With 133 requests from cities, schools and nonprofits, The Saint Paul Foundation has approved seven Advancing Racial Equity grants in honor of its 75th anniversary. Genesys Works is proud to receive one of these seven grants.

Applicants were asked to answer the question, “What will your organization do to advance racial equity in St. Paul or the East Metro?”

“These grants are representative of what I see as the emergence of a wide-spread yearning for honest self-expression,” explained Dr. Eric Jolly, president and CEO of Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, of which The Saint Paul Foundation is an affiliate. “How do we help people have honest self-expression when in doing so they do not have fair and equal access to our social institutions? Grants like these can help open their access.”

Organizations whose racial equity work is being funded by The Saint Paul Foundation’s 75th Anniversary Advancing Racial Equity grant program include Ujamaa Place and Better Futures, Saint Paul Youth Services (SPYS), Penumbra Theatre Company, New Star Aviation, Genesys Works Twin Cities, Dream of Wild Health and the city of Maplewood.

Genesys Works – Twin Cities, a nonprofit that provides economically disadvantaged high school students training and work experience to help them succeed as professionals, was awarded $25,000 for College and Career Success for Disadvantaged Youth. The project offers students eight weeks of skills training and places them in paid corporate internships in technology-related positions. It also includes trainings for workplace supervisors, to empower St. Paul companies to welcome students of diverse backgrounds.