2021 proved to be another challenging year, as communities around the world continued to grapple with COVID-19. The ongoing consequences of the pandemic are leading to greater wealth disparity and amplifying the systemic problems that disenfranchise communities and limit access to upward mobility—it is becoming harder for people to put food on the table, keep up on rent, access transportation, pursue an education or afford quality healthcare.

As Ford Motor Company’s philanthropic arm, Ford Motor Company Fund’s mission is to provide access to resources and opportunities that build equity and empower underserved and underrepresented communities to reach their highest potential.

Over the past year, we have worked to advance our mission by developing and funding initiatives that meet basic needs, provide access to essential services, open pathways to high quality jobs and use the power of mobility to create unique solutions to the most pressing social and economic challenges.

Working with nonprofit groups, community partners and across the Ford network globally, we led an effort to donate 120 million face masks to at-risk individuals and organizations in all 50 U.S. states, opened a community vaccine center in Romania, and distributed food, hygiene and medical kits to thousands of families in six countries in South America.

Through our longstanding partnerships in Black and Hispanic communities, we brought together CEOs from 11 of the nation’s leading multicultural organizations to produce a PSA issuing trusted information about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Following months of limited or modified operations, all five of our community resource centers around the world reopened for in-person programming and services. Our two facilities in Detroit, along with our centers in Romania, South Africa and Thailand provided essential food distribution, tax and legal services, entrepreneurship programs, job training and more for the residents of their neighborhoods.

Through numerous literacy, mentoring, workforce development and educational initiatives, we helped remove barriers to economic opportunities and create pathways for growth for hundreds of thousands of under-resourced individuals of all ages.

Leveraging our mobility expertise, we launched two exciting new initiatives in the Michigan Central impact area in Southwest Detroit to connect people with the things they need most. In partnership with Ford’s future technology autonomous vehicle team, we are delivering 10,000 pounds of fresh food to mobility-challenged seniors using specialized autonomous vehicle technology.

We also are providing two Black-owned dental practices with custom Ford Transit vans converted into mobile offices so they can bring access to critically needed oral healthcare to communities and residents for years to come.

As we look to 2022 and beyond, we are embarking on a time of transformation at Ford Fund, refining our focus, sharpening our priorities and reimagining the way we serve communities.

We want to find new ways to leverage Ford resources, relationships and innovations to increase our community impact and mobilize Ford employees, dealers and retirees like never before to provide even more people with opportunities to build a better future.

We want to scale our existing Ford Resource and Engagement Centers by expanding our network to serve communities where Ford has a major presence, while also developing signature programs that can be deployed in a more flexible model to support other strategic locations where Ford does business.

And we want to lean into our decades-long relationships, bringing together national partners and subject matter experts to disrupt philanthropy—designing and developing innovative solutions to solve some of the most urgent social and economic challenges.

As we advance our mission—through programming, volunteerism and grantmaking—we will ensure that serving and elevating under-resourced and underrepresented communities remains at the heart of everything we do.

Our purpose as a company is to help build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. It is a core value, ingrained in Ford’s DNA since our company’s founding more than a century ago, and it is what drives us every day at Ford Fund as we work to make people’s lives better and ensure no one gets left behind.

I invite you to learn more about the ways we served and strengthened communities in 2021 by exploring the page below.