City of San Luis Obispo awards $150k to local nonprofits, aiming to narrow equity gaps

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – The City of San Luis Obispo awarded $150,000 to eight local nonprofits, with the aim of narrowing equity gaps in SLO.

The City provided the following press release:

Several nonprofit organizations will receive financial support from the City of San Luis Obispo next year to help narrow equity gaps for underserved and underrepresented communities in SLO.

Last week, the City Council approved Human Relations Commission recommendations to award $150,000 in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion High-Impact Grants to eight local nonprofits for programs that will each contribute to a sense of belonging in San Luis Obispo.

“The San Luis Obispo community continues to embrace diversity, ensure equity, and practice inclusion, and nonprofits are at the forefront of those efforts,” said Nestor Veloz-Passalacqua, the City’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager. “In smaller communities like ours, the impact of every nonprofit and individual is more pronounced. This DEI work will help build bridges between different groups, ultimately fostering a sense of belonging, unity and shared identity in San Luis Obispo.”

The City will award:

• $40,000 to the Diversity Coalition to increase training opportunities designed to diversify Boards of Directors for local nonprofit organizations.
• About $40,000 to San Luis Obispo County UndocuSupport to create 14 multilingual "how to" videos covering 7 important topics for Spanish and Mixteco-speaking immigrants and community members, and with English captioning
• $20,000 to the GALA Pride & Diversity Center for the SLO Queer Cultural Revitalization Project, including 11 events to increase networking opportunities and activities that highlights different aspect of queer culture.
• $16,800 to RACE Matters for four monthly therapy or clinician-led discussion groups to create health equity and wellbeing for diverse community members.
• $10,000 to SLO Hillel to host the engagement and learning opportunities by bringing a speaker under their Jews of Color Speaker Series.
• About $9,500 to SLO Museum of Art to cover 2 exhibits showcasing artists from historically underserved and excluded communities and free public programming for the entire community.
• $8,000 to Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) to increase support for Latino/Latinx/Hispanic and bilingual volunteers and to increase training opportunities for staff and the Board of Directors.
• $6,000 to the History Center of SLO County to increase exhibits and lecture accessibility to Spanish-speaking community members.

The City received 26 applications requesting more than $500,000 in grant funding this year. In September, a subcommittee of the City’s Human Relations Commission reviewed the applications and narrowed a list of organizations recommended for funding. In October, the Human Relations Commission held a public hearing and approved the funding recommendations, which were then passed on to Council. City Council unanimously approved the grant funding as recommended on December 5, 2023. The funds will be distributed early next year. Copies of all grant applications are available for review by contacting the Office of DEI.

For more information on the City’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and policies, visit www.slocity.org/diversity.

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Media Contact: Nestor Veloz-Passalacqua, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Manager, 805.781.7073, nveloz@slocity.org