income girls of color.
  • Women’s Refugee Care received $7,500 to host several two-hour group workshops to teach participants about birth spacing, preconception initiation of folic acid, early prenatal care and different contraceptive methods for family planning.
  • Center for Women and Enterprise received $3,500 for “Community Classrooms: Spanish Language Entrepreneurship Training,” a program that targets 25 women who plan to start a business.

Since its creation in 2001, the WFRI grant program has awarded more than $650,000 to organizations and programs in Rhode Island that empower women and girls.

This year’s grants were focused in the areas of women’s leadership, access to reproductive health and freedom, economic self-sufficiency and freedom from sexual harassment.

Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.