2022 Black Well-being Final w links for Web 11.29.22 - Flipbook - Page 47
BLACK WELL-BEING REPORT 2022
Community Identified
Approaches
to Public Safety
BLACK FUTURE CO-OP FUND
We want the freedom to be, to take up space, to be
spontaneous. We want to feel relief, ease, peace, and joy. Our
vision is one where we have land to care for and homes in
which we can care for each other.
We envision radical inclusion and validation, of laughter and
joy, and of listening, trust, and curiosity. Despite the conditions
of society, we have always managed to find moments and
spaces of safety. To make those moments a constant reality,
the conditions of society need to shift.
Educate, motivate, and empower Black communities, especially youth
This looks like raising a generation of critical thinkers who are hungry for not only
information, but wisdom — the ability to apply what they know appropriately in the
context. We can channel the imagination and energy of youth constructively from
an early age toward building a world in which our norms are freedom and joy. Every
one of us has a role in this.
• Take an intergenerational, multisector approach to learning
and organizing; we keep us safe.
• Put resources toward Black innovation — Black storytelling,
Black projects, Black creativity — to educate and mobilize
our community.
• Deeply integrate civics education into the school curriculum
to show how historical and present day decisions are relevant
to students’ lives.
• Hire more Black teachers. They are important mentors and
role models.
Fund Black brilliance to ideate, plan, and implement nuanced public
safety solutions
Black people, like any grouping of people, have different, sometimes opposing,
sometimes intersecting needs and wants. Rather than expecting that we all have
one approach, it is important to recognize that in a diversity of approaches we’re
stronger. Cultural, geographic, historical nuances matter to our approaches.
• Factor in that it takes time (and therefore money) to convene
so we can plan and implement the public safety solutions we
know work.
• Direct funding to Black organizations and community members
so we can advocate and organize for what keeps us safe.
• Fund free advocacy training for Black organizations — advocacy
is our legal right. Knowing how laws work is critical to public
safety.
• Get clear about which experts are needed during which parts
of the conversation and work — elevate Black leaders across all
sectors of society to participate in planning and implementation.
• Design funding and planning cycles that are responsive to
community, not the other way around. Removing a false sense of
urgency give us the space do be thorough and effective.
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