The Diversity Mini-Grant Program provides faculty and staff a unique opportunity to actualize diversity and justice-related visions in the NC State community. Apply now through October 12, 2018 to be part of the next cohort of grant recipients.

When it comes to community justice, OIED’s Diversity Mini-Grant Program provides the bridge between “thinking” and “doing.” Through direct funding, mini-grants support the development and implementation of diversity and inclusion initiatives and innovative research that further the academic mission of NC State. This year, any faculty or staff member (or students in partnership with faculty/staff) can apply for a mini-grant.

Mini-grant initiatives represent a wide range of social issues, from student food and housing insecurity to representation of marginalized communities within STEM; from Social Justice leadership retreats to Native American Student Education. Mini-Grants provide an avenue for faculty and staff to make moves in the areas that matter to them and actualize their social justice visions.

Empowering African American Families of Children with Autism

2017-2018 Mini-Grant recipient and longtime community advocate Jamie Pearson, an assistant professor of special education in Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, has made notable efforts in the empowerment of African American families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The FACES program connects African American families of children with ASD to community-based services and supports and creates networks of interpersonal empowerment.

Pearson’s mini-grant initiative, Students Enhancing FACES: Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Supports for African American Families of Children with Autism aims “to help families build knowledge, to increase access, to foster community and to build empowerment needed to evoke change in their communities.”

Pearson plans to expand the FACES program and will apply for another mini-grant this year. The program provides a pathway for those with social justice and diversity visions to actualize their ideas into academically-grounded yet action-oriented outcomes. Pearson encourages applicants to think about real, innovative action—“think past just the final report.”

• This year’s mini-grant applications are due by 5:00 p.m. on October 12, 2018.
• Apply online.
• For more information about the Diversity Mini-Grant Program, contact Beverly Jones Williams, OIED’s director of training and education, at 919-513-3836.

Leah Block is a senior majoring in interpersonal, organizational and rhetorical communication, with a minor in sociology, and a communications intern in the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity.