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Date: 3/21/2023
HOLYOKE – Local nonprofits and individuals are once again being invited to apply for the latest round of grants available through the Carlos Vega Fund for Social Justice.
2023 marks the 12th year of the Carlos Vega Fund for Social Justice mini grants and the 10-year anniversary of Vega’s passing. Applications became available on March 13 and must be received by April 10 through the organization’s online application form at www.carlosvegafund.org.
In addition to the latest grant cycle, the Carlos Vega Fund advisory board is looking to the fall of this year to name their eighth Carlos Vega Social Justice Award. The award honors outstanding people who, like Carlos, embody a commitment to working on the front lines and making the greater Holyoke community a better place for everyone.
For more than 40 years, Carlos Vega fought for social justice in the greater Holyoke area. In 2010, a small group of family and friends started the fund to support the kind of social justice initiatives that were important to Carlos. Holyoke Director of Planning and Economic Development Aaron Vega, son of Carlos, continues to help make these grant cycles a reality for initiatives in the community.
“These grants are really focused on those smaller initiatives that organizations and individuals are doing. Sometimes there’s just not that flexible fund to just get out there and do something quick and we try to make it really accessible and try to make that process easy so that impacts can be had,” Aaron noted.
He added in doing this, the fund recognizes the work of his father and helps to continue it through the different things the awarded organizations do day-to-day and are assisted with through the funding.
The Carlos Vega Fund for Social Justice awards small grants typically ranging from $250 to $1,000, to individuals and nonprofit groups for a specific, one-time program or project that focuses on the fundamental primary causes of injustice, fosters change and promotes self-help and empowerment.
The purpose of the grants is to support the efforts of those who are addressing issues of poverty and oppression and involve people who are socially and economically marginalized in Hampden County.
The fund has assisted a wide variety of organizations and projects over the years since its inception in 2012. Some of the projects include the purchase of educational materials for migrants and refugees learning English at The Gray House in Springfield, the creation of a Puerto Rican and Latinx History, Culture and Social Movements collection at the Holyoke Public Library and Holyoke Safe Neighborhood Initiative’s Back to School event, which provides backpacks and school supplies to Holyoke youth.
The fund has also awarded mini grants to Girls Inc. of the Valley for summer programs, supported a community garden remodeling project for Nuestras Raices and assisted in funding for Granby-To-Go, a food pantry for students in the Granby Public Schools. Many other organizations have been able to receive a mini grant through the fund that have used to support them in their work.
The Carlos Vega Fund for Social Justice is administered through the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and is overseen by an advisory committee. Since 2012, the Fund has awarded over $63,000 to 52 organizations in the greater Holyoke area.
Aaron added his father worked fighting for social justice, civic engagement, fighting for equity – things that are now at the forefront of many American’s views, Carlos did over the course of four decades.
“So, I think keeping that legacy alive is important because people that are doing the work today out there fighting for equity, fighting for social justice, tenant’s rights, are trying to get people engaged in civic process and get them registered to vote, and he was doing all that work for so long,” Aaron said. “I think it’s important for new people who are doing social justice work to recognize there’s a lineage and a legacy behind that work.”
The deadline for applications is April 10 and award grant funding is expected by May 12. Grantees are expected to participate in the awards ceremony. For further information and/or to obtain an application, you can visit the Carlos Vega Fund for Social Justice website at http://www.carlosvegafund.org or contact Aaron Vega at carlosvegafund.413@gmail.com.