The Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) will host its 2018 Community Grants Awards Ceremony at Wallace Community College Selma in the Hank Sanders Technology Room at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 30.

Black Belt Community Foundation president Felecia Lucky said she is happy to see so many deserving projects gain the necessary funding needed to continue helping their communities thrive. The organization’s service area includes 12 counties in Alabama’s Black Belt, and this year there will be more than $80,000 invested into the communities.

“We are excited to support outstanding community efforts across our 12-county BBCF service area,” she said. “The fact that our community grants cycle is a community-driven process being spearheaded by our BBCF community associates is further testament to BBCF’s central belief that the Black Belt communities know what is best for them.”

The community grants will support efforts focusing on community economic development, education and health services.  This year the community was more hands -on with the grants, and Lucky said that was the best decision when determining what the actual needs are in each area.

“The grant committee has always been made up of board members and community associates. It was maybe seven to 11 people who reviewed and made recommendations to the board about where funding goes,” she said. “So, if you have seven to 11 people, then clearly every county was not represented.”

She said even though the committee was objective there still needed to be a change.

This year, each county’s grants review committee established the grant guidelines, evaluated the grant applications and made a recommendation to the BBCF grants committee.  BBCF’s Board of Directors matched up to $5,000 in each of these 12 counties as raised by community associates along with other local contributions by board members and supporters.

Lucky said she is grateful to the organization’s board as well as affiliates for a job well-done. She said their hard work and dedication made this all possible.

“We commend our community associates for doing their part in raising the baseline funds so that our BBCF Board could match them,” Lucky said. “‘Taking what we have to make what we need’ is always our motto, and the 2018 community grants process exemplifies this in its purest form.”