Community Foundation of San Joaquin Awards $83,000 in Grants to Support Arts, Food Security, Health & Racial Justice
Contact
Moses Zapien, CEO/President
Community Foundation of San Joaquin
(209) 943-2375, mzapien@cfosj.org
Stockton—The Community Foundation of San Joaquin announced $83,000 in grants from its Sozosei Foundation Community Fund grants program to support 10 nonprofits doing COVID-19 recovery work around the arts, food security, health and well-being, and racial justice. Nonprofits receiving grant funding will provide services and programs to individuals and families in San Joaquin County.
Grants were awarded to support projects such as a music-arts computer lab, after school art instruction, to provide meals to food insecure families, shelter for the homeless, support for children experiencing homelessness, tackling historic inequities and racial injustice that exacerbate climate change and other environmental risks in communities of color, and to provide economic empowerment and financial literacy training to minority entrepreneurs working to establish a business and for families learning how to budget.
“While the Sozosei Foundation’s primary focus is to eliminate the use of jail and prisons for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, we are also proud to support efforts that build resilient, healthy, and vibrant communities in the 50-mile radius of OAPI’s offices in the United States,” said Chair of the Sozosei Foundation Board, William H. Carson, MD.
“The [Sozosei] Foundation is excited to partner with the Community Foundation of San Joaquin. Working with the Community Foundation allows us to leverage their knowledge of community-based and grass-roots organizations to fund critical, local organizations who are working to foster well-being and resiliency in [and around] Stockton.”
The Sozosei Foundation Community Fund was established at the Community Foundation of San Joaquin in 2021 to support community-based initiatives that serve under-resourced and marginalized local communities in Stockton, Tracy, Lathrop or Manteca, which promote the arts, food security, health and well-being, racial justice, and social and legal services.
“As COVID-19 continues to impact everyone in our community, it’s the role of the Community Foundation to look for partnership opportunities within and outside our region to bring desperately needed funding to the most under-resourced needs in our community. This partnership with the Sozosei Foundation is a wonderful example of our two organizations working together towards those ends,” said Moses Zapien, CEO of the Community Foundation of San Joaquin.
Grants were made to the following organizations:
Out of the Box Music Arts
To assist with the opening of a music-arts computer lab with free access to musicmaking technologies and graphic art design.
Mexican Heritage Center & Gallery
To provide a free after school art instruction program for students in grades 3 to 8 at Martin Luther King Elementary School.
Hope Circle, Inc.
To support a grocery delivery program to the Asian-Pacific Islander community and other minority groups, specifically focused on the elderly and survivors of domestic violence.
Mims Corner
To provide 50 tents to the homeless in downtown Stockton and feed the homeless twice a month through the end of the year.
Stockton Meal Project
To provide approximately 475 chef-prepared nutritious meals to food insecure individuals in Stockton, while supporting the local restaurant community.
Healings in Motion, Inc.
To expand outreach programs targeting African Americans and other ethnic groups who are at high-risk of suffering strokes.
Ray OF Hope Children’s Crisis Services
To provide food, backpacks, school supplies, clothes, hygiene products, and more for children experiencing homelessness.
New Genesis Housing Development
To support a comprehensive economic empowerment and entrepreneurship development program that connects underserved individuals with entrepreneurship and financial literacy training as they work to establish a business in San Joaquin County.
Equity Alliance Group, Inc. and NAACP Stockton Branch
To develop local plans that tackle historic inequities and racial injustice that exacerbate climate change and other environmental risks in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, and support for programs that provide pathways to living-wage jobs in clean energy and other fields.
Stockton Impact Corps
To expand financial education programs to teach families how to budget, be financially literate, save, and provide access to 0% interest personal loans.
For more information about the Community Foundation and the Sozosei Foundation
Community Fund, visit www.sanjoaquincf.org.
About the Sozosei Foundation
The Sozosei Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OPAI). The Foundation’s primary focus is to eliminate the use of jail and prisons for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. The Foundation also engages in disaster relief in places where Otsuka has a presence globally, and supports efforts to build resilient, healthy, and vibrant communities in a 50-mile radius of OAPI’s offices in the United States.
About the Community Foundation of San Joaquin
The Community Foundation of San Joaquin (CFOSJ) partners with donors to advance the public good through philanthropy. CFOSJ is committed to building a healthy and prosperous community where all can thrive by promoting equity and supporting community connectivity. CFOSJ is one of the largest public charities based in San Joaquin County, stewarding more than $23 million in philanthropic assets. In 2020, CFOSJ granted out more than $2.9 million to mostly local nonprofits to support a range of community needs. For more information, visit www.sanjoaquincf.org