our partners
HIGHLIGHTED PARTNERSHIPS: Building a Black Future
black aids institute: Black treatment advocates network advocacy plans
Building Black futures means keeping out communities safe and healthy. We are excited to continue building Black futures by working with the Black Aids Institute to provide advocacy trainings and develop advocacy plans for 12 of their Black Treatment Advocates Network groups nationally.
BTAN is a national network of HIV/AIDS stakeholders including service providers, community members and leaders, educators, and people living with HIV/AIDS, who mobilize Black communities across the country to confront HIV. BTAN also aims to address the systemic barriers that perpetuate health disparities. To do this, BTAN’s main goals are to ensure there are enough Black-serving institutions and Black leaders with the skills, capacity, and social capital to ensure equitable access and utilization of up-to-date HIV prevention and treatment strategies for all Black people.
Check out the advocacy plan we developed for Atlanta below.
atlanta/Fulton Policing alternatives & Diversion Initiative
To help reimagine public safety BFG had the opportunity to collaborate with PAD as they expanded their services via community referrals through 311. PAD partners with the City of Atlanta’s 311 non-emergency services line to facilitate outreach to individuals experiencing quality of life concerns related to mental health, substance use or extreme poverty.
Community members in Atlanta Police Department Zones 5 and 6 can call 311 regarding issues of community concern related to behavioral health or poverty. Our Harm Reduction team responds to the referral request and offer individuals short-term care navigation, stabilizing supports, and warm referrals to other service providers.
BFG cohosted three community listening sessions to share the expansion of PAD services to the community, to get some qualitative data for the PAD team. Check out the report using the button below.
Leading through Education, Advocacy & Resistance with our Neighbors (LEARN) Trauma Informed Advocacy: University of Houston
In response to community-voiced needs, SUSTAIN, in collaboration with expert consultant Black Futurists Group, designed and implemented LEARN Trauma Informed Advocacy. LEARN Advocacy is a collective learning program that provides organizations an opportunity to learn about trauma-informed approaches to policy and advocacy, and build a network across the South with their peers. Four organizations were granted $5k each to implement learned skills via projects. This cohort of LEARN Advocacy began in March 2020 and completed in August 2020. Over the course of 6-months BFG was able to provide these organizations with the following: 4 organizations were awarded a total of $20,000, 8 individuals participated in LEARN Advocacy, 9 bi-monthly virtual group sessions, 20 one-on-one coaching sessions, and 2 days of virtual convening (in place of In Person Meeting).
To see the full report of our collaborative work click the button below.
Communities over Cages: Close the jail ATL Campaign
Close the Jail ATL is a transformative campaign that seeks to divest $32.5 million from the Atlanta City Detention Center to close and repurpose facility and reallocate its funding towards citywide restorative justice programs and the development of a multipurpose community center that focuses on the needs of undocumented folks, Black women, formerly incarcerated individuals, LGBTQ youth, and other groups impacted by a broken legal system, hyper-criminalization, and historic racism.
This transformative campaign was envisioned by formerly incarcerated women and is led by Women on the Rise, Racial Justice Action Center, and the Solution Not Punishment Collaborative in partnership with the Black Futurist Group.
This campaign fits uniquely within our vision for a future where we divest from racist, broken, and harmful institutions and invest in restorative and transformative justice models that give directly impacted communities more say and representation in our collective safety and prosperity.
The key goals of this campaign are:
Passage of legislation to official close the Atlanta City Detention Center and create a community design team to repurpose the facility
Re-direct the $32.5 million operating budget for the jail toward repurposing the facility into a multipurpose community center and supporting community base initiatives across the city that support mental health, housing, ending homelessness, workforce development and entrepreneurship opportunities grounded in co-operative economies, and restorative and transformative justice principles. These principles keeps our community safe and prosperous.
Provide leadership models, resources, and tools for the directly impacted communities to use after the conclusion of the campaign.
National Black Leadership Commission on Aids
The Black Futurist Group partners with the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS to develop health policy and advocacy initiatives that work towards building healthy Black futures by ending HIV and other health disparities that disproportionately impact Black people.
Through this partnership, NBLCA and the Black Futurist Group educate and advise both Black elected officials and HIV advocates about policy, the legislative process, media engagement and voter education/community mobilization as essential tools in advancing Black health priorities. This partnership has resulted in:
Ongoing legislative hearings at the local and state levels with elected officials to educate them about the health priorities and concerns of Black people.
Continual training and capacity building assistance to HIV organizations and health advocates on how to effectively move legislator, the media and voters to take action on HIV and health care issues impacting Black communities.
Ongoing policy advisement to elected officials and other policy makers on health and HIV related legislation.
A first of it's kind $100,000 budget allocation in Fiscal Year 2018, a down payment by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on a larger financial commitment towards ending HIV in the City of Atlanta.
Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health
The Black Futurist Group and Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health are engaged in a partnership to end HIV in the south and achieve the goals of the Compass initiative.
The Compass Initiative is a $100 million investment to end HIV in the south over the next 10 years by increasing the capacity of community based and AIDS service organizations to engage in robust policy, advocacy, communications, and racial equity work.
By creating and providing trainings, curriculum, tool kits, and coaching opportunities, the Black Futurist Group and Emory University are able to equip organizations in the southern United States to become better advocates on issues that stand at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, health disparities, and broader social justice challenges and opportunities for transformation.
Here are the goals of this partnership:
Provide supports in the areas of policy, advocacy, communication and racial equity to organizations who are a part of a collaborative shared learning institute.
Develop advocacy plans and strategies for organizations seeking make health policies reforms in the south.
Increase the racial equity found within organizations serving Black communities and other marginalized racial group.