News

Dear Community,

We are pleased to announce that Bree Jones, Imara Jones, and Ewune Ewane were selected as the three recipients for the sixth cycle of the Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship. The three leaders will use their awards to create pathways for community wealth building with people of color; center the brilliance of Black transgender people and their stories; and support the mental health and wellness of racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse communities.  

Our Fellowship Selection Committee — composed of our staff and Board and other experts in the social justice field — received over 200 applications and selected three among a group of 10 exceptionally strong finalists that best advanced NCF’s mission to build a more just, vibrant, sustainable, and democratic society. Each Fellow will receive up to $150,000 to turn their ideas into meaningful action. As part of the program, they will also receive hands-on training, resources, and leadership development to scale the impact of their work. 
 
Together, the 2021 Fellows will engage in groundbreaking work that supports their respective communities to thrive for the long-term. 
 
Bree Jones founded Parity in March 2018 to increase affordable housing opportunities with communities in West Baltimore who have historically faced housing discrimination and environmental racism. Parity buys vacant and distressed properties, revitalizes them using green building practices, and creates pathways for communities to purchase homes at an affordable rate. Through Parity, individuals can pool their resources with their peers — friends, family, colleagues, members of their congregation — to buy homes together on a block-by-block basis. “I started Parity in response to the gentrification and displacement I witnessed in my own hometown,” says Jones. “So much of this work is about the reclamation of power and agency for Black communities, especially as it pertains to land and place. We’re ensuring people who have been historically disinvested of wealth are able to participate in and benefit from reinvestment into their communities, through ownership and equity creation.”  – Bree Jones
 
Imara Jones is an award-winning journalist and creator of TransLash, a journalism and narrative change project that centers the voices, perspectives, and solutions of Black trans people. It promotes inclusion and acceptance by embedding new perspectives of Black trans people into public consciousness. “We are righting our nation’s history by including Black trans people in the discourse about racial and gender equality and the reimagination of the world we want to create. We tell trans stories to save trans lives,” says Jones.
 
Ewune Ewane is the founder of Minds Over Melanin, an online community mental health platform. Building on her ten-year career in psychology, Ewane aims to transform psychology to provide effective, culturally competent care to restore justice within Black, Indigenous, and communities of color medically traumatized and marginalized by systemic racism and cultural bias in psychological diagnosis, treatment, and education. “The purpose of this work is to see those who are unseen and to hear those who are unheard. With listening, learning, and professional humility we can address racism and discrimination experienced in psychological treatment,” says Ewane. “Through the efforts of Minds Over Melanin, we are fostering the development of safe spaces for Black, Indigenous, and people of color to process their emotional and mental experiences and heal without harm.”  
 
Click here to learn more about the work of this year’s Fellows and finalists. 
 

Warmly,  

The NCF Fellowship Team 

Rachel Fagiano, Associate Program Officer
Jennifer Kaizer, Program Manager