The Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) has secured $1.5 million in state funding to support its CIELO Fund, which helps support the work of Latino-serving community organizations across the region.
Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) and Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-Colton) secured the funding in the state budget that was recently approved by Governor Gavin Newsom. They announced the allocation on Saturday at their annual Grants and Scholarships Brunch at the Riverside County Office of Education building in downtown Riverside.
The funding comes as the organization announces several new initiatives focused on research, civic engagement and media coverage of the region’s Latino communities.
“We hope that this is lasting change,” said Cervantes, who along with Reyes presented the fund’s founder, Jesse Melgar, with a large check. “It's not just a one-time contribution. It's not just a one-time grant cycle, but that your nonprofits are making a difference in the lives of families for generations to come.”
Since launching in 2022, Melgar says the CIELO Fund has raised more than $5.5 million in donations and commitments. The organization is also launching a three-year partnership with the University of California, Riverside School of Public Policy called the CIELO Fund Research and Civic Leadership Initiative.
The partnership will include an annual Latino Pulse Survey of registered voters in the Inland Empire, an original research report each year and a Civic Policy Fellowship. The fellowship will give policy students an opportunity to work with local community organizations.
“We are living through difficult times,” said Melgar. “Families are feeling it. Our organizations are feeling it. There's a lot of uncertainty and anxiety in the Latino community right now, but our community, our families, and our region has always been about hope, about building, about standing tall in the face of adversity, because this CIELO Fund was never built for easy times.”
The fund also partnered with Los Angeles-based outlet L.A. TACO to launch I.E. TACO, a media project focused on coverage of the Inland Empire.
The CIELO Fund is also launching the Ofelia Valdez Yeager Awards, named after the late Riverside community leader and longtime advocate for the region’s Latino community.
Valdez Yeager founded the Riverside Latino Network and was the first Latina elected to the Riverside Unified School District Board of Education. She also served as chair of the capital campaign that helped bring the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture to Riverside.
Melgar shared that Valdez Yeager was also the first private donor to contribute $5,000 to the CIELO Fund before its formal launch.
EDITOR’S NOTE: KVCR receives financial support from the Inland Empire Community Foundation’s CIELO Fund.
