Over the past few years, the trustees of the Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation has focused on implementing internal processes and grantmaking practices that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
As a part of this work, the trustees announced an initiative aimed at recognizing and rewarding a limited number of grantee organizations whose board, staff management, and program staff are reflective of the communities they serve and that have made significant progress in implementing DEI practices.
One of those organizations is the East Boston Ecumenical Community Council (EBECC), which recently received a $15,000 grant in connection with the foundation’s DEI initiative.
“We understand that DEI work is often overlooked and under-resourced and organizations led by people of color often face additional systematic challenges,” said the Trustees in a statement. “This initiative is intended to send a clear message to the EBCC, its staff, and its board, as well as to the general public, that we support its efforts to serve the community and that there is real value in organizational leadership which reflects the communities served. EBECC’s CEO Frank Ramirez’s leadership is recognized and appreciated”
This week Ramirez said the EBECC will use the grant money as flexible funding for general operation and specific capacity-building efforts to deepen its internal DEI initiatives while providing additional educational and leadership training opportunities.
“We are very grateful to the Trustees and leadership of the Anna Stearns Charitable Foundation because Diversity and Inclusion are integral to our ability to deliver services to a culturally diverse community while being creative and effective,” said Ramirez. “Our diverse constituency brings us a wider view of life, opening the door to new approaches and new and innovative solutions to social and health problems. As a team, we have achieved a tremendous amount of work this year, continuing to serve more than 5,000 immigrants and staying fiscally viable sets out our achievements as well as our goals. As we further include diversity and inclusion into the fabric of our programs, I am greatly encouraged by the participation of everyone on our team in achieving our goals—for the coming year and well into the future.”
Ramirez said the pandemic has affected the education system in dramatic ways as well with schools, colleges, and universities closed to control the spread of the virus. This brought difficulties for students, teachers, and parents.
“At EBCC embracing distance learning and digital technology was a solution to continue our educational program going under the pandemic,” he said. “EBCC designed strategies to recover lost learning by launching distance learning practices and reaching students who were most at risk and, now providing support to students as schools reopened.”
Founded in 1978, EBECC is a multi-service agency that works with more than 5,000 immigrants each year. The agency provides English as Second Language (ESL), immigration, social work, housing, youth services and also undertakes community organizing efforts related to immigration and immigrant rights issues.