Press release from event organizers:
CoThinkk is holding its inaugural Awards Night, themed Connecting Through the Roots, on October 22nd at the Asheville Art Museum. The CoThinkk Awards Night will include live music, food, spoken word/poetry, and the announcement and celebration of CoThinkk’s first grant recipients and community leadership award recipients. The Awards Night follows a two-month video grant application process for projects addressing critical social issues facing African-American and Latinx communities in Asheville and Western North Carolina.
“CoThinkk is excited to announce the recipients of our first year of grant awards. We are looking forward to celebrating the dynamic leaders in our community who are playing a critical role in shifting the narrative of communities of color,” says Tracey Greene Washington, founder of CoThinkk. “The CoThink Awards Night is a result of leaders pooling their resources and talents together to create a platform for individuals to drive social change in this region.” Grants will be given to community groups based in Asheville and Western NC that sponsor programming that is led by leaders of color and supports African American and Latinx communities through education, economic mobility, and leadership development.
The keynote speaker for the event is Astrid Chirinos, Chief Development Executive of the Latin America Economic Development Corporation. Prior to this role, Astrid was the President of the Latin American Chamber of Commerce of Charlotte, an organization that she helped to establish 18 years ago. Astrid led efforts to repurpose the Latin American Economic Development Corporation into an economic development entity in order to provide the channels to support the sustainable growth and prosperity of the Latino business community. She has worked to create new and strengthen existing Latin American Chambers of Commerce with a robust platform of leadership development programs and strategic community development partnerships.
CoThinkk will also award four community leadership awards and highlight two community allies at the inaugural Awards Night. Recipients of the community leadership awards are leaders of color who are playing a critical role in the social change ecosystem of Western NC and community allies are individuals or organizations who will be recognized for their leadership in working alongside and in partnership with communities of color. The leadership award announcements follow a public weigh-in process, including an open call for nominations and a public voting period, which took place September 2-15.
Event Sponsors include The Amy Mandel and Katina Rodis Fund, which has agreed to provide a 1:1 match up to $5,000 beyond their initial sponsorship commitment, the Asheville Art Museum, The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Center for Participatory Change, Circle Forward, The Baha’ is of Asheville, Merrimon Florist, Lightning Bolt In, Hi-Wire Brewery, Chiva Project, Asheville GreenWorks, My Daddy Taught Me That and a host of community leaders.
ABOUT COTHINKK
CoThinkk is a giving circle that brings together community leaders who care about the economic and social well-being of communities of color in Asheville and Western North Carolina. CoThinkk started in 2014 with the intention to implement investment strategies that address education, economic mobility/opportunity, and leadership development towards impacting some of the most critical social issues facing African-American and Latinx communities in Western North Carolina. For more information or to learn more about CoThinkk, visit CoThinkk.org.
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