There are infinite issues and concerns in the world that seem crushingly overwhelming to tackle and transform. TPP grantees use this as an opportunity to implement local change and include others in the mission to solve global hardships without the burden or pressure. When someone has the opportunity to learn a new skill set, or is given the space to imagine, dream, and share their perspective freely, worldwide concerns begin to shift. Seed grants produce higher probabilities for advancement, and TPP grantees forge freedom and unshakable foundations.
Mporanyimigabo Gerard – Train And Support 10 Widows In Tailoring Business
Train and Support 10 Widows in Tailoring Business is a project taking place in Nduba and Rutunga, some of the rural areas of Kigali, Rwanda where Change Life Organization has the activities. Change Life Organization works to help the poorest and the most vulnerable people get out of the circle of poverty. Widows in these areas face different challenges in their lives due to unemployment and land scarcity and these lead to their families suffering from hunger and children not going to school on a daily basis.
This project aims at supporting ten trained widows in tailoring business with ten tailoring machines that will help them to successfully operate their businesses. These widows will be empowered in tailoring skills and while making money they will be enabled to send their children to attend school and providing for their families and satisfying the basic needs of their children.
This project will help these widows to plan for the future of their children and the children to envisage their future with confidence. These widows will continue to receive capacity building, they will be monitored, coached and encouraged as often as possible in order to make their tailoring business sustainable. We will continue to work hand in hand with the local community, community leaders, different church leaders and as well as those beneficiaries to ensure those widows are getting out of poverty.
ENTORNOS EDUCATIVOS A.C. – Women Working For Women Without Opportunities
In our organization we work to reduce environmental problems, such as pollution, loss of biodiversity, and climate change among others. From our work in the communities, we observed the need to include the social focus, rights and perspective approach of genre; so that from a social change the transformations to the care and preservation of the natural resources are generated.
In Mexico City there are areas of great exclusion due to their poverty and the level of violence. With our work, we intend to generate gender justice for older women who do not have the possibilities to obtain a job or have a training to start a business teaching women to produce ecological cleaning products, such as soap and derivatives, recycling the oil to prevent contamination. Ultimately, we wish to implement a micro-enterprise so that women have a fair and equitable job and income.
The seed grant from The Pollination Project will help the women’s group in purchasing the inputs to start the production and the generation of income with which they can continue their work and training, all the while starting and strengthening their micro-enterprise.
Ellice Patterson, Abilities Dance Boston – Grant Writer & Rehearsal Space For Abilities Dance Boston
Abilities Dance Boston seeks to disrupt antiquated ableist beliefs across the greater Boston area and drive intersectional disability rights. Our first performance was February 2017 and we have grown exponentially ever since. As the founder, I wanted a space for myself to perform and train in the greater Boston area as a dancer with a disability. I created that space for myself and others like me. Since then it has evolved into an organization beyond myself that really works with the community to not just perform but engage with lectures and workshops as well as providing classes with scholarship funds so finances aren’t a barrier to access education.
This seed grant is important to the work we do to be able to sustain our performing company through providing rehearsal space in an ADA-accessible space meant for dance in addition to hiring a grant writer to be able to secure even more funding to provide the stability we need to strengthen our programming. Through providing this funding boost, we will be able to take the work we do in our community and beyond at a larger scale.
Cameron Deal – The Music Makers Project
The Music Makers Project works to increase access to music for under-resourced children. The initiative is hosted at the Boys and Girls Club of Peoria, Arizona and brings in local high school musicians to present and perform on their instruments. This offers an opportunity for the children to interact with and explore a variety of instruments.
Cameron Deal, who initiated the project, was inspired by the variety of worlds he has glimpsed through music. This seed grant will enable the project to purchase a variety of beginner instruments so that the kids can begin long-term relationships with music. The Music Makers Project wants to be the spark that ignites long and rich musical lives for those who have not had the opportunity to explore this area of the arts.
Greening Forward – Greening Forward Ambassador Training Program
Greening Forward is an organization imagined by youth, run by youth, that supports youth-led environmental projects through grants, mentorships, and resources. Greening Forward’s new Youth Ambassador Training program will connect young people who are getting started as environmental change makers with skill-building and leadership development, offered through both online webinars and in-person training. These training sessions will allow Greening Forward to share their years of experience with bright, emerging leaders in the field.
Sister Alison McCrary – ReEntry Mediation Institute Of Louisiana
As people directly impacted by the criminal justice system in Louisiana, we know and understand the importance of having sustainable support and positive relationships with loved ones when someone comes home from prison or jail. The Re-Entry Mediation Institute of Louisiana seeks to decrease recidivism rates and improve a person’s transition home from incarceration by offering free, voluntary, confidential, and non-judgmental mediation services between an incarcerated person and their loved ones inside the prison six to twelve months before their scheduled return home. Through these interactions and spaces, a plan about employment, housing, addiction recovery, or anything else they need is made.
Megan Wilkinson – Russell City, CA: A Microcosm For Trends That Shaped The US
Russell City, CA was an important example of self-governing African American and Latino communities in western America, however it was destroyed in the 1960s through an urban renewal project. Many former town residents still live nearby though, and her previous interviews with them formed the cornerstone of her initial reconstruction of the town’s history. Using that work as a springboard, Megan is thrilled to have received a Pollination Project grant to expand her original project.
“I will use this grant to conduct six 1:1, hour-long interviews with former Russell City residents. The timing is critical to document first-hand accounts of this town as most of the former residents are in their late 70s to mid-90s. I will synthesize the information I gather and plan to publish my paper through the American Anthropological Association, as well as on my website, to ensure the legacy of Russell City is available for the public to learn about this special place.”
