Sponsorships Last updated or reviewed on March 21, 2023 The City of Asheville recognizes that equity is everyone’s job. The Office of Equity and Inclusion are sponsoring individuals, programs, and projects that are committed to achieving equity and centering community voices. Equity and Inclusion proudly sponsors the following partners. Racial Healing Mini Grant Recipients The intent of the racial healing grants are to invest in projects already established in the community. The mini-grants represent a total community investment of almost $40,000. Visit the Racial Healing Mini Grant page here. ART of Community A Community-led, Student-led and Creative Facilitation-rooted Racial Equity Cohort focused on truth, reconciliation, healing + economic mobility. We seek to invoke creativity to facilitate change. We seek to create economic mobility for the black community as a response to disparity. We seek to shift organizational culture by creating a pathway for communities of color to engage in long-term processes of participatory learning, active changemaking and sharing the invaluable wisdom of their lived experience. This project’s impact on structural racism will be five-fold: Support the work of Asheville City Schools Foundation faculty/staff in its Listening Project and equity goals, ultimately extending the capacity and impact to address the heartbreaking data shared in the Achievement Gap statistics that cannot be entirely addressed by teachers who are actively a part of the system; Affirm the lived experience of people of color in the community who are experts in resiliency, overcoming adversity, and navigating barriers to opportunities; Provide a model on how to leverage experience to catalyze economic mobility; Directly impact the retention of professionals, leaders, entrepreneurs, and/or artists of color in our community by training toward harm reduction; and Support the City of Asheville’s Equity Action Plan goals by acknowledging and building a community ecosystem for people of color to thrive which includes, government, nonprofits, education, healthcare, economics, housing, and arts/culture. Goals and Outcomes To provide a holistic, supportive approach toward community and organizational change for community members. To successfully place cohort members in institutions and groups with organizational change, and facilitation needs To create a community – online and offline – that will serve as a space for discussion, reflection, support, networking, evaluation, integration + mobilization. To contribute toward economic mobility directly to community members by providing gainful, tangible professional + economic development opportunities. Contact Cortina Jenelle Caldwell Artists Designing Evolution (adé PROJECT) connect@theadeproject.org, 828-782-3382
