Harlem Lacrosse Philanthropic Leadership Councils Announce Grant Awards
Harlem Lacrosse believes empowering our students' voices as leaders for change is a critical part of our ongoing efforts to combat systemic racism in our country. Harlem Lacrosse recognized that our students are the experts on the needs and opportunities in their community and created the Philanthropic Leadership Council (PLC) to empower its members to invest in their communities. The PLC empowered our staff to design and execute a curriculum to provide space to learn about philanthropic giving and to define and research assets and needs in their communities. The four-month process included multiple zoom calls, guest speakers, mapping exercises, and presentation practice.
The PLC experience culminated in a final presentation during which the student leaders from every city shared about their learning process, the research they conducted, and ultimately the conclusions they drew that led them to identify one or two organizations working to address inequality to invest in. Each city gave a brief reflection on the transformative impact the PLC had on the students, how each group advocated for their local communities, and how the PLC helped students become agents of change for the betterment of their neighborhoods.
Read on to learn about how each Harlem Lacrosse region decided to invest in their communities.
Baltimore
The voices of our youth are truly the voices of change for our future. The Baltimore PLC brought this full circle as a passionate group of students committed to investing in their own community. The process of identifying the assets and needs within the community painted a full picture of where our students could make an immediate impact. After many discussions, the group concluded the issues that they wanted to address were homelessness and community violence. The broader understanding of how systemic racism and intentionally continued oppression of black and brown folks lit a fire that will continue to burn and motivated leadership within their community. The group invested $3,000 in Bea Gaddy which is an organization that provides meals and emergency shelter to women and children in housing crises. This nonprofit is community-run and the work doesn't get done without the leg work of the community. The students are really excited about getting involved on the grounds of this work. They also invested $3,000 in Baltimore Ceasefire, a grassroots organization that uses the assets of family and black culture to hold community spaces to celebrate life after a community member has been victim to gun violence.
The biggest lesson learned was that any investment in your community will bring the change you want to see. The amount of pride the students have in their community and the vision they have for growth was inspiring to witness, and this experience is just the beginning of the change these groups of students will make in the world.
Boston
The Boston Philanthropic Leadership Council was a passionate group of students who came together to make an impactful investment in their community. After examining the assets and opportunities in the Boston community, the group decided to focus on homelessness and enrichment opportunities for youth. The group then researched organizations making a meaningful impact and decided to give $3,000 to City Mission Boston and One Bead. City Mission exists to serve the most vulnerable with programs that work to prevent homelessness, meet emergency needs, advance social justice, and more. One Bead empowers students with entrepreneurial after-school programming. By meeting local leaders, pitching new ideas, and practicing public speaking, students learn valuable skills like problem-solving, communication, and empathy, all of which empower students to reach their future goals.
With so many worthy causes and organizations, it was challenging to decide on just two organizations and required the PLC members to share their voices and collaborate to come to a consensus. Overall, the experience was rewarding and empowering for the students and they took great pride in being part of the PLC. We look forward to remaining in touch with City Mission and One Bead to see the impact of our investment.
Los Angeles
Having an almost 50/50 African-American and Latino council allowed for some very real perspectives on what is important in their communities, with the overall goal being access for all kids of color to have opportunities for advancement and enrichment. We were joined by and had a great presentation and discussion with LeAnn Kelch of the Goldhirsh Foundation and LA2050 Foundation, which gave the council insight into how larger philanthropic foundations go about finding, intensely researching, and the hard decision of ultimately choosing recipients of grants. This led the council members to find some amazing potential recipients which, after further discussion of what the council’s top priorities were with the grant money, led to the selection of Heart of Los Angeles.
The biggest takeaways from this were the sense of community pride and looking at local issues and lack of opportunities as something to be addressed, not an overall negative aspect of the community. With LA being so expansive, it was great to see the council focus on other youth access programs and want to help others as they have been helped by the work we do at HL. The LA PLC chose a nonprofit organization that we can truly build a long-lasting connection with beyond this donation, and we are excited to continue working with Heart of Los Angeles.
New York
The origins of the PLC can be traced back to an incredible group of students in NYC who, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, called on HL leadership to request an opportunity to support causes that advance social justice, confront systemic racism and positively impact our community. Each participant came to our meetings prepared, having done research and invested time wrestling with the questions that arose from conversations spanning from redlining and the origins of systemic racism to how to define “impact” and where our grant could be most meaningfully invested by an organization. Our PLC also had the opportunity to learn from some of the leading philanthropists in New York City, including program officers from the Hayden Foundation, Altman Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation, and L+M Development Partners, all of who left inspired by our students’ leadership and commitment to being part of the change in our country.
We ended up having to schedule three additional meetings to accommodate all the debate, research and discussion this team invested in the process. It was a proud moment for our team when the student leaders decided to donate their time to one organization and their money to another, truly embodying the spirit of philanthropy as a way of living and our vision of student leadership as contributors to their community. In the words of one of our PLC members, “Being part of something much bigger is a great feeling. We are bigger than I thought.”
Philadelphia
The students who made up the Philadelphia PLC took such pride in being a part of the national Harlem Lacrosse Philanthropic Leadership Council representing their community, Olney in Philadelphia. The group was made up of middle schoolers and high school students who attend over five different schools, and live in different parts of their community, but were excited to be able to pick two local organizations to support. The Olney Pride was evident with this group every week, and they were excited to be able to give back to organizations that are working to make their neighborhoods stronger and safer. The group decided to split the $6,000 grant between two local organizations, The North 5th Street Revitalization Project and the Olney Culture Lab. Both organizations work to strengthen the Olney community by celebrating and supporting the people, businesses, and diversity in the neighborhood. Harlem Lacrosse - Philadelphia is excited to build partnerships with both local non-profit organizations and looks forward to joining forces as soon as possible to make an even greater impact in Olney. We are looking forward to warmer temperatures this spring when our organizations plan to come together in collaboration to strengthen the Olney neighborhood in new ways.
2020 PLC Grantees