Together RI

Meet our 2026 scholarship winners

If you're a young person or a parent of a young person, you may be facing the challenge of how to pay for college.That's why the Rhode Island Foundation, in partnership w

Rebekah Gomez on Newport's Latino community

After working in the Newport schools for more than 15 years, Rebekah Gomez noticed a serious problem: Aquidneck Island was woefully unprepared to serve its Spanish-speaki

R.I. arts leaders on building community

Earlier this year, we hosted a panel discussion with  three Rhode Island Foundation grantees  who are bringing people together through the power of the arts. The panel fe

Tom Brady on the 'secret sauce' for fixing K-12 education

Rhode Island listeners will know Tom Brad, the education leader, not the football player, from when he was our Providence school superintendent from 2008 to 2011. After l

Navyn Salem on never giving up

When Navyn Salem wrote her first grant to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) she told them, I'm here because of you. Her father was the first

Eileen Hayes on getting through tragedies and celebrating miracles

For the past fifty years, Amos House has been providing food and social services to some of our neediest neighbors. Eileen Hayes has led the organization for half of that

Rabbi Sarah Mack on showing up

Rabbi Sarah Mack has spent her entire career at Temple-Beth El in Providence. In 2017, she became the first female senior rabbi of a major congregation in the city. She's

Dana Borrelli-Murray on investing in girls

Dana Borrelli-Murray is driven by the power of community, music-making, and social justice. She trained as an anthropologist, served as the Executive Director for the Hig

Manya Glassman on working with Spike Lee and learning to die

Manya Glassman grew up watching movies with her parents every night. Now, the Rhode Island native is a filmmaker herself. She's the creator of "How I Learned to Die," a s

Peter Chung on transforming young people into leaders

Peter Chung is the executive director of Young Voices, a non-profit that gives urban youth the support and training they need to become powerful advocates for systemic re

David Cicilline on Give Better Get Better

Earlier this year, David Cicilline was a guest on Give Better Get Better, a community foundation podcast. Take a listen to his conversation with host Josh Dukelow. Learn

Zita Cobb on revitalizing coastal communities

Zita Cobb grew up in Fogo Island, a small fishing community in Newfoundland. As she got older, overfishing led to a collapse of the industry, and her family was forced to

Pam Johnston on the future of Public Media in Rhode Island

Pam Johnston has devoted her career to journalism- she started as a producer at TV stations in places like Maine and North Carolina, and went on to oversee news programmi

Revising Rhode Island's funding formula

One of the hard problems we face here in Rhode Island is our school funding formula. The current system is broken, unfair, unpredictable, and insufficient.   Last yea

David Cicilline on Club Ambition

This week, we're doing something a little different- letting you listen in on a conversation our host, David Cicilline, had on another podcast.   Earlier this year, he

Meet Providence Bishop Lewandowski

Providence Bishop Bruce Lewandowski says he entered the priesthood to be a missionary. So, when he got the call to become the auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, he asked, 'Ar

John Palfrey on the work of the MacArthur Foundation

Occasionally, the Rhode Island Foundation connects with thought leaders who are doing interesting work that might inform our efforts. We had our latest conversation wit

Melissa Cherney on responding to the SNAP crisis

More than 140,000 Rhode Islanders rely on supplemental nutrition assistance, known as SNAP, from the federal government to buy their food. But, because of the government

The program helping RI schools throw away less food

Rhode Island schools throw away nearly 2,500 tons of food into the landfill every year. And nearly 400 tons of that food is perfectly edible. That's a problem for a lot o

NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley on addressing RI's housing shortage

Affordable housing is one of Rhode Island's most pressing issues. According to a recent poll, more than 90 percent of Rhode Islanders say housing costs are a problem, and