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Press Release

Women’s Foundation Awards $205,000 in Grants for the WFMN Fund for Safety

(April 8, Minneapolis) — The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFMN) has awarded eight grants totaling $205,000 to nonprofit organizations and the City of Minneapolis through its Fund for Safety. WFMN’s Fund for Safety resources innovation to end gender-based violence, a continuum that includes sex trafficking, domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. The Fund for Safety continues and expands upon the investments made through the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota’s MN Girls Are Not For Sale campaign.

In partnership with community leaders, WFMN follows an ethos of listening and responding to community concerns to drive strategic, cross-sector plans and create collective impact. As WFMN transforms from a catalytic leader with MN Girls Are Not For Sale to supporting partner, we continue to expand our strategic focus on safety and work with communities to end gender-based violence. WFMN is investing in the organizations, leaders, and the movement to create a Minnesota where women and girls are free from every form of violence and can experience their homes, schools, and communities as safe places.

Grantee-Partners:

Asian Women United Minnesota (AWUMN) (St. Paul) | $25,000 —To build organizational capacity as AWUMN evolves services during the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting their programming to spread awareness about the dynamics of domestic violence with a specific focus on the Asian immigrant and refugee experience. Asian Women United Minnesota is a leader in eliminating domestic violence in Asian and Pacific Islander communities through harnessing the strengths that are indigenous to Asian communities and sharing best practices with other community-based organizations.

Casa de Esperanza (St. Paul) | $25,000 — To support Casa de Esperanza’s Fuerza Unida Amig@s program and to continue adapting and evolving community-based work through a mix of virtual adult and youth programs, and engaging in community learning through topical podcasts, webinars, and community connection drop-in calls. Casa de Esperanza mobilizes Latinas and Latin@ communities to end domestic violence.

City of Minneapolis (Minneapolis) | $5,000 — To sponsor the seventh annual Trans Equity Summit for trans and gender nonconforming community members to connect to resources and each other, and for potential allies to learn more about issues impacting the trans/GNC community and how to integrate community visions through an equity lens.

Liberty Community Church, PCUSA (Minneapolis) | $25,000 — To serve participants of the Northside Healing Space by providing programming and tools through a culturally relevant and strengths-based approach. Liberty practices radical hope through the healing of racialized trauma, academic excellence, artistic expression, and innovative activism.

Men As Peacemakers (Duluth) | $25,000 — To support MAP’s programs to end gender-based violence through their Don’t Buy it Project, Girls Restorative Program, and Youth Restorative Justice programs. Men As Peacemakers helps Native girls and girls of color navigate an environment where sexual violence and exploitation has become normal.

Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition (Minneapolis) | $25,000 — To implement a Survivor Advisory Board and to conduct 100 culturally respectful interviews with survivors of sex trafficking via Zoom. Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition builds resources to create awareness of and eliminate sexual violence against Indian women and children.

Phumulani Minnesota African Women Against Violence (St. Paul) | $10,000 —To increase accessibility to Phumulani’s cultural tea ceremonies for African Immigrant women survivors of violence and to engage in a language-accessible sexual violence prevention campaign for all African languages that are represented in Minnesota. Phumulani provides culturally specific resources to women and girls of African descent to change the cycle of gender-based abuse in vulnerable populations.

Rainbow Research (Minneapolis) | $10,000 –To convene a group of sex trafficking survivor-consultants and facilitators to make recommendations for the City of Minneapolis to improve the lives of survivors of sexual exploitation in Minneapolis, in partnership with the senior advisor for human trafficking at the City of Minneapolis. Rainbow Research engages in participatory, systems-oriented research and evaluation with a consistent focus on social justice.

The Link (Minneapolis) | $50,000 — To reinforce the leadership capacity of women of color and/or LGBTQ+ women while building internal capacity of the organization and leadership to be more effective leaders in the anti-trafficking field. The Link works with youth and families to overcome the impacts of poverty and injustice.

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