The OKC Black Justice Fund sought to advance racial equity and justice in Oklahoma City. 

Alpha Boys Institute: Founded in 2013 by the Beta Eta Lambda Scholarship Foundation of Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Boys Institute is designed to change the plight of at-risk middle school boys by teaching them life skills and introducing them to a variety of career and trade opportunities. Male students at F.D. Moon Middle School and Millwood Middle School participate in the program, which aims to reduce the dropout rate, reduce juvenile crime involvement, and improve the education mindset for participants.

Award: $5,000

Frederick A. Douglass Academy of Law and Public Safety: The Frederick A. Douglass Academy of Law & Public Safety serves as an academic and career-placement program that exposes high school students to the diverse aspects of law, public safety, criminal justice/corrections, and government education and professions. Funding will support the continuation of the mock trial program, internship opportunities, participation in law leadership programs and conferences, and partnerships with local leaders in law and public safety fields. The program aims to improve relationships between its students and law enforcement, increase the number of students transitioning to criminal justice professions, and increase scholarships and enrollment at colleges and universities with criminal justice programs.

Award: $6,500

External Award*: $18,000

Hope for Generations: Hope for Generations has been serving the Lyrewood Community, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Northwest Oklahoma City, since April of 2014. Hope for Generations runs two mentorship programs – one for elementary students and one for teenagers – and they support single mothers in their community through a support network. The programs seek to build community leaders, break negative family cycles, and increase high school graduation rates and post-secondary education and trade participation. Funding supports a program coordinator to expand the mentorship program for elementary students.

Award: $20,000

Small Minority-Owned Business Viability Project: The OKC Black Chamber of Commerce (OKCBCC) will provide a six-week training series to help prepare new and existing businesses to strengthen their financial operations so that they may not only prosper, but also become eligible for small business loans and grants. COVID-19 exposed, through the availability of PPP loans from the federal government, that a pocket of minority-owned businesses were not eligible for much needed help and relief due to their lack of financial requirements. OKCBCC will help prepare these businesses for future financing opportunities through training on budgeting, tax responsibility and tax structure, payroll and savings, insurance requirements and needs, and liabilities and assets.

Award: $7,500

Oklahoma City Police Department FACT Unit: The Family Awareness and Community Teamwork (FACT) Unit is a youth outreach program of the Oklahoma City Police Department that targets youth ages 10-17. The program works to help them fight the pressure of gangs, decrease involvement in juvenile delinquency, and improve the general relations between minority youth and police, while inspiring good character and citizenship. This grant will be used to expand current programming through the recruitment of new volunteers, for various computers and software needed to produce and manage a new social media campaign, and to improve retreats for youth in the program.

Award: $12,500

External Award*: $37,500

Inclusive Small Business Growth and Recovery for Underrepresented Businesses: Progress OKC supports and revitalizes Oklahoma City communities that have experienced significant disinvestment. This grant will support the fees associated with Progress OKC becoming a Kiva Hub. Kiva is a national program that provides 0% interest loans between $1 and $10,000 that are designed to create access to opportunity for the most excluded entrepreneurs. As a Kiva Hub, Progress OKC will help facilitate affordable, risk-tolerant microloans to entrepreneurs in Oklahoma City that are currently underserved by traditional banks and even mission-driven nonprofit lenders.

Award: $15,000

Daily Affirmations for Young Girls of Color: The purpose of She’s a BOSSE: Leadership and Etiquette Cliniques is to help young ladies recognize proper traits and behaviors that reflect a budding woman of intelligence, grace, and self-love. This grant will support a program for girls ages 8-12 at elementary schools in Northeast Oklahoma City, during which each girl will receive a coloring book that promotes literacy, self-efficacy, and self-confidence.

Award: $2,500

The Virtual Scholarship Program – Making Money Moves IN & BEFORE College: Speaks 4 You, Inc. was created in 2017 as an organization that specializes in tailoring speaking, presentations, seminars, and workshops alike to the audience for which is being targeted. The Making Money Moves IN & BEFORE College program was founded to teach all students about scholarship opportunities, and specifically focuses on those that identify as minorities, live in low-income households, and attend poorly funded schools. Program attendees learn how to search, identify, apply, obtain, and maintain scholarships for their college education. This grant will be used to acquire software and hardware for students in Oklahoma City to use to learn about scholarships.

Award: $3,500

Highlighting Expungement and Rehabilitative Excellence (HERE): The Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City, Inc. (ULOKC) has promoted and championed equity and equality for African Americans, other minorities, and the poor in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area for over 73 years. This grant supports ULOKC’s efforts to bring greater access to Black and Brown communities through tools to seal their records and connect them to the greater workforce and housing solutions. This effort will include an annual expungement fair that is open to the public and aims to help individuals who want to explore having their records sealed if their arrest did not end in a conviction or if they have completed their sentence and are eligible.

Award: $33,000