A fund created after Atatiana Jefferson’s killing aims to help local organizations
Children in the North Side and Diamond Hill neighborhoods are learning to trust police by playing soccer and other sports.
People living in the Las Vegas Trail area have a say in making their neighborhood a safer place and are getting much-needed information about COVID-19.
Both efforts are possible thanks to grants from the Fund to Advance Racial Equity (FARE) through the North Texas Community Foundation, and its partners Rainwater Charitable Foundation, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, The Miles Foundation, and other philanthropic investors.
On Monday the community foundation will open its second round of applications for the FARE grants.
Roxanne Martinez, a board member with the Diamond Hill North Side Youth Association, said the grant funding helped children build trust with police officers in their neighborhoods.
“We were really excited to get the grant because we were able to expand some of our programs that had a lack of funding,” she said.
Martinez said the youth association was able to help 200 additional children this year, thanks to the FARE grant.
Police officers also helped distribute food and backpacks filled with school supplies because of the grant, Martinez said.
Donna James-Harvey, Fund to Advance Racial Equity liaison, said it has been rewarding to see how the grants have helped the nonprofits and police organizations.
“One of the exciting things about the fund is that once the grants have been distributed, we stay in touch with the organizations. We work on professional development and make sure the projects are going according to plan. I’ve really enjoyed working with the grantees and supporting them,” James-Harvey said.
James-Harvey said the FARE grant initiative started in June of 2020 after the killing of Atatiana Jefferson and other high-profile police incidents which highlighted the racial inequities in Fort Worth.
A report from the Community Foundation called Race and Equity in North Texas showed significant disparities in health, education and economic security among people of color.
The FARE program provided funds from $1,000 to $35,000 to organizations including Community Frontline, Diamond Hill North Side Youth Association, Fort Worth – Office of the Police Monitor, Fort Worth Police Foundation and LVT Rise.
Willie Rankin, executive director of LVT Rise, a nonprofit that started to help residents in the Las Vegas Trail area, said the FARE grant made it possible to hire a full time employee to do community outreach during the pandemic.
Many Las Vegas Trail residents weren’t receiving crucial information about COVID-19 because they don’t have a phone line or access to the Internet, Rankin said.
The grant helped LVT Rise put on events such as a Christmas drive for 600 children. The nonprofit also invited residents to meals so that they could have “heart to heart” conversations about how to make the neighborhood a safer place, Rankin said.
Rankin said LVT Rise is working on a survey about safety issues, but many residents are reluctant to provide information in a survey. However, they are more willing to talk when there is personal interaction, he said.