A Tampa Bay area nonprofit just got a much-needed surprise from the Rays.

The team’s $25,000 donation will go toward social justice initiatives and will help struggling workers and businesses.

On Opening Day, the Rays made waves across the baseball world with a tweet on the death of Breonna Taylor, killed by police on a no-knock warrant in Kentucky. The team also pledged to donate $100,000 to five groups that fight systemic racism.

The Pinellas County Urban League (St. Petersburg, FL) got a check for $25,000.

“Outside of being flabbergasted, I was excited," said President and CEO Reverend Watson L. Haynes. "Every organization has that desire to really speak out on issues but there’s no opportunity to create that mechanism and now the Rays have given us the mechanism to do it.”

FC Cincinnati is doubling down its efforts to combat racial discrimination.

On Monday, the Major League Soccer club announced the launch of its "One Club, One Community, One Goal" platform, which features both internal and external steps the team is taking to promote racial equality within Greater Cincinnati.

According to a news release, the steps FC Cincinnati has already taken include:

Selecting eight local organizations to receive a combined $250,000 in donations from the team's owners. Those organizations include: the African American Chamber of Commerce, Mortar, the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio (Cincinnati, OH), High Achievers, The United Way of Greater Cincinnati Black Empowerment Works Fund, Citylink, Cradle Cincinnati and Cincinnati Public School’s Speak Up Speak Out.

The Austin Area Urban League (Austin, TX) distributed 10,000 kits of personal protective equipment to local minority families that drove to the Wilhelmina Delco Center this week.

Minorities have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in the Austin-Travis County area. Austin Public Health’s data from early July showed that 52% of confirmed cases and 41% of deaths in Travis County self-identified as Hispanic.

At that time, the Hispanic/Latinx community made up 59.8% of hospitalizations in the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area. 

The local Urban League handed out five PPE kits per car to help keep the communities safe. Each kit included hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap, gloves, masks, moist towelettes and tissues.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer on Monday announced a plan to expand internet connectivity in West Louisville — a need recently expressed by some West End stakeholders.

Fischer said Louisville Metro Government has partnered with the firm Digital Decision to install roughly 30 Wi-Fi access points throughout the Russell neighborhood, which he said will double the access to free wireless internet service in this West Louisville neighborhood.

The project is made possible in part by a $400,000 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant that was awarded to the city through the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, the mayor’s office said in a news release.

2020 report drops on Thursday! Don't miss the release of our highly anticipated publication on August 13, featuring powerful esssays and insights. | Virtual series. Join a stellar line up of activists and leaders for essential discussions dedicated to Black lives and Black power on August 13 at 2PM ET! | Home to Harlem. Get a peek into the future Urban League Empowerment Center, one of the largest and most significant projects in Harlem in 50 years.| Tips for a virtual workforce. Didn’t have a chance to catch the Navigating Virtual Bias virtual session? Watch it here! | Your Monday mornings just got better. Don’t miss Marc Morial’s weekly commentary on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show every Monday at 8:30AM ET! | New Jobs Report. Dr. Bernard Anderson, our Senior Economic Advisor, shares an in-depth look at the state of the economy. Here’s what the numbers tell us. | Black Broadcasters Matter. DuJuan McCoy joins us to talk about broadcast TV closing the digital divide and influencing social justice movements. Listen now!

By Dr. Bernard E. Anderson 
Professor Emeritus, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and
Chairman of the National Urban League Economic Advisory Council.

July’s jobs report indicated that the pace of the recovery has slowed and is in danger of being reversed without swift federal action.

NEW YORK (August 5, 2020) – The National Urban League today announced a newly formed Indianapolis African American Quality of Life Renewal Initiative. This extraordinary place-based effort will provide a unique funding opportunity to address challenges facing Indianapolis’ African American community. This initiative is made possible by a $100 million grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. to the National Urban League.