Orange County Grantmakers

Inaugural Orange County Equity Report to Showcase Results of County-wide Assessment Highlighting Steps for a More Equitable Future

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CONTACT:           Taryn Palumbo

                                Executive Director, Orange County Grantmakers

                                (714) 323-3451

                                Taryn.Palumbo@ocgrantmakers.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Inaugural Orange County Equity Report to Showcase Results of County-wide Assessment Highlighting Steps for a More Equitable Future

March 20, 2019 – Orange County Grantmakers, in partnership with the St. Joseph Health Community Partnership Fund, will present the results of the first ever Orange County Equity Report on March 26, 2019 at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. This report, developed by PolicyLink, a national research and action institute focused on advancing racial and economic equity, and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California, will highlight what Orange County must do to lead the way on racial and economic equity, strategies to ensure accountability, and the ways the community as a whole can prepare for the challenges along the way.

This new report incorporates data from a variety of existing Orange County sources including the OC Community Indicators Report, Workforce Indicators Report and the Department of Children and Families Early Development Index data. By aligning with existing data, the report will present to business, nonprofit, philanthropic and civic leaders a different perspective on how Orange County currently addresses equity. The data presented will be used to guide strategy for future policy and grantmaking, encouraging leaders from all sectors to work collectively towards a more equitable future for the residents of Orange County.

The report will be presented by Dr. Manuel Pastor of the PERE School. Immediately following, community leaders will discuss the reports real life implications and applicability for the business, nonprofit and philanthropic community. Confirmed speakers include Fred Ali, President & CEO of the Weingart Foundation, Mary Ann Foo, Executive Director and Found, Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA), Kim Goll, Executive Director of First 5 Orange County, and Rosie Perez, Vice President, Mission Integration at Providence St. Joseph.

The full report will be available on the OC Grantmakers website on March 26th at www.ocgrantmakers.org.

For further information, please contact Taryn Palumbo at (714) 323-3451.

ABOUT ORANGE COUNTY GRANTMAKERS

OC Grantmakers is a community of philanthropic leaders with the mission of advancing social impact by supporting, strengthening, and building adaptive leadership across the nonprofit and philanthropic community. We are committed to improving outcomes for Orange County and beyond.

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How do we build a compassionate and inclusive America in an age of distrust? WAJAHAT ALI knows from personal experience that when we come together to be the superheroes of our own stories, we can create honest social change. The beloved TED speaker has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic about our urgent issues—immigration, politics, parenthood—with boldness, hope, and humor. His memoir Go Back to Where You Came From, one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year, follows his life as a Muslim Pakistani-American on a surprising, emotional, and challenging quest for the good life. Iconic journalist Katie Couric says that “we are all so fortunate to be on the receiving end of his intellect, his humanity, and his heart.”

Wajahat Ali

“With wit and charm, Ali delivers a masterful meditation on growing up brown in America...he gives us a clear-eyed affirmation of the country America could be.” — Mara Gay, New York Times

Mara Gay, New York Times

Wajahat Ali uses his platform to fight tirelessly for the social change we need in our country—and he isn’t afraid to get personal while doing it. The Daily Beast columnist and former New York Times writer, TED speaker, award-winning playwright, and Peabody-nominated producer of the documentary series The Secret Life of Muslims offers us his experiences of triumph over hardship as a beacon of hope and resilience in the face of life’s impossible situations. From his experiences of Islamophobia growing up as a Muslim Pakistani-American to his two-year-old daughter’s liver cancer diagnosis, Wajahat is living proof that when we share our authentic stories, we build the America we wish to live in.”

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He has given keynote speeches around the world such as TED, The Aspen Ideas Festival, Google, the United Nations, and The New Yorker Festival. His writing appears regularly in the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and The Guardian. He’s a Senior Fellow at The Western States Center and Auburn Seminary and co-host of Al Jazeera’s The Stream.