2022 Black Well-being Final w links for Web 11.29.22 - Flipbook - Page 4
BLACK WELL-BEING REPORT 2022
BLACK FUTURE CO-OP FUND
Dear Black Washingtonians,
Our things exude love. Our things are grounded in wisdom carefully gifted to us by our ancestors. And when we get together, every good thing
inside us rejoices. We are full length mirrors of mutual affirmation. We are call and response. We are hugs and full bellies. We are the gentle
hum and a resounding choir. When we come together to nurture one another, we manifest more than we imagine and everything we feel.
We did this thing.
This report is yours to own and build upon. The community identified approaches it offers only begin to reflect the mosaic of differences
among us — they are not an end point. In the coming months, we at the Black Future Coop Fund intend to hold space to talk with more of
you across the state. We’ll use this report to facilitate collective organizing, direct funds, and accelerate deep systemic change. Your continued
engagement is necessary to realize Black generational wealth, health, and well-being.
As we continue walking together, we hope this report serves as a tool to celebrate our differences as we labor and love alongside one another.
Unity, after all, does not require sameness, but rather collaboration. Let us keep the conversation going and inspire each other to act in more
powerful ways.
Thank you, Black Washingtonians and organizational partners, for offering pieces of yourselves to this report — your wisdom, your stories,
your talent, your joy, your accountability, your strength, your time. Hundreds of you across the state have contributed to this study. You planned,
amplified, connected, filmed, photographed, sang, designed, edited, coordinated, wrote, funded, and created. A very special thank you to the
Washington State Budget & Policy Center, Cardea, and Pyramid Communications for bringing life to the myriad of data and perspectives
reflected in these pages. Another very special thank you to Sharon Nyree Williams, Michael B. Maine, and Carlos Imani for co-creating a space
for our community to feel, hear, see, and contribute to this report in very specific ways that are meaningful to us.
In solidarity,
T’wina Nobles, Andrea Caupain Sanderson,
Angela Jones, and Michelle Merriweather
Black Future Co-op Fund Architects
“What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include
each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of
our individual identities. And in order for us to do this, we must allow each
other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.”
— Audre Lorde
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