Black Girls Rising — Franklin County Youth-Led Primary Prevention Initiative

The mission of Black Girls Rising is “Placing Black girls at Promise.” This mission statement was inspired by a quote from the American Psychological Association Task Force on Resilience and Strength in Black Children and Adolescents (2008), “For African American adolescents to develop into individuals actively engaged in optimal personal and collective development, they must be placed “at promise” as opposed to “at risk” in order to become contributing members of their families, schools, communities, and the broader society.” In 2015, the first RSR Black Girls Think Tank (BGTT) was started.

The RSR BGTT is a researched-based program and is designed as a safe space for girls to critically analyze and dialogue the quality of life issues that affect Black girls in their communities and in their schools. Specifically, the girls give voice to their concerns through developing critical thinking skills, learning to communicate across barriers and building community with each other over class, family relationships, backgrounds and life experiences. The Black Girl Think Tank was created to provide a safe space for girls to critically analyze and dialogue about the quality of life issues that affect black girls in their community and school.

““While being a part of BGTT, we develop leadership skills, attend workshops and have small group discussions to build unity among us. We work hard to provide solutions for problems happening in our community.”- Member of the BGTT Charter Class. ”

The members of the Black Girls Think Tank are currently designing and implementing a social change campaign called, "I Am Good Enough" to raise awareness, remove the stigma and barriers to accessing mental health services and to provide resources to Black girls and boys in our community. The campaign goals are:

To raise awareness and to educate the community that the 6 areas of concern identified by the RSR BGTT: colorism, bullying, depression, LGBTQ+, body image and self-defense, and how these issues impact the mental health of Black girls.
Remove the stigma around these areas of concern
Help girls to become comfortable in their own skin
Get the community to talk about these issues

Who Am I As A Black Girl?

An event addressing the stigma of mental health in the Black community. This was a performing arts and spoken word event at the Davis Performing Arts Center on November 21st, 2019

The entire cast of the Performance, the Rise Sister Rise Black Girl Think Tank, the adult sisters of the Rise Sister Rise Committee and the Performing artists at the “Who Am I As A Black Girl?”

Spoken Word Artist, Caroline Bennett at the mike performing her poetry on the resiliency of Black girls at the “Who Am I As A Black Girl?”

Natina Jenkins, Co-Chair of the Rise Sister Rise Black Girl Think Tank performing a Dance at the “Who Am I As A Black Girl?”

Yamaya Jones and Sole’Hampton, Mistresses of Ceremony for the “Who Am I As A Black Girl?”

International Women's Day 2019

Pictured are girls that attended the Multicultural Girls Program, "Girl Issues, Girl Voices". at City Hall. The girls were honored by City Council member, Priscilla Tyson in celebration of International Women's Day in March, 2019

The girls were invited to share spoken word and poetry at the 2020 MLK, JR event at the King Complex in January. They performed in an exceptional way for an audience of over 400 people. One of the girls, Kelli Shivers received a standing ovation!

Picture of (right to left) Black Girl Think Tank Charter member Aliya Horton, Councilmember Tyson, and BGTT Charter member Paiden Williams. The picture was taken during the beginning process of the establishment of the Commission on Black Girls created by Council member Tyson. Paiden Williams was selected by Council Member Tyson to a position on the Commission to represent the voice of girls and as a representative of Rise Sister Rise.

Rise Sister Rise Black Girl Think Tank members with the President and CEO of the National Crittenton Foundation, Jeannette Pai-Espinosa at the National In Solidarity Conference for Girls of Color in Atlanta, Georgia in May, 2019. The girls were invited by the Foundation to share their “Get Woke With Us” program, conversations with boys about boy-girl relationships from a girls’ lens.

(from right to left: Yamaya Jones, Anaiya Jenkins, Natina Jenkins, Adult Sister Alice Porter, Jeannette Pai-Espinsosa, Aliya Horton, Paiden Williams, Kelli Shivers, Adult Sisters Lara Belliston Cobb and Victoria Reese)

Picture of Paiden Williams (3rd right to left)

Georgetown University Center on Poverty and Inequality is a Rise Sister Rise partner and last year they invited us to send a member of our Think Tank to share her story of adultification bias at a special conference they were hosting.

Paiden Williams, a Commissioner on the Columbus Commission on Black Girls and Charter Think Tank member submitted her story and was selected to present at the Conference, "Girlhood Interrupted".