The Fund for Gender Equality is a partnership of Community Foundations of Canada, the Equality Fund and the Government of Canada. The WindsorEssex Community Foundation is proud to be on of 21 Community Foundations working to prioritize gender-focused granting, feminist recovery and the advancement of gender equity across the country.
On International Women’s Day 2023, the WindsorEssex Community Foundation announced $280,000 in funding to nine local organizations through the 3rd round of funding through this initiative.
Beauty is Me seeks to revitalize the positive self-image and beauty in the consciousness of black girls that once was entrenched in the black peoples historical and cultural identity. Their Perfectly Me Project is being supported by this investment through the Fund for Gender Equality. The project is being actively promoted in the community, particularly with Black community, Black organizations and foster parents, caregivers and guardians who are raising children in and out of care.
Recently, the Perfectly Me Project facilitated a movie day field trip with Black and biracial children to watch “The Little Mermaid”. Forty-Five black children and parents, foster parents, caregivers, and guardians accompanied their child to watch the movie. The Little Mermaid movie gave Black and biracial children the opportunity to see a Black mermaid character that looked like them. The children were extremely excited before and after the movie, and parents were appreciative of the opportunity to watch the movie with their child/children and with the group.
“This is absolutely amazing and I love this for our Black children,” shared a program participant. “Beauty is Me is an amazing organization. I will always support anything they do.”
Currently, Beauty is Me is finalizing plans for three upcoming events in the summertime: the Perfectly Me Youth Conference, Perfectly Me Black Kids Magic Retreat Girls Retreat, and the Children’s Fun with Book Fair.
