Aliento is awarded $100K Boulder Fund Grant by EdLoc
For Immediate Release: February 1, 2022
Contact:
Diego Lozano | diego@alientoaz.org | 602-697-4531
Reyna Montoya | reyna@alientoaz.org | 480-430-9025
Aliento is awarded $100K for Groundbreaking Work to Support Successful Communities of Color
The Boulder Fund supports and nurtures innovations by leaders of color
Phoenix, AZ — Today, Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) announced that Reyna Montoya, CEO & Founder, Aliento Education Fund and Stephanie Parra, Executive Director, Arizona Latino Leaders In Education (ALL In Education) are among two of twelve Boulder Fund grantees this year. The Boulder Fund is EdLoC’s multi-million dollar grant program created to support initiatives developed by leaders of color, which are focused on improving life outcomes for children of color across the country.
Reyna Montaya won a six-figure award for envisioning and facilitating a community that nurtures human potential undefined by immigration status. Her organization, Aliento, transforms trauma into hope and action with undocumented, DACA, and mixed-immigration-status families through arts and education programming. Directly impacted youth lead Aliento, working with allies invested in the well-being, leadership development, and healing of those affected by the inequities of lacking an immigration status.
Stephanie Parra won a six-figure award for seeking to address the systemic gaps in representation and opportunity that exist in the education system. To advance the work, her organization, ALL In Education, will cultivate and develop the next generation of Latinos and leaders of color in education ready to lead transformational change across school systems.
Sharhonda Bossier, EdLoC CEO, said “We are thrilled to help further the extraordinary innovations people of color are creating to ensure that children of color can build the bright futures they deserve. We created the Boulder Fund because leaders of color historically have had less access to the funding and social capital they need to grow the impact of their ventures at the most critical junctures of development. EdLoC’s vision is to foster the day when young people of color are thriving, building generational wealth, and facing fewer systemic barriers to capitalize on opportunities. We believe this is only possible if leaders of color are fully supported to implement their own solutions to the socio-economic challenges their communities face. “
Boulder Fund grants are awarded for a one-year period, in increments of at least $100,000. Projects are chosen for their holistic and cross-sector approaches in recognition that a focus on education alone limits the potential for children of color to build generational wealth. Previous grantees have focused on immigrant advocacy, teacher recruitment, youth advocacy for LGBTQ students of color, curriculum development, housing, health, and criminal justice. Since 2018, EdLoC has committed $4.1 million in grants and funded 32 organizations across the country.
About Aliento:
Aliento is a non-profit organization that is undocumented, DACA and youth-led. We are directly impacted people who are invested in the well being, emotional healing, and leadership development of those impacted by the inequalities of lacking an immigration status.
About EdLoC:
Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) is a community of over 600 leaders of color working toward the day when young people of color are thriving, building generational wealth, and facing fewer systemic barriers to capitalize on opportunities. EdLoC aims to catalyze cross-sector collaboration through a network of values-aligned leaders, help drive policy change, and directly support senior leaders of color who are focused on dismantling systemic barriers to the academic and economic advancement and success of young people of color. To learn more about the Boulder Fund, please visit www.edloc.org.