Moving Forward History

Moving Forward launched in 2017, when Anselmo Ramirez and Victor Garcia were inspired to organize a community event that would support youth from their community(Richmond, California). The year prior, Victor organized a school supply drive of his own and through crowd-sourcing, he provided six backpacks to families from Richmond. Anselmo, who donated to Victor’s school supply drive, and had been working on community service projects of his own, decided to approach Victor with the idea to collaborate on a community service project. After some discussion and planning they decided they would work together and host a 5K event to raise money for a backpack giveaway, this partnership eventually led to the formation of Moving Forward. Thanks to generous community support, the first 5K event allowed Moving Forward to provide two hundred backpacks filled with school supplies to families from Richmond.

Following the success of the 5K fundraiser and backpack give away, Anselmo and Victor decided to make it a yearly event. Since then they have gradually grown the project to include several more services and provide additional resources for their Richmond community. Along the way Moving Forward added members that have played key roles in the growth and success of the project, while Victor started his own construction company and is no longer involved. Arleide Santos and Diana Salazar are two of the key members who have committed to scaling the project and maximizing the group's efforts. With their commitment, support and dedication, the operation has improved in all aspects, including a more robust scholarship program that supports young scholars from Richmond seeking a higher education.

Today, Moving Forward has given over $21,000 in scholarships to young scholars from Richmond, as well as over a thousand backpacks filled with school supplies. Not only that, Moving Forward has expanded to include life skill workshops, community clean-ups, and healthy outdoor activities for their community.  All of Moving Forward's projects have had one leading inspiration, to support the community's needs. Based on their own experiences as Richmond natives, the Moving Forward team knows first hand of the community’s needs and the importance of taking action. With additional community support, Moving Forward plans to further scale their projects to provide more resources and support to the community they serve, with an aim of helping to improve their participants' quality of life.