The Tenant Advisory Council through A Community of Friends is comprised of seven permanent supportive housing tenants from seven different buildings who meet regularly with the organization’s leadership to advise on projects and activities. Here the Tenant Advisory Council walks through life-sized unit prototypes with Lehrer Architects. Clockwise from lower left: Clarence Scranton, Ruby Smith, Roberto Sheinberg, Frank Ybarra, Mee Heh Risdon, Caroline Havens, Celina Godinez, Theresa Cummingham, Michael Lehrer, Michael Hernandez and Benjamin Lehrer. Photo courtesy of A Community of Friends.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced today that the board of directors approved 12 grants totaling more than $50 million in the first quarter of 2022. These grants were awarded to 12 grantees across the Hilton Foundation’s evolving program areas, in the U.S. and internationally. 

“We are proud to support these incredible organizations working to improve people’s lives all over the world, starting in our own backyard here in Los Angeles County,” said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. “It is inspiring to see so many of our partners across sectors boldly leading change in their own communities.” 

Following is an overview of the grants awarded in the first quarter of 2022:   

Catholic Sisters – Catholic Charities of Los Angeles was awarded $3 million to collaborate with Catholic sisters in providing 325 youth experiencing disadvantages with career development and supportive services through Archdiocesan Youth Employment, and to measure the impact of these services. Marywood University was granted up to $11 million to implement Phase VI of the Sisters Leadership Development Initiative in ten countries in Africa, and to establish an investment fund for sisters’ education.

Foster Youth – National Center for Youth Law received $3.8 million to support a collective impact campaign that will increase access to reproductive and sexual health care, economic assets and financial supports, improve wellbeing outcomes and reduce unwanted pregnancies and child removals among foster youth in Los Angeles. 

Global Early Childhood Development – East and Southern Africa – D-Tree International was awarded $1.8 million to strengthen the national digital community health early childhood development program in Zanzibar and scale to Mainland Tanzania. Episcopal Relief & Development was granted $3 million to equip faith leaders and community stakeholders with the skills to support holistic early childhood development and advance advocacy efforts to support early childhood development services through an interfaith platform in Kenya and Mozambique. United States Fund for UNICEF received $7 million to embed early childhood development within existing systems and service delivery mechanisms at national and sub-national levels in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, and to provide global and regional leadership and technical guidance on early childhood development.

Homelessness – A Community of Friends was awarded $3 million to provide a program-related investment to support piloting an alternative financing model for supportive housing. Social Venture Partners aka Social Justice Partners was awarded $2.3 million to host the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Policy and Systems Change Fellowship program, which will recruit a new generation of public policy sector leaders to prevent and end homelessness across Los Angeles County, with an emphasis on emerging BIPOC leaders. 

Opportunity Youth – YouthBuild Mexico received $3.1 million to create a multi-pronged approach to youth employment in Mexico City, including direct service, collaboration and advocacy on behalf of opportunity youth.

Refugees – BRAC USA was awarded $5.6 million to support the scaling up of integrated two-generational programming for refugee and host communities in Uganda. 

Program-Related Investments – Affordable Housing Initiative, LLC received $5 million to provide a program-related investment to support the development of affordable and supportive housing through the Affordable Housing Fund.

Equity Fund – Interfaith Youth Core was granted $1.5 million for general operating support.

To learn more about our program areas and how we approach our work, please visit hiltonfoundation.org/program-areas. For more detailed information on our grantmaking, please visit hiltonfoundation.org/grants.