The Richard Kemp Center, a Black-led organization, is a new project of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. It is located at 372 N. Winooski Avenue in the Old North End. The purpose of the Richard Kemp Center (as stated on the Alliance's website at vtracialjusticealliance.org/2021/10/richard-kemp-center-in-burlington) is to "invest in systems that address Black and Brown folks’ wellness; support our youth; enable our economic advancement and ensure our cultural empowerment, moving us toward greater racial and social equity in wealth distribution, health and prosperity. It will honor the legacy of a Black community social justice hero; create a new era of intentional Black-led community engagement and support in Burlington and across Vermont; and, pay a promise forward into the hope in the lives of the Black and Brown youth in Vermont."
FUUSB has been a financially sound institution for many years, with no debt and many assets (including both endowment funds and the value of its buildings and grounds). The Board believes that we are called to use our financial resources in service of our UU values, particularly since we recently benefited from a federal government loan/grant program that was implicitly biased. FUUSB was the recipient of a federal PPP Loan intended to help assure our financial stability (maintain payroll, retain staff, avoid budget cuts) in the first year of the pandemic. FUUSB met all the requirements of the loan and it was forgiven in full. In the months following the PPP Loan, the press revealed that the PPP Loan process had assisted predominantly larger, more established white organizations that had pre-existing relationships with banks that expedited the loan process for them. Our Society did not ask to be favored in this way, but knowing this, we have the opportunity to correct the advantage that we have been given and share the benefits of our privilege to assist those on the margins. This gift is one way that we can do that.
We wish to thank FUUSB's Racial Justice Team for bringing this proposal to our attention. For those of you who wish to make a personal gift or provide ongoing support for the Richard Kemp Center, an option to do so will soon be added to the Realm Giving page.
We hope that you are as excited as we are to be making a substantial gift to this local organization.
Sincerely,
