A group of (SPP) students recently volunteered with the Pioneer Valley Community Advised Fund, a new initiative of the nonprofit Peace Development Fund that supports local grassroots projects focused on social justice.
CD Lefebvre, Sophia Neirman and Berlyann Rivera, all SPP graduate students, served on a committee that advised the Peace Development Fund on the awarding of the grants. The students reviewed grant applications, interviewed finalists, then reached consensus on which applicants to recommend for funding to the organization鈥檚 Board of Directors, which officially approved the selections.
In April, the fund announced the recipients: Wellspring Cooperative, a Springfield-based collaborative of worker-owned, community-based companies; Greenfield鈥檚 Great Falls Books Through Bars, which provides reading materials and other resources to people in prison; and the Pa鈥檒ante Restorative Justice Program, which works with students in the Holyoke public schools.
This was the first round of grants from the Pioneer Valley Community Advised Fund, which the Peace Development Fund launched last fall. 鈥淲e see this as an opportunity for us to make sure that our grantmaking is connected to the community,鈥 said Emily Serafy-Cox, foundation officer at the Peace Development Fund. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just staff or board members making decisions. Members of the local community are involved in the process as well.鈥
鈥淏y volunteering with the Peace Development Fund, these students were able to learn more about the local community and to contribute to its well-being through their philanthropic choices,鈥 said School of Public Policy Professor Betsy Schmidt, who has invited representatives of the fund to speak to students in her courses on nonprofits and social enterprises. 鈥淚 hope they were also able to apply what they learned in the SPP classroom and to gain confidence in their ability to improve any community they live and work in once they graduate.鈥