$15K Educational Grant From Humanities DC
- Oct - 21 - 2021
FDR MEMORIAL LEGACY COMMITTEE RECEIVES $15K EDUCATIONAL GRANT FROM HUMANITIESDC
Lesson Plans Will Share Untold, Historically Significant Stories of DC Disabled Leaders Who Secured Representation
WASHINGTON, DC (October 21, 2021) – The FDR Memorial Legacy Committee (the FDR Committee) has received the 2021 Humanities Mini-Vision Partnership Grant in the amount of $15,000. The grant will allow the FDR Committee to launch the DC Disability Rights Heroes project to provide lesson plans for children and youth to preserve and promote the heroic stories of disabled leaders who fought to add the life-sized, free-standing statue of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a wheelchair to the FDR Memorial. When the Memorial was dedicated in 1997, there was no depiction of FDR. The hard-fought campaign to add the statue started in 1995 and culminated in the 2001 dedication of the statue of FDR, now on display at the Memorial.
“HumanitiesDC was pleased to offer this opportunity for smaller projects or projects that were closer to the finish line for them to come to fruition,” said Andrea McNeil, Grants Manager, HumanitiesDC. “DC is unique; we have stories to tell with a national presence. It is not only important that we preserve those stories but also ensure those stories are accessible to youth, especially our DC youth to better understand the significance and force of our rich local history.”
HumanitiesDC Mini-Vision grants provide resources to community organizations interested in creating innovative interpretations of humanities scholarship for public audiences. The grants are driven by the proposed final product; each grant will produce an educational resource that will be added to a publicly accessible, online archive.
“We are honored to be a part of this year’s grant awardees,” commented Mary E. Dolan, Co-Founder and Executive Director, the FDR Committee. “The Humanities Vision Partnership Grant recognizes that there are people in our own city who have brought about change by fighting for justice and representation for disabled people. The FDR wheelchair statue story provides a significant opportunity for teachers and students to learn about disability history. The lesson plans will feature rich stories in which students can relate, see themselves, and also project their hopes onto their future selves.”
The DCCHP grant receives administrative funding from the DCHPO, and funding for the grants is derived from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) through the Humanities Grant Program.
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FDR Memorial Legacy Committee
The mission of the FDR Committee is to document, preserve, and share the leadership and legacy of the disability community's campaign for disability representation at the FDR Memorial in DC, expand the understanding of the centrality of disability to FDR's leadership, and promote education and awareness of other under-represented narratives related to FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt and their times. Please visit www.fdrmemoriallegacy.com for more information.
HumanitiesDC
Founded in 1980, HumanitiesDC is the state humanities council for Washington, DC with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the DC Council and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. HumanitiesDC’s mission to enrich the quality of life, foster intellectual stimulation, and promote cross-cultural understanding, and appreciation of local history in all neighborhoods of the District. HDC supports local historians, educators, filmmakers, and humanists to document and interpret life in DC through grants, programs, and special partnerships. To learn more, visit www.humanitiesdc.org.