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Foundation Beyond Belief selected the Black Skeptics of Los Angeles’ First in the Family Scholarship Fund to receive a Small Grant last quarter. BSLA shared this report about how the grant will be used to help at-risk youth attend college.

Black Skeptics of Los Angeles’ First in the Family Humanist scholarships will be awarded to four youth from the South Los Angeles area in July 2013.  Homeless, undocumented, foster care and LGBTQ youth are eligible to apply.  These youth are historically underrepresented in the four-year college-going population and face considerable obstacles in college preparation, financial aid, retention and graduation.  According to the Institute for College Access and Success, foster care youth who age out of the system are especially vulnerable to incarceration, homelessness and unplanned pregnancy.  Across the board, students who are the first in their immediate families to go to college and don’t have support systems to build personal confidence and academic readiness are at greater risk of dropping out.  BSLA has partnered with teacher-resource providers like Melanie Andrews, Angela Rodriguez, and Shirley Van der Plas of Washington Prep High School; Debbie Wallace and Diane Schweitzer of Gardena High School; Tabitha Thigpen of King-Drew Medical Magnet; and Marlene Carter of Dorsey High School. It is largely because of the efforts of these unsung teachers, mentors, health providers, and scores like them that homeless, foster care, undocumented, and LGBTQ seniors make it to college.  The BSLA scholarship fund is designed to address high drop-out and low college-going rates in South Los Angeles schools (according to the Los Angeles Unified School District annual “report card,” Washington Prep has a 44% graduation rate and Gardena has a 52% graduation rate, far lower than the district average).

The scholarships will provide under-represented students with funding for books and other supplies, in addition to room, board, transportation expenses, and assorted tuition fees.

The support of secular allies is an important step toward making secular, atheist, and humanist social justice organizing visible in communities of color where there is little to no history of an activist non-believer presence. Foundation Beyond Belief provided a $1,000 grant to the initial fundraiser for these scholarships last quarter.

GlobeMed is our current Poverty and Health Beneficiary, and they are accomplishing glorious things. “Empower students,” says their mission statement—and it’s been happening. The chapter at Colorado College certainly exemplifies that.

With a partnership that just launched this fall, students at the school have paired with the Western Organization of People Living with HIV/AIDS. Leaping right in to the action, some of their members are also currently abroad in Ghana, blogging away. The writing, though, is the least of the action as they visit hospitals, examine infrastructure, and learn, learn, learn.

Say Alyssa and Sarah:

Why, you might ask yourself, do women not have access to a hospital in one of the most developed and westernized countries on the African continent? Good question; I’ve been asking myself the same one all day. Within the Akatsi District, there are almost 200,000 people, and there is one doctor. And he’s a pediatrician. What is causing this? While I’m not expert, I’ve made some assumptions . . .

Read the rest here.

With 50 different chapters on 50 campuses, GlobeMed is engaging more than 1,500 students to partner with organizations across the globe. This isn’t just a partnership in name. GlobeMed chapters on campus connect in a one-to-one model with a single group to support through ideas, funds, projects, and publicity. Connections are long term—more than the length of one leader’s time at the university. How’s that been working, we ask? It’s been working amazingly.

The Center for Inquiry on Campus members at Broward College in Florida are holding a fundraiser for their Light the Night team. To headline the event, the Amazing James Randi is giving a talk called “Faith Healers: Fake Healers.” The event is free (but donations are appreciated), and it takes place on Tuesday, April 17th at 7:00p in Bailey Hall. Get out there and support Broward College CFI and our Light the Night efforts!

First-quarter Challenge the Gap beneficiary Interfaith Youth Core gave us this report about how they are using the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Foundation members donated $2,490 to IFYC last quarter.

When people of diverse religious and nonreligious perspectives collaborate on initiatives that benefit their shared community, positive changes in attitude result. Religious diversity provides America with a great challenge and a great opportunity. Religious communities are a significant repository for social capital, inspiring volunteerism and community service that benefits the broader society. At Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), we work to effectively bridge the social capital between diverse religious communities, including those who are nonreligious, thereby strengthening social cohesion and multiplying positive social capital.

Through the generosity of Foundation Beyond Belief and its membership, IFYC will expand its Better Together Campaign in the coming year. Better Together is an action-oriented campaign designed to mobilize college students across the country to elevate positive, civil discourse on religion and engage one another in service for the benefit of their communities. IFYC-trained student leaders will work with their peers to select a social issue relevant to their campus and surrounding community that engages their shared values. Together they will execute an awareness and service campaign challenging their community to think about what has happened as a result of religious diversity and what could happen if that diversity is consistently engaged in collective initiatives for the common good.

With the contribution from Foundation Beyond Belief and other benefactors, IFYC will double the number of student leaders it trains in the skills of interfaith leadership this year. We also expect to double the number of campuses involved in the Better Together Campaign from 75 campuses to at least 150. In an era of increasing intolerance and incivility, the visionary support of the nation’s leading human secularist foundation sends the clear and inspiring message that in America, we are truly better together.

Thank you for your generous support.

Warm regards,
Richard Van Hees
Vice President of Development
Interfaith Youth Core

Learn more about the Foundation’s Challenge the Gap program