Racial Justice Web Briefing

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast into stark relief the fault lines in America’s systems, revealing and exacerbating the consequences of centuries of inequitable policies and practices. While this moment has broadened attention to these issues, for many, the fight for better and more just systems began long before the current crisis.

Rose Community Foundation recently hosted a web briefing about what is currently being done – and must be done in the future – to create better and more racially just systems. The webinar featured a panel of four Black community leaders in Metro Denver who work within and around systems that often fail to serve Black communities. Each panelist has a deep understanding of, and relationship to, the communities they serve. Not only are they local leaders in their respective fields, they also prioritize remaining proximate to their communities.

To learn more about emerging and longstanding systemic issues facing the local Black community, as well as the community-driven solutions that each organization pursues, we encourage you to watch their full remarks in the video below.


The Panelists:

Deidre Johnson is the Center for African American Health’s (CAAH) CEO and Executive Director.

Hassan A. Latif is Second Chance Center’s (SCC) Executive Director.

Sade Cooper is Collaborative Healing Initiative within Communities’ (CHIC) Co-Founder and CEO.

Wisdom Amouzou is Empower Community High School’s Co-Founder and Principal.


Rose Community Foundation recognizes the privilege and power that comes with being a foundation and has committed, with the adoption of our new strategic plan in January of 2020, to listening, learning and directing our philanthropy toward advancing equity, justice and inclusion.

Rose Community Foundation works at the intersection of two key stakeholder groups: incredible nonprofit leaders like Deidre, Hassan, Sade and Wisdom, and generous individuals interested in using their charitable resources to help fuel effective nonprofit work. One of the important roles we play as a community foundation is making connections between these two groups, and especially connecting donors to nonprofits that may not have been on their radar.

For anyone who is in a financial position to give, please join us in supporting the panelists’ organizations by funding them directly. You can also find complete lists of ALL the Foundation’s current grantees, and we encourage you to learn about and support their work.

Donors can also join us as funding partners through our Community Action Fund for Racial Justice or our COVID-19 RESPOND Fund. Both funds are ways to leverage individual charitable dollars with the Foundation’s resources and relationships to be part of a larger, equity-focused philanthropic response in our community at this critical moment.


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