The Urban League of Essex County is proud to present the 2022 R.E.D. Gala Community Impact Award to the Victoria Foundation for their long-standing and continuous support of the Urban League of Essex County and for the fulfillment of your mission to champion bold strategies that strengthen community power, foster economic justice, promote youth self-determination, and respond to pressing needs in Newark.
Victoria Foundation is one of the country's oldest private foundations, founded in 1924 by Hendon Chubb and named in honor of his mother, Victoria Eddis Chubb. Since the early 1960s, the Foundation’s trustees have targeted giving to efforts that impact the cycle of poverty in Newark. Its grantmaking of approximately $11 million per year strengthens public and charter schools, community development corporations working to help the unemployed and homeless, arts organizations that provide arts instruction for youth, and environmental groups.
The Foundation launched its Thriving Neighborhoods Initiative in 2018 to empower families through resident-driven, targeted investments designed to improve outcomes for families in two of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Newark - Clinton Hill in the South Ward, and Fairmount Heights in the West Ward. An important goal of the initiative is to invest in anchoring institutions like the Urban League of Essex County to strengthen the nonprofit sector of these neighborhoods, creating leadership that is for the neighborhoods and from the neighborhoods. Investments in these neighborhoods address quality of life concerns, including access to nutritious food, public safety, green spaces, and safe and affordable housing.
In 2020, the Foundation undertook time to reflect, learn, and strategically address structural racism in generational poverty. As a result, the Victoria Foundation has adopted a new framework, including a new mission, vision and values focused on root causes of generational poverty and inequality in Newark. Its new mission reads:
"Victoria Foundation partners with Black and Brown residents and other marginalized communities in Newark and nonprofit organizations to champion bold strategies that strengthen community power, foster economic justice, promote youth self-determination, and respond to pressing needs."
In celebration of the Urban League's centennial, Victoria Foundation provided The League with a unique opportunity to build our operating reserves with a challenge grant of $1 Million. In 2021, we were able to complete the challenge, raising $500,000.
We celebrate Victoria Foundation and its long-standing commitment to residents of Newark and the organizations that serve them.