Over $400,000 in funding for immigration-related services is included in a package of grants that the Arlington County Board approved for local nonprofits this week.
However, one Arlington-based organization focused on immigrant communities — the Ethiopian Community Development Council — pushed back at a County Board meeting on Tuesday after a selection panel declined to recommend funding the nonprofit. Board members declined to bend the rules to help, but said they would help the group find additional streams of funding and other support.
Of the $1.87 million that the County Board approved for the equity-based RACE to Rebuilding Trust & Community grant, $419,393 went to the following immigration-based nonprofits.
- Ayuda: $112,500 for legal and case management supporting 60 low-income immigrants, including eight emotional support groups.
- Dream Project: $27,500 for mentoring, scholarships and “holistic support” for between 28 and 35 immigrant students and families.
- English Empowerment Center: $54,393 for educating 60 low-income residents on reading, writing, speaking or understanding English.
- Legal Aid Justice Center: $75,000 for six know-your-rights events, two legal clinics “on a variety of legal issues,” and immigration assistance for 60 households.
- Shirlington Employment and Education Center: $150,000 for job placement, employment services and referrals for at least 325 immigrant day laborers.
Earlier this year, the Legal Aid Justice Center received another $125,000 in county funding to host numerous Arlington initiatives, including immigration consultations and legal representation for people detained by immigration enforcement.
Another nonprofit, Just Neighbors, also received $125,000 to support its work helping residents seek permanent legal status.
Other big-ticket items in the county’s grant package include $150,000 to Restorative Arlington to start 12 cases and host 12 community circles, $150,000 to the Arlington Free Clinic to provide health care and other services to over 1,500 uninsured adults, and $149,064 to Aspire! Afterschool Learning for after-school and summer learning programs.
Not included in the funding is the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), although more than than a half-dozen supporters testified in support of the organization’s funding request at the County Board meeting this week.
“We face an unprecedented challenge,” said the organization’s founder, Tsehaye Teferra.
He told Board members that the group had just laid off more than 100 staff members nationally, including 44 from its Arlington office, owing to funding cutbacks.
“Despite the challenge, we are trying to serve as many people as we can,” Teferra said.
A total of 55 organizations submitted grant requests through the Race to Rebuilding Trust program, now in its second year. After vetting by county staff and a panel of volunteers, 23 organizations were selected to share the funds.
ECDC had been chosen for funding in last year’s selection process, receiving $150,000.
ECDC was founded in Arlington and continues to maintain its headquarters and significant operations in the county. Through the decades, the organization’s initial efforts to support immigrants from Africa have grown into services for those from across the globe.
But now, its efforts are imperiled, those who testified at the hearing said.
“The situation is real. The landscape has changed,” said Sarah Zullo, director of ECDC’s African Community Center D.C. “Do not close your door on us.”
Board members, however, said they felt obligated to follow the recommendations of the selection panel. That meant 32 of the 55 requests for grants went unfilled.
“I wish we could give everyone who applied some money,” said Board member JD Spain Sr., who with his colleagues said the county government is working with nonprofits to find other avenues of support.
Board Chair Takis Karantonis, who ultimately abstained in the 4-0 vote, said the funding being sought by ECDC was more for operational needs than the type of effort being funded through the Race to Rebuilding initiative.
“It is designed to support innovation — expanding into places we haven’t been before,” Karantonis said.
The chair voiced concern that such an aspiration was a luxury in difficult economic times. But since that was how the grant program was designed, he said he didn’t feel comfortable second-guessing the staff and volunteers that had vetted the submissions.
Grant funding for the coming fiscal year ranged up to $150,000 per organization. Education, health, employment and legal-aid services were among the areas most often receiving funding.
The funds will be available to awardees starting in July.
The 55 proposals received for Fiscal Year 2026 represented an increase from the first year of the program, when there were 38. In the first year, 22 grants totaling $2.4 million were awarded.
