Building a More Perfect Union: Pandemic Recovery Grants for Humanities Organizations

FAIN: ZOR-283604-21

National Writing Project (Berkeley, CA 94704-1026)
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (Project Director: May 2021 to July 2024)

A grant program resulting in approximately 38 subawards to provide relief to local, regional, and cross-regional cultural organizations recovering from the coronavirus pandemic by developing educational programming that deepens engagement with underrepresented communities.

Building a More Perfect Union: Pandemic Recovery Grants for Humanities Organizations will offer 60 grants of $50,000 each to local, regional, and cross-regional humanities organizations to support their recovery from impacts of COVID-19, to re-engage with local educators and families, and to re-imagine how programming by history, archival, and literature-focused cultural organizations can help communities envision "building a more perfect union" in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of our founding. This program addresses cultural and interpretive organizations and centers as essential to helping communities understand and reimagine their relationship to larger narratives that animate our national conversations. The scope of the program is national with a particular interest in communities less visible in American mainstream public programming and educational curricula.

Associated Products

NWP Story: Strengthening Community through Collaboration (Blog Post)
Title: NWP Story: Strengthening Community through Collaboration
Author: Erin Wilkey Oh
Abstract: How three grant-funded projects enabled educators and community-based cultural institutions to expand students' understanding of their own history and heritage.
Date: 08/01/23
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/strengthening-community-through-collaboration
Blog Title: Strengthening Community through Collaboration
Website: National Writing Project Stories

NWP Story: Youth Uncover Hidden Histories (Blog Post)
Title: NWP Story: Youth Uncover Hidden Histories
Author: Paul Oh
Abstract: There is the history we’re taught in school. Usually a progression of events—western expansion, The Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement—that seem to lead inexorably to the present moment. Then there is the history we discover for ourselves. The events that surprise us both because they were left out of the history textbooks we read in school and because of what they say about our society then and today.
Date: 08/01/23
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/youth-uncover-hidden-histories
Blog Title: Youth Uncover Hidden Histories
Website: National Writing Project

NWP Story: How Family Literacy Programs can Build Empathy and Connection (Blog Post)
Title: NWP Story: How Family Literacy Programs can Build Empathy and Connection
Author: Erin Wilkey Oh
Abstract: Learn about two programs funded by the Building a More Perfect Union grants that leverage reading and writing to bring communities together.
Date: 09/13/23
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/how-family-literacy-programs-can-build-empathy-and-connection
Blog Title: How Family Literacy Programs can Build Empathy and Connection
Website: National Writing Project

NWP Story: Partnership Brings Visibility to the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation (Blog Post)
Title: NWP Story: Partnership Brings Visibility to the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation
Author: Erin Wilkey Oh
Abstract: Learn how a grant-funded collaboration put this small Northern California tribe's history and culture into the spotlight.
Date: 09/13/23
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/partnership-brings-visibility-to-the-quartz-valley-indian-reservation
Secondary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/partnership-brings-visibility-to-the-quartz-valley-indian-reservation
Blog Title: Partnership Brings Visibility to the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation
Website: National Writing Project

NWP Story: No Such Thing as Free Land (Blog Post)
Title: NWP Story: No Such Thing as Free Land
Author: Diana Weis
Abstract: The No Such Thing as Free Land project aimed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of homesteading history by incorporating diverse perspectives, including those of Native Americans, women homesteaders, suffragists, and various immigrant experiences.
Date: 11/14/23
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/no-such-thing-as-free-land
Blog Title: No Such Thing as Free Land
Website: National Writing Project

NWP Story: Archives Inside and Out (Blog Post)
Title: NWP Story: Archives Inside and Out
Author: Paul Oh
Abstract: Learn about three projects funded by the Building a More Perfect Union program that brought a focus to the ways that archives give us access to a local past while inspiring stories needed for the future.
Date: 11/14/23
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/stories/archives-inside-and-out
Blog Title: Archives Inside and Out
Website: National Writing Project

Writing Boston’s Future: The Program Impact (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Writing Boston’s Future: The Program Impact
Writer: Dr. Denise Patmon
Writer: Luke Patmon
Director: Christian Ruiz
Director: Christian Walkes
Producer: Dr. Denise Patmon
Producer: Luke Patmon
Abstract: Watch this video to hear from youth, educators, and family members involved in Writing Boston's Future first summer institute:
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/886707532
Format: Video
Format: Web

NWP Programs: Building a More Perfect Union (Web Resource)
Title: NWP Programs: Building a More Perfect Union
Author: National Writing Project
Abstract: The National Writing Project supported programs funded by grants for humanities organizations as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grantmaking program. This program page provides background, a summary, and resources link for each of the 38 projects organized by state.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.nwp.org/building-a-more-perfect-union-grant-awards

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