I Be Black Girl

Organizations focused on Black women, femmes and girls experience higher levels of all barriers to foundation funding, including identifying funding and opportunities relevant to our communities and the work we do. Of the $356 million from foundations available

for women and girls of color (WGOC) in 2017, less than $15 million, about 4.2%, was specified
as benefitting Black women and girls. The median size of grants benefitting Black women and girls was $18,000 compared to a median of $35,000 for all foundation grants reported to Candid in 2017 (Pocket Change Report). 

I plan to use these funds to appropriately resource the work of I Be Black Girl (the Collective) in Nebraska, by hiring and paying staff (including benefits) and providing adequate funds for the program areas of our work. To date, I have been leading this work unpaid while creating outsized impact for the work of the Collective like investing over nearly $100K in Black woman owned businesses, creating the first and only statewide Black maternal health coalition and supporting the passage of a natural hair discrimination ban bill as lead organizer. 

My purpose is to create Black liberation. This is manifested and created in various ways, however my specific approach is centering and creating space for Black women, femmes and girls to access and reach our full potential through the collective of I Be Black Girl. I Be Black Girl (IBBG) leads with boldness, innovation, and inspiration, actively creating a radical change-making culture that centers Black women, femmes and girls. Inspired by the work of bell hooks, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde and other Black feminist and womanist, our organization provides transformational change at the intersections of gender and race. We envision a world where Black women, femmes and girls can access their full potential to authentically, be.  As an intermediary organization led by us for us, IBBG focuses on creating systemic change by convening key stakeholders, influencing policy, and organizing and educating the larger community. We unapologetically center our needs in a way that is not being addressed by any other organization in Nebraska. 

Systemic racism impacts access to quality healthcare, which puts Black women at higher risk of pregnancy related complications and death. Black women are 3-4X more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. The leading causes of maternal death and complications in the U.S. are heart disease, infection, embolism and hemorrhage and according to the CDC more than two thirds of these deaths are preventable. When coupled with implicit bias, income inequality, poverty, and lack of access to quality healthcare, these preventable illnesses lead to death and a lowered quality of life. The high rates of maternal death have cascading negative results to Black families and Black children. In addition to high maternal death, Black women are twice as likely as white women to experience severe maternal morbidity, or “near misses” during childbirth. These near misses also have short term and long term consequences on Black women’s health. IBBG addresses the medical, financial, and emotional impacts of maternal mortality and morbidity while directly supporting the wellbeing of Black women, femmes and folks with reproductive systems.

Black women curating the solutions and leading this work is radical in this field. IBBG is disruptive because we demand dignity, abundance and joy for us, and actively hold institutions and communities accountable to creating spaces that embed these principles. As an intermediary organization, IBBG works at the system level to create catalytic change through convening key stakeholders, influencing policy, and organizing and educating the larger community.  IBBG employs a stratified approach to addressing institutional racism hyper-focused on reproductive justice through Black maternal health. 

We believe Black women, femme and girls are integral to thriving vibrant communities, yet experiences of racism, sexism, adultification, and transphobia that minimize our ability to live authentically and access our full potential. We are routinely invisible in research, advocacy, and policy. Our experiences are lost at the intersection of race and gender, overshadowed by the experiences of our counterparts. As a result, we are inhibited by structural barriers and systemic oppression. We have seen through our other program areas, that we are able to reach our goals and have impact for our community. We have hired on Ubuntu Research and Evaluation, to refine our theory of change and strategy which will be ready July 2021. Over the course of ten years, we strive through a stratified approach to lower rates of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and mortality resulting in fewer Black women and birthing folks dying from childbirth, and experience healthier outcomes for those birthing folks and their families. We will provide birth worker certification and training and address the institutional racism that is embedded in the medical maternal health system by increasing the number of skilled Black women trained to work in leadership roles.