Contribute to the struggle to restore grant funding to the African People's Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) for its Black Power 96.3 FM community radio station.
In November of 2022, $36,801 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding was recommended by the Pinellas Community Foundation. APEDF's application was scored 4th out of over 50 organizations and then approved by the Pinellas County Commission.
But then in February 2023, shortly after new commissioners took office, in a politically motivated attack, the approval was revoked.
In June of 2023, these same politicians denied a second grant of $67,327 for a power generator to keep the station on air during power outages to broadcast critical emergency information—a grant for which we ranked 4th highest out of 78 applicants.
Contribute to the Legal Fund so that APEDF can make a strong legal case to restore this much-needed grant funding, and set a precedent that prevents this type of unconstitutional and discriminatory attack from happening in the future.