Voices Underground Juneteenth Program Overview
Voices Underground, a Chester County-based organization with extensive experience in promoting African American cultural history through scholarly research, transformative experiences, and historical memorialization, in partnership with Pennsylvania’s Office of Tourism, is committed to seeing Pennsylvania become the nation’s leader in African American Cultural Heritage Tourism. We believe the holiday of Juneteenth, often hailed as “African American Independence Day”—especially as it is now a national holiday – offers a critically important opportunity for pursuing this commitment.
Journeying Toward Freedom is an initiative created by Voices Underground and Pennsylvania’s Office of Tourism to promote the celebration of Juneteenth across the state of Pennsylvania. The goals of this initiative are to:
• Promote African American Cultural Heritage in Pennsylvania.
• Nurture Community Collaboration.
• Expand the Community’s Narrative about itself.
• Leaven national conversations about African American Cultural History.
As part of this initiative, we are pleased to offer grant assistance to communities across the state of Pennsylvania with a history of Juneteenth celebrations. This assistance will take the form of a grant in an amount up to $15,000.
These competitive matching grants support local Juneteenth programming to be offered between Friday, June 14 and Sunday June 23. Because our wish is to support existing initiatives, eligible applicants are those who’ve executed local Juneteenth celebrations in at least once between 2018-2021. By receipt of funds, grant recipients agree for their events to be identified as part of the state-wide, Journeying Toward Freedom campaign. In addition, by receipt of funds, grant recipients agree to convene two times (via zoom, before and after events) with the Juneteenth Project Manager and other grant recipients as part of the state’s first Journeying Towards Freedom Executive Committee.
Grants will be received digitally through the Voices Underground website, www.voicesunderground.com/juneteenth. Grants submissions are due by Friday, May 31, 2024 by 5:00 p.m. To apply for a Journeying Toward Freedom grant, please provide the following information: