LA Incubator

Amount:: $230,000
Year:: 2022
Field of Interest:: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Program Name:: LA Incubator
Grant Type:: Cutting Edge
Grant Website: Visit their site >

ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION

Founded in 2017, the Jews of Color Initiative’s (JoCI) mission is to advance racial equity in the United States Jewish community by centering the leadership of Jews of Color (JoC), and ensuring that Jewish communities and institutions reflect the multiracial reality of the Jewish people. Its three primary activities include grantmaking, research, and community education. In addition to completing a groundbreaking research study, Counting Inconsistencies, which found that Jews of Color comprise a minimum of 12-15% of the Jewish community in the U.S., JoCI also operates the only grantmaking portfolio solely dedicated to Jews of Color in the U.S.

GRANT PURPOSE

To launch the LA Incubator, a 16-month cohort-based leadership development program designed to support the growth of Jews of Color-led and Jews of Color-serving projects or programs in LA. The program seeks to create a more multiracial, multiethnic, and inclusive LA Jewish life; and innovate how the Jewish communal landscape supports the leadership growth and professional development of Jews of Color.

With gratitude for The Foundation’s generous support, the Jews of Color Initiative (JoCI) is eager to launch a Project Incubator serving Jews of Color (JoC’s) and the broader Jewish communal ecosystem of Los Angeles. Building on a proven model in New York, the JoCI Incubator simultaneously centers the unique intersectional identities and needs of JoC leaders, cultivates each participant’s potential as a changemaker, invites the network development and learning opportunities of a larger JoC leadership cohort, and vitalizes the visions and impact of JoC-led and JoC-serving projects in the Los Angeles area. We are thrilled to experience how this leadership cultivation and project incubation will empower LA’s multiracial Jewish life.

Ilana Kaufman and Arya Marvazy
Executive Director and Senior Director of Programs, Jews of Color Initiative