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Our Paz Foundation empowers youth, preserves African American heritage, and fosters leadership through KingMaker Chess Club and Smith + Partners | Urban Research, driving lasting community change.
Our Paz Foundation is a mission-driven private foundation dedicated to advancing equity, research, and opportunity for historically marginalized communities. We develop and support culturally grounded programs that empower youth, preserve African American heritage, and promote mental wellness and civic engagement. Guided by a vision of peace with power—not passivity, we invest in people and systems that challenge injustice and foster sustainable, community-led change.
Our flagship initiatives include the King Makers Chess Club, which cultivates critical thinking, leadership, and intellectual confidence among youth of color, and Smith + Partners | Urban Research Firm, which supports scholars and cultural practitioners working to preserve and elevate Black history and intellectual thought. Anchored in core values of justice, education, and cultural resilience, the Paz Foundation nurtures ecosystems of transformation—where peace and progress are actively lived, led, and passed on across generations.Our Paz Foundation advances equity, opportunity, and cultural resilience in historically marginalized communities by supporting youth empowerment, intellectual growth, and the preservation of African American heritage through culturally grounded programs and strategic partnerships.
We envision a world where communities are empowered, injustice is challenged, and peace is exercised with purpose—where youth, scholars, and cultural leaders thrive, and transformative change is led and sustained from within.
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