The Selma Times-Journal

It takes money to make change.

Residents of Selma, Dallas County, and the greater Black Belt area have the opportunity to learn more in a grant seekers’ workshop about how to make change happen.

The Black Belt Community Foundation will conduct the workshop on April 22. It will begin promptly at 5:30 p.m. at The Gathering on Water Avenue and last about an hour with a question and answer session following.

Sadie Moss, executive director of the McRae Learning Center on Marie Foster Street, can testify to the work of the foundation.

“We were about to close the gates,” Moss said of the center. “It has truly been with the help of God and of organizations like the Black Belt Community Foundation that we are able to stay afloat and teach these children.”

The workshop, which is open to the public, will show potential applicants step by step how to fill out one of the foundation’s grant applications. No pre-registration is required.

“It’s quite simple,” Karen Weir of Selma’s ArtsRevive said. “The application is about 2-3 pages. They want you to state who you are, what you need, and how [the foundation] can help.” Weir added the foundation was helpful and supportive with questions.

“What we’re trying to do is help Black Belt community organizations by uplifting them, and giving them a hand up, not a handout,” field service representative Florence Williams said. “We’ll discuss the upcoming seventh round of grants that will be for fall 2008. If you haven’t heard of the Black Belt Community Foundation, we’re letting you know who we are and what kind of projects we are involved in.”

More than $500,000 in grants has been awarded since the foundation’s inception.

The Black Belt Community Foundation serves a 12-county area that includes Bullock, Choctaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Macon, Marengo, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, Lowndes and Wilcox.