by Elizabeth Hughes, Senior Director of Insight RegionTM
Our region is a great place to raise a child, and now, Insight Region has produced one more data point to prove it.
Our next brief in the Inclusive Prosperity series—Spreading the Wealth —explores economic mobility, the likelihood that a child raised in a lower-income family will make it to the top quintile for income as an adult. The brief relies on data from Opportunity Insights, a think tank of out Harvard that has quantified rates of economic mobility for every census tract in the country. And their data show that of the region’s kids who grew up at or near poverty in the 1990s, approximately one in five achieved economic mobility, the highest rate of any metro area in the country.* Northern Virginia also had the highest rates of mobility among Black and Hispanic children; ten percent of Black children raised here in a lower-income family achieved economic mobility, four times higher than the national average.
Thirty years ago, children growing up in a lower-income family in Northern Virginia enjoyed the highest rate of economic mobility in the country; 19 percent were earning in the top quintile for household income as adults, the highest rate of economic mobility across the 50 most populous metro areas. This near universal “prosperity bump” extended across racial-ethnic groups. If history is any indication, that story will remain unchanged.
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, a trusted leader in philanthropy in the region announced today it has awarded $548,450 in grants through its Community Investment Funds (CIF), Environment Fund, and the Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts to 39 local nonprofit organizations. The Community Foundation conducts several discretionary grant cycles each year that help meet critical needs and seed innovative solutions to complex social problems across the region.
Investments to nurture the emotional health and well-being of the Northern Virginia community
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is committed to investing in nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the emotional health and well-being of all members of the Northern Virginia Community. The following organizations are recipients of annual grants through the Community Investment Funds process, a highly competitive cycle that responds to need throughout the region.
Since 2007, the Community Foundation has awarded more than $940,000 to support mental health across the region.
Support for the needs of adults over the age of 65 in Northern Virginia
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is committed to investing in nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the needs of our aging neighbors. Guided by the Community Foundation’s data-driven reports on Aging in this region, the Community Foundation continues to invest in organizations that help the growing number of older adults age in place. The following organizations are recipients of annual grants through the Community Investment Funds process, a highly competitive cycle that responds to need throughout the region.
People of color have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic but remain hesitant when it comes to taking the COVID-19 vaccine. A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds African Americans and Latinos in the U.S. are less likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine than any other racial or ethnic group.
Efforts are underway to educate both communities across the nation and locally about vaccine safety. Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS), a Community Foundation for Northern Virginia COVID-19 Response Fund grantee will host a series of town hall meetings beginning Wednesday, May 12, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. for organizations, local businesses, clients, and citizens in an effort to clear up misinformation about the vaccine and address vaccination hesitancy among communities of color.
Congratulations to our Board Chairman Bernard Mustafa who has been named Loudoun Cares 2021 Outstanding Veteran Volunteer for his work on Community Foundation’s Count the Region Census Initiative. The award recognizes a military veteran whose volunteering has made a significant contribution to the Loudoun County, Virginia community.
Giving together can unite your family across generations, geographic areas, and life situations. No matter the age of your children, integrating philanthropy into your family is a great opportunity to pass on healthy attitudes about money matters and helping others.
Charles Grymes and Catherine Ring have a donor-established fund with the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia through our Family Giving Program. We recently asked them to share some thoughts on how this fund helps them build a legacy of giving for their entire family.
"Together, I believe we can set a new foundation for a robust
economy now and for our next generation of business leaders
in Northern Virginia"...Sheila Dixon, Executive Director, Northern
Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce
The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t just put stress on minority-owned businesses in the Northern Virginia region, but also on the chambers of commerce that serve them. The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia today announced it has awarded grants totaling $43,000 to five area Chambers of Commerce: Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, NOVA Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce.
Like many of you, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is saddened at the rise of Anti-Asian violence as most recently evidenced by the murders of 6 Asian American women in Atlanta Georgia.
Below are two statements, one from the Asian American Chamber of Commerce in Northern Virginia and one from the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce, that we would like to share with you. They are heartbreaking testaments to the devastation and fear being suffered by our Asian American / Pacific Islander neighbors.
We are one community, one region. When we choose to care about what happens to each other, everything shifts. Please take a moment to share some words of comfort and support with your AAPI friends and neighbors and with the leaders of these 2 critical chambers of commerce that serve our region.
Thank you!
The Board and Staff of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia.
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