By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Black Future Co-Op Fund (BFCF), Washington State’s first Blac-led philanthropic organization, recently released its 2022 Black Well-Being Report. The comprehensive, data driven, and in-depth report is designed to inform the community, the region and the nation about the issues and the solutions needed to empower the Black community in the state.
BCFC, which was established in June 2020, seeks to shift the philanthropic paradigm by centering the beauty, strength, and soulfulness of Blackness, connect Black communities across the state in order to unify their collective power, promote a truthful Black narrative, and invest in Black generational wealth, health, and well-being.
According to a statement issued by BFCF, “The Black Well-Being report was designed to elevate our brilliance and bring forward the approaches that will result in the world we want to see. It builds on a 2015 report, Creating an Equitable Future in Washington State by Byrd Barr Place. Seven years later the landscape has shifted and accelerated the urgency for societal change. This report highlights where change is needed and illustrates a more truthful narrative — one that takes into account a diversity of voices, experiences, and approaches.”
“It is also an organizing tool. We hope you discuss the data with Black folks you work with to support community organizing, direct resources, and inform policy and systems change. Beyond the narrative in the report, there are over 150 data references for you to explore as you make the case for funding, policy change, and organizing strategies,” the statement continued.
According to Sen. T’wina Nobles, one of the founders and architects of the BFCF, the goal of the report is to inform the community about solutions to common issues/problems within the Black community with the hope of manifesting them into practice in everyday life, and not just bettering the lives Black Washingtonians but people in all communities throughout the state.
“I think what we have found in our Black Well-Being Report is a lot of information we already know,” says Nobles. “We know that there are increasing gaps in the Black experience across Washington state, what we hope the report does is give Washingtonians some of the solutions that the community thought up.”
The report offers solutions in the areas of civic engagement, education, economic mobility, public safety, health and collective action that can be taken by the community to influence policy, leverage and strengthen the overall growth of the community and highlight areas where increased funding can lead to positive results.
“The report is fuel,” says Nobles. “Fuel to help find ways that we can fund those solutions and really provoke thought from folks in the Black community, outside of the Black community, the philanthropic community, the government community.”
Infrastructure is necessary for any community to feel safe, to engage, to progress, prosper and to thrive and Nobles and her fellow founders/architects of the BCFC hope that as many people as possible use the report as a guide to help build the necessary infrastructure to empower and strengthen the resolve of marginalized, low-income and communities of colors all across the state.
“[Our intent is to] provoke some thought around on how we can do better for Black Washingtonians,” says Nobles. “How we can use this report over the next several years to guide policy, to guide change in our community and most importantly to focus on solutions that the community has already thought of, that the community has suggested, by putting those solutions into practice.”
The BFCF Black Well-Being report is available for viewing online at https://www.blackfuturewa.org/blackwellbeing.
