Provides $500,000 to each organization serving Black, Hispanic, and immigrant communities.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – To commemorate The Jim Moran Foundation’s 20th anniversary of improving the quality of life for the youth and families of Florida, the Urban League of Broward County (ULBC) and Hispanic Unity of Florida (HUF) have each received a $500,000 grant to advance racial equity in Broward County. This $1 million investment will build the capacity for both organizations to work effectively with stakeholders to lead critical conversations about racial equity and to propose transformative solutions that address them.
The disparate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color underscored persistent gaps in equitable access to health care, education and employment. To address these and other root causes of racial and social inequality in the county’s Black, Hispanic and immigrant communities, ULBC and HUF will partner with Florida International University’s Metropolitan Center to launch a Broward Equity Initiative – an academic research project that will produce two comprehensive reports: The State of Black Broward and The State of Hispanic and Immigrant Broward.
“We are grateful and humbled that The Jim Moran Foundation has entrusted us to sustain the momentum towards building racial equity in our community,” said Dr. Germaine Smith-Baugh, president, and CEO for the Urban League of Broward County. “It is through such leadership and collaboration that the Urban League will be better positioned to expand our advocacy role to examine the very inequities that shape public policy, promote narrative change, and elevate critical conversations about race.”
“A third of Broward County’s population is foreign-born. The families we serve come to the U.S. in search of freedom and opportunity and with hopes and dreams for themselves and their children,” said Josie Bacallao, President & CEO for Hispanic Unity of Florida (HUF). “This grant and research will allow us to look deeper into the many facets of life where these families need greater assistance and connection to networks and support. The grant also provides funds to seed new efforts as well as fund our growing policy and advocacy work. This gift comes at the cusp of the agency’s 40th anniversary. It will provide our new CEO, Felipe Pinzon (effective January 2022), an excellent framework from which to provide the best programs and services to our families. We are deeply grateful to The Jim Moran Foundation for their continued trust and investments in the Hispanic and immigrant communities and in HUF in particular.”
“Through decades of partnership, we are confident in the leadership of Hispanic Unity of Florida and Urban League of Broward County to listen to the voice of our community,” said Jan Moran, chairman and president of The Jim Moran Foundation. “We recognize the results of these reports will only be a place to start and the real work will begin when we come together.”
For more information on how to support these programs, please contact the Urban League of Broward County at (954) 584-0777 and Hispanic Unity of Florida at (954) 964-8884.
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