Dane County has awarded a total of $55,000 in grants to six area organizations working to combat systemic discrimination, according to a press release from the Office of Dane County Executive Joe Parisi.
The grant program is to help address racial inequities in the Dane County community, according to the press release. The grant comes from the county’s Partners in Equity – Racial Equity and Social Grants, the press release says.
The six recipients are Centro Hispano’s scholarship program which awards scholarships to Latinx students, Midwest Mujeres — a women’s collective advocating for Black and Brown women, the Simpson Street Free Press — a student-written newspaper that works to bolster writing skills in K-12 students, Worker Justice Wisconsin — a worker’s rights advocacy group, the Wisconsin Regional Training Program and Building Industry Group Skilled Trades Employment Program which connects Dane County residents with job opportunities in the trades industry and YWCA Madison’s youth restorative justice program.
PIE grants were launched in 2015 to reduce inequities in the county, Dane County Office of Equity and Inclusion spokesperson Theola Carter said. According to Carter, the groups that receive the grant are all grassroots organizations that focus on community.
“They’re nonprofit organizations [that] address some type of systemic issue in Dane County,” she said. “It may be that they’re doing something innovative in the area of education or employment.”
The programs will combat systemic issues such as over-incarceration and disparities in education access, and will put community members on a path to success, Carter said.
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The organizations chosen provide services for both adults and children, and in order to address systemic issues, the money needs to go to help people of all ages, Carter said.
“The goal would be irrespective of what your age is, if any of these programs could assist anybody in improving their quality of life, then that’s what we want to happen,” she said. “So if you have a youth who needs some assistance, we want programs there to help them. If young adults need assistance, we want programs there to help them.”
