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Iowa Safe Schools Receives RESIST Grant |
Des Moines, IA - Iowa Safe Schools has just been awarded $2,000 by RESIST, Inc., a national progressive foundation located in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Iowa Safe Schools received funding to educate Iowa's education staff on the issues that affect local LGBT youth and to develop solutions to end discrimination, bullying, and harassment by these students on a daily basis.
"We are very excited to have received this grant from RESIST," said Nate Monson, Executive Director. "Support like this will bring us towards our goal of ending bullying and harassment of LGBT students and those students perceived to be LGBT in Iowa's schools."
RESIST began in 1967 in support of draft resistance and in opposition to the Vietnam War. as the funder of first resort for hundreds of organizations, RESIST's small but timely grants and loans are made to grassroots groups engaged in activist organizing and educational work for social change. RESIST defines organizing as collective action to challenge the status quo, demand changes in policy and practice, and educate communities about root causes and just solutions. RESIST recognizes that there are a variety of stages and strategies that build community, encourage collaborations with other organizations, increase skills and/or access to resources, and produce leadership from the constituency being most directly affected. In fiscal year 2008, RESIST gave $265,000 to 138 organizations across the country.
"Each year, RESIST funds groups like Iowa Safe Schools, because our mission is to support people who take a stand about the issues that matter today, wheather it's to resist corporate globalization, promote a woman's right to choose, or develop activist leaders," says RESIST Board Chair Kay Mathew, "And we believe it's especially important to help grassroots organizations that might be too small or local - or too radical - for mainstream foundations."
About Iowa Safe Schools: Iowa Safe Schools works to improve school climate in order to increase the personal safety, mental health, and student learning of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied (LGBTA) and all other students and to increase awareness and understanding among current and future educators, school administrators, and key community agents of inequities regarding the safety of LGBTA students in schools and communities throughout Iowa. For more information contact Nate Monson at 515-243-1221 or
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