Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a nonprofit for interfaith cooperation, is giving out about $200,000 to faculty and staff to fund projects at the intersection of racial justice and interfaith work on their campuses.
The organization will accept new applications through March 1, 2021.
The awards are a part of the We Are Each Other’s campaign, an outgrowth of Black Lives Matter protests this past summer.
“We were really thinking a lot about how do we respond to this moment of dual crisis, with COVID-19, with the renewed conversation around racial justice that was happening around the country,” said Jenan Mohajir, IFYC’s senior director of leadership.
She and others have been brainstorming where the organization’s expertise in interfaith leadership fit in.
Amid an economic downturn, she sees the funding as an opportunity to jumpstart initiatives that might not otherwise happen right now. The organization is offering $1,000 Racial Equity and Interfaith Cooperation Awards for campuses working at the intersection of racial justice and interfaith collaboration and $500 Educator Curriculum Awards for faculty crafting curriculums around these issues or using IFYC’s new online curriculums for interfaith leaders. As a part of the campaign, one of the curriculums is focused on interfaith cooperation and civil rights, exploring the historic ties between faith communities and the Civil Rights Movement.
To Mohajir, racial equity is a crucial part of interfaith work.
