Tiverton Organizations Awarded $60,000 Grants For Racial Equity

TIVERTON, RI — Two Tiverton nonprofits were awarded a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation as part of a program to build capacity at organizations led by people of color. Movement Ground Farm and Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust will each receive $60,000 over two years.

Movement Ground Farm, a 10-acre farm off Puncatest Neck Road, gives people of color an opportunity to grow vegetables, fruit and meat birds for their own use and to sell, in a community effort.

Kohei Ishihara, the farm's executive director, said the grant was "just what we needed — a flexible and unrestricted source of income to meet us in this dynamic moment of growth."

"In order to straddle giant leaps forward in organizational growth and expansion of critical farm infrastructure, we are looking inward to build the leadership capacity to carry out the work," Ishihara said. "We will use the grant to build sustainable, perennial, BIPOC-leadership in our farm organization by developing a cooperative model of leadership and commit to practices that invest equitably in the organization, the land, and its workers."

Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust, meanwhile, will use their grant money for fund development and programming teams. Founded in 2017, the organization was created protect tribal lands in Tiverton during the construction of the Twin River Casino.

"This grant is important to our tribal organization on multiple levels," said Chief George Spring Buffalo, who founded the organization and serves as its CEO. "First, the funds will allow us to build our small funding and programming teams, increasing our overall capacity to serve our people. Second, the two years of training provided by the Foundation will help us in growing our tribal organization. Third, we look forward to connecting and collaborating with the impressive group of nonprofits in the cohort."

The higher capacity will allow the organization to offer more services to the community, he continued.

In total, the Foundation awarded $660,000 worth of grants to 11 organizations in Rhode Island. The other awardees were Sankofa Community Connection in Newport, Mixed Magic Theatre and Cultural Events in Pawtucket, Movement Education Outdoors in Woonsocket and A Leadership Journey, Reentry Campus Program, Sunrise Forever, Women's Refugee Care, Mount Hope Community Center, and Youth in Action, all in Providence.

"Structural racism is a growth barrier to many organizations," said Angie Ankoma, the executive director of the Rhode Island Foundation's Equity Leadership Initiative. "Our grants give them the resources necessary to break the 'starvation cycle' that limits their ability to maintain or grow their programs."