Grantmaking
The Foundation for California Community Colleges
The Foundation for California Community Colleges supports Community Colleges throughout the state, helping people achieve a better future through education and, in turn, creating a more just, equitable, and thriving world.
With support from the FirstGen grant, the Foundation of California Community Colleges will launch, ‘The Determined Voices: Stories of Immigrant Women.’ The project is an 18-month campaign that will share the stories of diverse immigrant women who have all launched successful careers after attending California Community Colleges. The campaign aims to inspire immigrant women of all ages, regardless of immigration status, to explore higher education at community colleges as an accessible and proven path to success. Video & audio storytelling will document immigrant alumnae's hopes, struggles, and triumphs from college to career.
The recipients of the FirstGen grant are ensuring their voices never go unheard. Here are some of their inspirational stories.
Upwardly Global
FirstGen supported Upwardly Global as they worked to eliminate employment barriers for immigrant and refugee professionals and adapt their skills into the US economy. A grant from FirstGen in May 2021 helped launch Upwardly Global’s Career Skills Program in Los Angeles.
The program includes advice from a career coach, courses to improve workplace skills, training and certification opportunities in high-demand fields, and connections to top employers, industry experts, and like-minded professionals. The first program, specifically in Southern California, initially aimed to serve ten women but has swelled to 36 over the two-year partnership.
AmericaShare & Huru
Michelson Philanthropies provided a grant to Huru International, a charity that tackles period poverty throughout Kenya by providing menstrual products to girls and access to sexual and reproductive health education.
Period poverty has a profound impact on the education of girls in Africa. Every month, approximately one million girls in Kenya miss school because they don’t have access to safe, sustainable sanitary products. The effect of lost education is only compounded by the deep-rooted cultural stigma surrounding menstruation, leading to shame and embarrassment that hinders personal growth. The Michelsons’ donation will purchase 200 Huru Kits containing sanitary products that provide care for two years. The grant also helps Huru provide comprehensive reproductive and sexual health education programs to young women, giving them the resources needed to break the cycle of period poverty.
Michelson Philanthropies provided a second grant to Micato-AmericaShare. The nonprofit supports people in Nairobi, Kenya, affected by HIV/AIDS, by increasing access to educational resources. The grant helped purchase 20 computers for the Micato-AmericaShare Harambee Center Computer Centre, a community resource with a library and educational programs. The Harambee Centre offers a range of courses for students who want to learn the fundamentals of operating a computer. Last year, it hosted over 12,500 users
The Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers
The Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers comprises doctors, nurses, social workers, and other professionals dedicated to the healthcare needs of refugees and asylum seekers. The nonprofit also works to reduce health disparities through education and advocacy at individual, institutional, and government levels. The ultimate goal is to improve the way North America approaches immigrant health. Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers members report serving over 195,000 refugees per year.
Funding from the Michelson Philanthropies grant will support the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers in its mission to jumpstart a sexual and reproductive health and rights working group/committee. Additionally, the grant will provide member scholarships to 60 health professional women identifying as refugees, immigrants, or migrants (RIM); and develop open source education materials on topics in RIM women’s health for healthcare providers.