Community engagement (to Date):

• DUBS hosts an annual art show fundraiser at Gallery VOX. Proceeds benefit the local Tarrant Community and the DUBS Scholarship and Teacher Grant Funds.

• DUBS has awarded eight $1000 Excellence First Scholarship awards since 2021.

• DUBS has financially supported A Promise to Help since 2020 with initiatives aimed at enriching the lives of grade-school students in the Black Belt of Alabama including a toy drive in Vredenburgh, AL and a back-to-school drive in Camden, AL.

• DUBS is a sponsor for the 2021 poetry anthology for Desert Island Supply Co., which prioritizes teaching creative writing to elementary school children in the Greater Birmingham area. 

• DUBS has an ongoing blog series entitled “Educating the People” (ETP) where we provide perspective and resources on topics that are commonly misunderstood or underappreciated.

Background

DUBS Foundation was launched in February 2020 by Lamario J. Williams, who was inspired to create this organization principally due to the extreme generosity of the John Stallworth Foundation. The John Stallworth Foundation provided funds for Mr. Williams to cover all college expenses and participate in opportunities that significantly enhanced his undergraduate experience. Mr. Williams was driven to create a non-profit because of his sincere desire to see others achieve their life goals.

VISION:

Social Contract

This organization strives to promote well-being for more while minimizing suffering. We are on a mission to help end poverty by prioritizing equity and justice. We fully understand that much of the suffering in this modern world is due to economic oppression mediated, in part, by educational and healthcare disparities. Educational disparities are evident in graduation rates, standardized test scores, soft skill preparation, and extracurricular opportunities. While health requires a great deal of self-responsibility, there are a number of societal and institutional barriers that exist, including job stress, culture, food deserts, and access to quality healthcare.

DUBS Foundation will continually advocate for economic justice, encouraging everyone to buy into a social contract based on love and peace. As humans, we all have the right to thrive in life. We strive to provide the needs forgotten people deserve through scholarship and healthy living. We unequivocally oppose all forms of oppression and exploitation. We hope to enlighten people so that we can all maximize well-being. 

“Paying Love Forward”

Money isn’t everything.  In fact, we ascribe to the belief that the love of money is the root of all evil. Our aim is to instead use money as a tool to minimize economic barriers, promote equality, and provide for those who are suffering, while also denouncing persons and institutions who employ oppressive and/or exploitative practices in the service of amassing excess capital. As such, our financial contributions will be prioritized as follows:

Scholastic Excellence

• Directly supporting ambitious young minds pursuing higher education

• Directly supporting and uplifting creative and passionate educators

• Advocating for curriculum reform that better mends the sciences and the arts in order to enhance career trajectory

Healthy Lifestyle 

• Educating individuals on approaches to making healthy lifestyle choices

• Supporting the healthcare providers doing community work

• Enhancing access to healthy lifestyle opportunities and minimizing disparities in order to prevent career detours

We believe these goals will allow for future generations to provide for and thoroughly enjoy the company of their loved ones. We feel a moral obligation to ensure that money is not a limiting factor in people achieving prosperity and peace. No need to pay us back, we simply hope that you pay the love forward. 

Bridging gaps

In a world that has historically been lacking in technology and rapid travel capability, humanity has existed mostly in tribes. The priority for a tribe member has been to protect his own tribe and not typically have forthright trust in the intentions of other tribes. In this modern world, tribes should most certainly keep their identities, but we have to work towards transcending oppressive and exploitative tactics for securing resources. At DUBS Foundation, we hope to build two-way bridges between different communities. Continually being at war with other communities is quite frankly not sustainable. We hope that the bridges formed will encourage different communities to learn from others. The goal here is longevity, and we already know love lasts forever.

Purpose

As a non-profit charitable organization, we are in the privileged position of being able to benefit the lives of others. That puts us in a position of power, so we want to prioritize doing what is morally best. We realize that morals are incredibly individualistic. As such, our Executive Board exhibits diversity in thoughts, perspectives, cultures and careers. 

Let us be clear: career does not have to equate to purpose or self-identity. However, it is beneficial to be able to find and stay in a career where there is a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Having a career is an important part to being able to provide for yourself and your loved ones. The purpose of this non-profit is to ensure young minds have access to the careers they prefer and excel in, while ensuring that all people are enabled with the capacity to minimize the likelihood for preventable chronic disease. Chronic disease could seriously derail career opportunities and enjoyable time spent with loved ones. These two pillars, scholarliness and health, are critical to making modern society as a whole thrive. 

Our organization’s purpose is outlined as follows:

• TRUST

  • When young minds trust their knowledge and understanding, they are able to trust their capacity to reach their life goals

  • We seek to help build the trust of the general public with science and the healthcare system

    • We aim to provide trustworthy education on how to live healthy lives

• CURIOSITY

  • When young minds are encouraged to be curious it can promote creativity, which is important in art and science

  • We are driven to understand how institutional, cultural, and behavioral barriers affect long term health 

    • We plan to seek out answers and apply them to communities when possible

• LOVE

  • When young minds can have passion for acquiring knowledge and achieving true understanding, it inspires them to discover new ways to optimize human connection and respect for the planet

  • When chronic disease can be prevented and mental well-being is optimized, it allows people to love themselves and love others better

• GROWTH

  • "Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow." - Margaret Fuller

  • In every type of way, we are always looking for ways to grow, evolve, and understand more about the world and each other

Accountability

Accountability is an important concept in any part of society, but particularly for non-profit organizations. We will post our yearly finances on the “RECORDS” tab of this website. We understand that sometimes non-profits will do work that isn’t very impactful (i.e., yearly repainting a wall in a remote Central American village). We never intend to do charitable work just for the sake of doing something. We will always strive to connect with those we hope to help, and allow them to guide us in our efforts to support them. The DUBS Foundation is independently operated by its Executive Board as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (public charity). 

• View our Guidestar Certification here.

• Multiply your giving impact here.

We also strive to hold other institutions accountable. We intend to call out policy failures, particularly ones that are not ethical or that don’t provide equitable economic justice. We understand that many corporations have become incredibly powerful, so we hope to educate about corporate social responsibility. We especially detest oppression and exploitation, and we plan to hold accountable the corporations that lead with these intentions. 

We expect our efforts to benefit society by encouraging young minds to maximize their creativity and potential. We also expect that our efforts will help minimize lost productivity due to citizens dealing with chronic disease. All in all, we hope that our efforts enhance human connection and growth.

Scholastic Excellence

• Providing scholarships for higher learning

• Granting classroom enhancement funds for teachers

• Promoting STEAM education 

• Prioritizing learning soft skills in educational curriculum

Healthy Lifestyle

• Incentivizing & ensuring access to healthy living opportunities

• Highlighting quality nutritional education

• Encouraging healthy coping while recognizing societal/institutional stressors

• Emphasizing the role of art in psychosomatic medicine education

ACCOUNTABILITY

• Raising awareness about unknown or underappreciated topics

• Promoting institutional responsibility for ethical practices