ANDOVER — Andover based non-profit, Merrimack Valley Black and Brown Voices was awarded a $60,000 Cummings Grant this spring.
The organization was founded by three local women who met via a Facebook group in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
“We were on a Facebook mom’s group and somebody had mentioned the killing of George Floyd and talking about the police force and talking about their experience and we chimed in and we’re like ‘That’s not our experience living in this area,” Elizabeth Walther-Grant, executive director and co-founder of Merrimack Valley Black and Brown Voices said.
Walther-Grant said the women decided to meet in person to connect with other Black, Indigenous and people of color in the Merrimack Valley.
“Originally, it was just supposed to be a wine night and just hanging out with people that looked like us, that lived in the area, that knew what it was like to live in the area and it kind of spiraled from there,” Walther-Grant said.
Following their meeting, the women created a Facebook page for BIPOC individuals in the area and a member reached out asking to organize a protest in response to the killings of both George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
In response, a vigil drew nearly 800 attendees and set the stage for the formation of the non-profit.
“It ended up being a really big event, and then people started handing us money. We weren’t quite sure what to do with it and so from there we decided to open a non-profit to see what good we could do and what good we could bring to the community,” Walther-Grant said.
Four years later, the MVBBV has received a grant from the Cummings Foundation to help them continue to accomplish the goals they set back in June 2020.
The grant will supply the organization with $20,000 per year at a crucial time for the organization.
“The grant is really coming at a pivotal time for our organization, just because we’re on the onslaught of not receiving as much funding as we were and support through private donations and what-not throughout the last four years,” Walther-Grant said.
Walther-Grant said funding has dwindled presumably for a number of reasons over recent years, leading to a need for grants such as the one awarded by the Cummings Foundation.
“Just off of people not having as much money, and then I feel like sometimes there is definitely a drop in sort of activism after a certain while, once new things come up and people’s attention heads elsewhere,” Walther-Grant said.
MVBBV’s grant is one of 150 awarded to Merrimack Valley non-profits through the Cummings $30 million grant program.
As Walther-Grant looks forward, she said she hopes the two organizations will have a long partnership.
“I’m excited to see what this grant will do for us for now, and then, in the future, hopefully applying for future Cummings grants and seeing what we are able to do with future money,” Walther-Grant said.