Developed in Harlem in 2013, Barbershop Books has created child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops and provided early literacy training to barbers across America. They have leveraged the cultural significance of barbershops in Black communities to increase Black boys’ access to culturally relevant, age appropriate, and gender responsive children’s books.

ConTextos offers a platform for people to claim and share their own narratives to overcome trauma, violence, injustice, and inequity. At the core of their work is their innovative Authors Circle model—a facilitated process of reading, writing, critical dialogue, and structured critique culminating in the publication of personal narratives that are healing for Authors while engaging and inspiring for audiences.

Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio, is the oldest producing Black theatre in the country with a mission to produce professional theatre, provide arts education, and present community programs for all people while honoring the Black experience. Founded in 1915 as part of the settlement house movement, Karamu has a commitment to inclusion and equity through the arts. Karamu has developed a virtual Social Justice Series that is both an artistic response and a vehicle for community conversation to celebrate, educate, and activate around issues of importance for the Black community.

Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church founded the Little Rock CDC (Community Development Corporation) to expand on the human services it has been performing for low-income students, individuals, and families through health, educational attainment, human welfare, and economic opportunities. Project Rise Up and Walk is an afterschool enrichment program to provide one-on-one assistance to children.

Living Classrooms provides access to more equitable education, workforce development, community safety, and health and wellness opportunities. They have collaborated with community members in Baltimore and Washington, DC to create diverse programs that are community-driven, research-based, and ultimately designed to disrupt the ecosystem of poverty that can be directly traced to historic and contemporary racial, social, and economic disparities.

Salt and Light Collaborative, Inc.’s mission is to build up people, build up communities, and back up faith-based organizations. They provide counseling, life coaching services, and community outreach and workshops. Their Black in Therapy program seeks to address the effects of race and racism on mental health and help people of color find healing and ways to cope. 

Inclusion NextWork is a collective impact network of emerging leaders and organizations committed to advancing how we activate IDEAS: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Social Justice in our personal, professional, and civic lives. Given the renewed reckoning around racial justice and disparate impact of COVID–19 on communities of color specifically and mental health generally, Millennial and Gen–Z IDEAS practitioners and advocates need spaces for community, care, healing, and solidarity now more than ever.

Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio, is the oldest producing Black theatre in the country with a mission to produce professional theatre, provide arts education, and present community programs for all people while honoring the Black experience. Founded in 1915 as part of the settlement house movement, Karamu has a commitment to inclusion and equity through the arts. Karamu has developed a virtual Social Justice Series that is both an artistic response and a vehicle for community conversation to celebrate, educate, and activate around issues of importance for the Black community.

LEAD Girls (Learning Everyday Accomplishing Dreams) is dedicated to providing the tools and resources that low-income/at-risk preteen girls must have to become productive citizens and active leaders in their communities. Using an evidence-based curriculum, LEAD encourages and mentors girls to aspire and achieve greatness academically, emotionally and creatively. They believe when you change a girl, you change a community and eventually change the world!

Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church founded the Little Rock CDC (Community Development Corporation) to expand on the human services it has been performing for low-income students, individuals, and families through health, educational attainment, human welfare, and economic opportunities. Project Rise Up and Walk is an afterschool enrichment program to provide one-on-one assistance to children.