The California Wellness Foundation has announced $9.9 million in fourth-quarter grants and $7 million in impact investments to advance racial and environmental justice and health equity in California.

The foundation awarded 46 grants across its four Advancing Wellness portfolios, focusing on a wide range of issues including civic engagement in LGBTQ communities, power building in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) communities, and environmental justice organizing in low-income, immigrant communities in the state. Impact investments were awarded to the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and Community Investment Guarantee Pool, which will fast-track affordable housing and community development projects in traditionally underinvested communities. Other grant recipients include the Transgender Law Center, which will fund education, advocacy, and narrative change work, and the San Diego LGBT Community Center and TransLatin@ Coalition which will strengthen their organizing and community engagement efforts and build coalitions to influence public policy locally and statewide.

“We are energized by today’s BIPOC-led, multiracial, multi-generational protests calling for racial and social justice” said Cal Wellness vice president of programs Lori A. Cox “Dismantling racism and anti-Blackness requires that organizations led by people of color have what they need to be healthy and sustainable. And it requires movement building that brings together diverse organizations for coordinated and unified multiracial coalitions demanding social justice. Our grants are addressing both of these strategies.” 

For a complete list of grantees, see the Cal Wellness website.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/rez art)