U.S. awards Cesar Chavez Foundation coveted $375,000 award to fund Dr. King days of service
A federal agency, the Corporation for National and Community Services, has selected the Cesar Chavez Foundation among hundreds of competing non-profit groups for a coveted $375,000 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service award. The Keene, Calif.-based Chavez foundation will use $125,000 each year over three years to issue grants for rural non-profit groups across the Southwest to organize days of service on Dr. King’s Jan. 15 birthday or on other significant occasions during the year. The Chavez foundation is among only six non-profit organizations singled out for the Dr. King awards.
A request for proposal (RFP) was issued on Oct. 3 for community non-profit groups in the southwestern states to apply for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service grants through the Chavez foundation. The Corporation for National and Community Services is the parent organization of the AmeriCorps, Serve and Learn, United We Stand and SeniorCorps federal service agencies.
Non-profit groups will receive grants from the Chavez foundation for proposals to identify community needs and gather together volunteers to help resolve them. Such events could range from aiding local food pantries to cleaning up parks or economic development efforts in areas of high unemployment such as job fairs and workshops to help residents better market their job skills.
“Rather than taking Dr. King’s birthday as a day off, the Chavez foundation will help rural non-profit groups use it and other observances to take a day on in service to others in need,” said Gina Rodriguez, the foundation’s director of Community Services.
The award is “very appropriate,” said Chavez foundation President Paul F. Chavez, since the Corporation for National and Community Services sponsors AmeriCorps volunteers who staff the Chavez foundation’s Si Se Puede Learning Centers, signature after-school programs supplying structured educational services for school age kids residing in the foundation’s affordable housing communities in four states. These centers serve children from grades K through 6 during the high-risk hours after school lets out with classes and group activities focusing on building their academic skills through homework assistance, literacy, math, science, creative learning models and access to technology. The AmeriCorps volunteers live and work on the site with residents during their year of service with poverty populations.
For more information about applying for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service grant through the Cesar Chavez Foundation, rural non-profit groups in the Southwest can contact mlkchavezfoundation@gmail.com or go online to www.chavezfoundation.org or www.cecfellowship.org
The Chavez foundation, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, builds or renovates and operates thousands of units of high-quality affordable housing in four states, operates a network of nine Spanish-language educational radio stations in four states reaching 500,000 daily listeners and runs educational tutoring programs for under-served children to boost their academic achievement and promote Cesar Chavez’s legacy through service-learning in California and Arizona. The foundation also created and manages the Visitors Center and Memorial Garden around Chavez’s gravesite, and Villa La Paz, the new 17,000 square foot educational and conferencing center, all within the 187-acre National Chavez Center at La Paz in Keene, Calif.
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