Photo: Tom Wolf / Flickr

WDN’s Jean Hardisty Initiative just granted $300,000 to Black LGBTQIA+ youth organizing and a budding voter engagement nonprofit.

In 2021, transgender and gender non-conforming people of color in the US continued to face disproportionate rates of violence, discrimination, poverty, and houselessness. Through leadership development, direct action, mobilization, and culture change, Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ youth are at the forefront of organizing for their rights and communities. We are incredibly proud to support their vital and lifesaving work.

Last year also saw a record number of voter suppression laws targeting communities of color, increasing the critical need for voter education and engagement.

We are excited to support Good People Vote, a brand new organization that aims to change the culture of voting and engage voters beyond election day.   

The Jean Hardisty Initiative has been supporting movement infrastructure since 2015, with the long-term goal of eradicating structural inequality and the racialization of the structures that sustain it. With these grants, we are supporting the innovative efforts of Black-led organizations securing rights, justice, and transformation for their communities.

LGBTQIA+ rights and developing youth leadership ($250,000): 

Black LGBTQ+ Movement Project (BLMP): $100,000 

Led by Ola Osaze, a transmasculine queer of Edo and Yoruba descent, BLMP focuses on criminal and immigrant justice, detention support, and narrative change around the deep invisibility of Black migrants within Black, migrant, and LGBTQ+ communities. BLMP is the only Black migrant project that centers the leadership of trans and gender-nonconforming/nonbinary migrants. BLMP was a 2020 Jean Hardisty grantee.

Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100): $100,000 

BYP100 is a member-based organization of Black youth activists who convene, learn, and advocate for justice and freedom for all Black people, especially the Black queer and trans community. Using a Black, queer, feminist lens, BYP100 mobilizes youth through building a network focused on transformative leadership development, direct action, advocacy, and education. BYP100 was a 2019 and 2020 Jean Hardisty grantee.

ProjectQ: $50,000  

Based in Los Angeles, ProjectQ serves queer youth of color, particularly Black and Brown trans youths, who are navigating the foster care system or experiencing houselessness. ProjectQ provides leadership development, employment training, mental health support, and workshops to disrupt transphobia and harmful narratives. They also engage in mutual aid efforts addressing food and housing insecurity. 

Voter education and engagement ($50,000):

Good People Vote: $50,000

Good People Vote is a growing organization that uses multimedia art to both educate and engage voters throughout local election cycles. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, they are planning to expand their campaigns throughout the state. In the words of Tyra Robinson, Founder of Good People Vote: 

“Good People Vote exists to change the culture of voting through art. This grant will help fund the resources needed to facilitate curated discussions and create interactive campaigns that connect those stories throughout Alabama for our upcoming election. I am excited to have the resources needed to make these spaces. Because of your generosity, I am so grateful and happy to say that this project can now move forward for the upcoming year.”

Learn more about WDN’s Jean Hardisty Initiative.