Happy Kwanzaa! from the Black Leaders Collective

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Hello,

The end of 2020 is in sight and we are incredibly blessed to have accomplished so much this year!

Your leadership to break down systems and structures of white supremacy is deeply appreciated -- by our community today -- and the generations to come.

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and as we turn our focus to the celebration of Kwanzaa, we are reminded by its principles how important collaboration and community is to our culture and our progress.

Kwanzaa was first celebrated in the aftermath of the 1966 Watts Riots. The seven principles are:

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. (source: Wikipedia)

The holidays are a perfect opportunity to reflect on the importance of family, community, and the resiliency of our people. We are our ancestors' wildest dreams and the foundation for generations to come.

In 2021, we will focus on envisioning what the Black community can be. We will also focus on healing the ways white supremacy affects us personally, and therefore our leadership. And we will continue to show up, strategize, and to act.

We are grateful to you for being a Black leader. We love you. And we need your leadership more than ever in 2021.

Have a blessed holiday season,
Terry + Shuronda

PS - Please register for our first training and healing session for Black leaders on Jan 8 and 9. Keep reading for more details!

Liberated Leadership:
Black Leaders Collective Workshop to Learn Tools to Deal with Our Own Internalized Racism
January 8-9, 2021

How will we continue to deepen our own self-awareness and understanding of how oppression operates in ourselves, our community and beyond?

The BLC is excited to bring you a national expert in helping Black and brown peoples deal with the traumas of white supremacy and internalized racism. Register today.

Rodney Thomas, a former teacher and corporate organizational development trainer, has spent his entire career "I've been fortunate enough in my career to have multiple experiences that have provided me with a set of unique skills that are applicable in both the private and public sector -- educator, consultant, project manager, instructional designer and leadership coach."

In the January workshop, Rodney will help us to understand how to be a leader in our current context. "We must first grapple with our beliefs about the very notion of how we see and experience oppression, based on individual identity and life experiences. Oppression hurts us all, no matter where we are in the social order."

This workshop will support you in identifying your core beliefs and values for how you experience the world and engage through this lens, create space for collective healing and relationship building, and identify practical steps for collective action.

Please join us for a two-day workshop on Liberated Leadership with Rodney Thomas to work through our self awareness and develop our leadership in this movement.
Jan 8, 9 a.m . - noon
Jan 9, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Meet the Trainer: Facebook Live Interview with Rodney Thomas on Liberated Leadership

#WeDidIt
Check Out the Work We've Done Together in 2020

Wow.

In a short three-month period, we completed 28 actions from our Priorities and Actions plan for the Black Community.

The Black Leaders Collective is a diverse and broad-based group of Black community leaders. In September 2020 we announced specific priorities and actions to confront systemic racism and remove barriers that impede success for our local Black community – particularly those in Travis and Williamson counties.

We captured all of our progress in the document (link below) for you to review. Also, please take note of the actions that are "in progress" -- it means we still need your leadership to move the ball forward.

But for this moment, we want to stop and say THANK YOU and congratulate ourselves for the collaboration and vision it takes to build a movement.

Take a look at what we've been able to accomplish together in 2020!

DOWNLOAD: Black Leaders Collective Priorities Update

Want to Fuel the Movement?

We are looking for help with the following to keep the movement going:

Social Media content

Website updates

Meeting Scheduling

Organizing groups and meetings

To find out more: leadership@blackleaderscollectiveatx.com

Announcements

The City of Austin Cemetery Operations Division is currently working on the next phases of implementation of the 2015 Historic Austin Cemeteries Master Plan regarding future capital improvement projects. Please take a couple of minutes to answer the following questions to help us better understand community priorities.

Please take a moment to fill out their survey.

CLICK HERE: Take the City of Austin Cemeteries Survey

The following document centers around pre-existing surveys that are centered on housing and displacement and subsequently filter through Black Experience.

CLICK HERE: Housing and Displacement Surveys

Are You A Black-led Nonprofit?

Do you lead a Black nonprofit? We want Black-led nonprofits to sign up to receive a 15-minute survey that will help us understand the needs Black-led nonprofits in the Austin MSA. Join the email list today.

CLICK HERE: Black-led Nonprofit Survey

Congratulations to Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette

who was appointed to the ATP board on December 18, 2020! Read the story here.

COVID-19 FOOD RESOURCE FLYER & HOLIDAY MEALS

Please dial 2-1-1 and Connectatx.org to find resources. They continue to work with charitable feeding organizations to reflect up-to-date information about operations, including closures. It’s recommended that clients should also call the charitable feeding location directly to confirm that they are open.

The Food Access Task Force has created this resource flyer in Spanish/English for distribution to share with people who may be struggling to meet basic needs during COVID-19. Per your suggestions, we have included a QR code that links to the food resource map. Please share widely and let us know if you need printed copies. Email Amanda.Rohlich@austintexas.gov with your requests.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: 2021 APH HEALTHY LIVING MINI-GRANT

Please see the funding announcement here from Austin Public Health and please share with your networks. Up to $2,500 will be available for projects that focus on managing and preventing chronic diseases in populations that are disproportionately impacted by health disparities. The deadline for applications is January 11^th, 2021.

AISD VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

Austin ISD will be having a mass food distribution volunteer opportunity on December 30^th 7:15 am to 12:15 pm. View flyer here. Please email Diane Grodek directly to participate: diane.grodek@austinisd.org

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE ON FOOD RESILIENCE, EQUITY & ACCESS

The Virtual Conference on Food Resilience, Equity and Access, presented by TCN Consulting, provides a forum to facilitate much needed dialogue and cooperation between local private and public organizations to share experience, know-how and best practices that address food insecurity for people most at risk during emergencies and disasters in local communities.

Jan. 27-28
Click here for more details.

JLA FOOD IN TUMMIES INITIATIVE

FIT – Food in Tummies Through FIT, more than 250 JLA member volunteers commit approximately 200 hours to packing and delivering over 8,000 food items in backpacks to 1,000 Del Valle ISD students every week during the school year. Find out how to support FIT.

AUSTIN-TRAVIS COUNTY COUNTY FOOD POLICY BOARD MEETINGS

All are welcome to participate in the Working Group Meetings! Full Board Meetings are reserved for Board Members, Presenters, and community members who sign up for Citizen Communication.

Austin-Travis County Food Policy Board - FULL BOARD JANUARY MEETING

Monday, January 4, 2021 8 am - 10 am

You can find the meeting agenda here. Register for citizen's communication by emailing the board liaison, Amanda Rohlich, at Amanda.Rohlich@austintexas.gov no later than noon January 3rd. Please include your name, item number(s) you wish to speak on, whether you are for/against/neutral, and the telephone number you will be dialing in to the meeting from. Calling in to give comment is also the way to listen live to the meeting. Meeting audio is recorded and posted to the Austin-Travis County Food Policy Board webpage.

Ongoing resources:

MAP OF FOOD ACCESS RESOURCES

Map is live on www.connectatx.org -- please share with your networks. To update organizational operations, including hours of operation and availability of services, please contact 211database@uwatx.org.

CONNECTATX

This website, maintained by 211, is reflecting current updates of the food access points in the area: http://www.connectatx.org/. See something that needs to be updated? Email 211database@uwatx.org with any updates to services.

PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Need PPE? Please email us with your specific needs (items, quantity, etc), and we can help connect organizations to resources on an individual basis. Reach out to Amanda Rohlich (Amanda.Rohlich@austintexas.gov).

BACKGROUND

The Food Access Coordination group serves as a Strategy Group within the Social Services Branch of the Incident Command Structure of the City of Austin’s Emergency Operations Center.

Previous Meeting Notes can be found here.

Previous Weekly/Daily Digests can be found here.

Ongoing action item: everyone to update contact and updates on the Emergency Food Contact List spreadsheet

About Black Leaders Collective

BLC formed in July 2020 against the backdrop of the killings of George Floyd and Mike Ramos, and widening racial disparities in wealth, health, education, and justice in Austin and surrounding cities. Following the group’s formation, BLC conducted a series of strategic planning sessions that resulted in the creation of The Black Leaders Collective Priorities & Action Plan.