Goal of Large Grant is Transformation

Family Freedom Center focusing on Black families receives $500,000 from Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation

There is a hope Wednesday that big ideas combined with big money will produce big results.

Four different organizations are working together to bring change to Black families in the Central Hillside neighborhood.

The Family Freedom Center is receiving $500,000 from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation. The center was founded six years ago with the specific goal of creating a safe and inclusive place for black families.

Many working as staff today first got involved when they needed and used the program.

“The disparities that we face in the black community are permanent and felt by all,” said Jacob Bell, Executive Director of the Family Freedom Center.

“Many within our organization, those who work in our organization as well as those who attend, our families have faced poverty, have faced disparities in health care, discrimination, the isolation, the disparities in our schools. And while this gives us an incredible challenge that we have to face, it also gives us an incredible bond with the families that we serve,” Bell said.

Other organizations involved with the Healthy Hillside Coalition are Zeitgeist, First Ladies of the Hillside, and LISC.

They say the area has long been ignored, and it is time to invest in the area and the people who live there.

Philanthropy groups often use more of a shotgun approach, and the Foundation said it has decided to focus on some key, long-term approaches.

They are focusing on opportunities, resilience and belonging.

“So, what we decided to do is give out larger grants in those three areas and we wanted to do a transformational grant, which is why we’re here,” said Shaun Floerke, President/CEO of the Foundation.

“Family Freedom is our first ever. And what we decided to do is put together $100,000 a year for five years and please do your good work. And people said to me, ‘What do you want to do with that money?’ And I said, I mean, I don’t know. Give it to people that have great ideas, who have great partnership, and who have great potential…These guys are together, they’ve got a bold vision. Nothing’s simple. But it’s leaning into difficult work,” Floerke said.