THE LATINA CIRCLE Receives $10,000 Targeted Grant To Advance Women
Grant From Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation Will Support the Launch of the Advancing Latina Leaders Series in Greater Boston
Boston, MA, August 8, 2018 – The Latina Circle, a Boston-based, non-profit social venture that is advancing Latina leaders across industries into positions of power and influence, today announced it has received a $10,000 Targeted Grant from Eastern Bank, America’s oldest and largest mutual bank. The grant will support the launch of the organization’s 2018 Advancing Latina Leaders Series. This series will accelerate the growth of The Latina Circle network across Greater Boston. This new series will convene culturally-adapted educational programming that highlights important issues affecting the Latino community – such as the gender pay gap, advancement into executive leadership roles and barriers to economic opportunity – while also fostering relationship-building and access to role models and champions. As part of the series, The Latina Circle will launch a Latinx business initiative that will connect emerging and successful Latinx business owners, with business resources and capital, including investors focused on seeding women founders and founders of color.
Each year, the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation’s Targeted Grant program supports hundreds of community-based organizations working for progress on a specific issue in Eastern’s New England footprint. In 2018, in celebration of the Bank’s 200th anniversary and to honor its first depositor, Rebecca Sutton, Targeted Grants have been designated to support organizations addressing a range of issues that disproportionately impact women, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, health care, pay equity, and senior management and board representation. The Latina Circle is among 170 nonprofits each receiving a $10,000 grant. In total, Eastern is granting $1.7 million in Targeted Grants this year to nonprofits in communities from New Hampshire to Cape Cod and throughout the South Shore, North Shore, Metro West, Merrimack Valley and Greater Boston.
“This support from Eastern Bank will allow us to bring the Advancing Latina Leaders Series to our growing network of Latinas and allow us to amplify access and opportunities for Latinas in our region. Economic mobility is a source of power and freedom, and our focus is on the next generation of leaders because if you see a hero that looks like you, then you see that hero in you.” – Eneida Roman & Betty Francisco, Co-Founders The Latina Circle.
Eastern’s Targeted Grant program this year creates new opportunities and resources for women in areas where assistance is needed the most. The facts are staggering:
- A woman is assaulted every nine seconds in the U.S. and one in three women has been a victim of physical brutality by an intimate partner, making intimate partner violence the single greatest cause of injury to women.
- In Massachusetts, women earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to men. In New Hampshire, they earn 76 cents. African-American women nationwide earn 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men, and Latinas—only 56 cents.
- In the sciences, women represent less than 25% of those employed in computer and mathematical occupations and only 15% in architecture and engineering. For women of color, this gap is even wider. Asian women, African-American women, and Latinas make up less than 10% of working scientists and engineers in the U.S.
- Women receive more graduate degrees and they hold more faculty positions in colleges and universities, and yet, men hold the highest number of tenured university positions.
- Only 32 women run Fortune 500 companies and only two are women of color. Less than 20% of all board seats in Fortune 1,000 companies are held by women.
“We believe in breaking down the barriers that stand between people and prosperity. That’s why Eastern is a strong advocate for the advancement of women,” said Bob Rivers, Chair and CEO of Eastern Bank. “With each Targeted Grant, we aim to enhance the lives of our neighbors and contribute to real progress around the advancement of women in our local communities. On behalf of everyone at Eastern, we congratulate this year’s Targeted Grant recipients and thank them for working to level the playing field.”
For a complete list of the 2018 Targeted Grant recipients, click here.
About Eastern Bank
Founded in 1818 and celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2018, Boston-based Eastern Bank is America’s oldest and largest mutual bank, with $11 billion in assets and over 120 locations serving communities in eastern Massachusetts, southern and coastal New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Eastern provides exceptional access to fairly priced banking, investment and insurance products and services for consumers and businesses of all sizes, and for the eighth consecutive year is the #1 U.S. Small Business Administration lender in New England. Eastern Bank, which includes Eastern Wealth Management and Eastern Insurance, is known for its outspoken advocacy and community support that has exceeded more than $110 million in charitable giving since 1999. The Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation is a leader in corporate philanthropy and serves as the charitable arm of Eastern Bank. An inclusive company, Eastern employs 1,900+ deeply committed professionals who value relationships with their customers, colleagues and communities. Join us for good at www.easternbank.com and follow Eastern on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
About The Latina Circle
Launched in 2012, The Latina Circle (TLC) is a Boston-based, non-profit social venture that is advancing Latina leaders across industries into positions of power and influence. In 2017, TLC launched Amplify Latinx, a non-partisan, collaborative movement whose mission is to build Latinx economic and political power by significantly increasing Latinx civic engagement and representation in leadership positions across sectors. Latina Circle has over 2,000 subscribers and 90+ Latino-serving community organizations, social impact groups and power building advocates across the Commonwealth that support its broader goal of building a Latinx power coalition. Learn more at amplifylatinx.co and follow Latina Circle on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
#
