June is Immigrant Heritage Month and today is World Refugee Day.

Despite the grim state of American immigration policy, Scattergood Foundation has given local advocates something to celebrate: the announcement of the recipients of its first-ever Community Fund for Immigrant Wellness grant cycle.

The $212,500 pooled fund supports health and wellness programs for immigrant and refugee communities in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The grantmaking process is also in the hands of those communities: Service providers — professionals whose work is most likely to be affected by the grants — decided which organizations would be funded.

The inaugural grantmaking group included reps from nine community-based, immigrant-serving nonprofits: African Cultural Alliance of North America, African Family Health Organization (AFAHO), HIAS PA, La Puerta Abierta, Nationalities Service Center, Puentes de Salud, Mural Arts program Southeast by Southeast, SEAMAAC and Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians.

(Courtesy image)

This grassroots style of grantmaking reminds of similar funding practices at Impact100 Philadelphia, which provides general operating support in a shift toward trust-based grantmaking, and Bread & Roses Community Fund, which invites input on grantmaking decisions from the communities receiving funding.

“Too often funders create their priorities after an internal process that might not include any representation from those they aim to support,” said Oni Richards-Waritay, executive director of AFAHO and a member of the Community Fund granting group, in a press release. “This process has proven the importance of ensuring that funding is driven by real needs within the community in order to be effective.”

The Community Fund for Immigrant Wellness’ financial supporters included Scattergood Foundation, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, Patricia Kind Family Foundation, The Claneil Foundation and giving circle New Collossus Donors, with facilitation by Scattergood.

2018 issue area #2: Immigration. Our donations will add to the $200,000 Community Fund for Immigrant Wellness @ScattergoodFdn to support positive health in the immigrant and refugee communities. We love that service providers will decide the grant awards. Great potential!

— New Colossus Donors (@NewColossusDnrs) March 14, 2018

“The immigrant and refugee communities are integral to the cultural diversity and economic prosperity of our region,” said Scattergood President Joe Pyle in a press release. “Yet they often face unique and complex barriers to being well. Our approach of working directly with community-based providers to administer these grant dollars will help to bring culturally competent programs and services that will improve overall health and wellbeing.”

Apps were open from Feb. 12 through March 29 and reviewed from April 2 through May 21 of this year. Grantees were announced publicly on June 8 and celebrated with a kickoff event on June 19.

Here are the grantees and their projects according to grant amount:

Tier One: $5,000 (micro-grants)

• Moder Patshala — General operating support
• Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania — Leadership and wellness
• Free Migration Project — FANZINE: Stories of Families at Berks (Familias Separadas Project)
• Lutheran Settlement House — Bilingual Domestic Violence Program
• Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphia — Korean American Senior Citizen School

Tier Two: $30,000 (programmatic support)

• New Sanctuary Movement — Accompaniment
• Aquinas Center — The Mind, Body, Spirit, and Space Initiative
• ACLAMO — Community Health Connections

Tier Three: $50,000 (support for collaboration)

• SEAMAAC in partnership with Nationalities Services Center and AFAHO — Safe Families Collaborative
• Friends of Farmworkers in partnership with Puentes de Salud— Medical-Legal Partnership