MACON, Ga. — Macon-Bibb County and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia gathered at the Glorious Hope Baptist Church Wednesday morning to announce the recipients of 25 new Macon Violence Prevention Program grants for their third round of funding.
This third round dished out more than $800,000 to 16 community organizations.
One of the new recipients is Macon Black Culture, a non-profit that received $15,000 at the presentation.
Muse Dixon is the co-founder of the organization, which was established in 2022.
Macon Black Culture works under its four pillars of love, pride, unity and empowerment to strengthen the black community in Macon.
They host events, workshops, and other programs that highlight black culture, including recent county-wide Juneteenth events, as well as mental health and community engagement opportunities.
"If you care about Macon, you should care about Macon Black Culture," Dixon said. "One of the biggest goals for us is to bring in more mentors for the kids and I know this will help with that. For the debutante presentation, that is probably the biggest thing that we'll expand on."
With this new grant, they can do just that. Their goal is to include twenty girls in their upcoming debutante presentation.
Dixon says many of their programs support Northeast High School, but the goal is to expand to schools around the county, like Appling Middle School.
Darius Maynard with The Community Foundation supports cultivating that youth engagement.
"We really wanted to put some money behind those grassroots organizations to help on the street level and in the neighborhood level to help bring in those kids," Maynard said. "Some of them just need engagement. Some of them just need an opportunity. And so these organizations are here to provide that for those young people."
Dixon's team also plans to establish some scholarships with the funding.
She's grateful the county's noticed her efforts to provide opportunities for young people.
"They really believe in the work that we're doing," Dixon said. "They really believe in helping us and being a part of what we try to build for the black community in Macon. I'm just very grateful for them caring about the community enough to want us to see us go further and grow."