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John,
Last week, the 2024 Annual National HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Week Conference, “Raising the Bar: Where Excellence and Opportunity Meet,” took place in Philadelphia.
This year’s HBCU Conference Week featured a career and recruitment fair, sessions, and workshops aiming to uplift and center resources for HBCUs.
It’s absolutely incredible to have a week like this to highlight HBCUs and their importance as both cultural and educational centers. But here’s the thing: HBCUs need resources and investment year-round.
That’s why some of our most important work around education is centered around HBCUs, John.
We know the collective power of our Black institutions, Black cultural leaders, Black students, and Black thought leaders in Movement spaces.
That’s why the Black Lives Matter Foundation launched the HBCU Student Ambassador Program. The BLM Foundation HBCU Student Ambassador Program is an initiative and partnership between HBCU students and alumni from a wide range of schools and BLM Foundation to ensure a diverse set of HBCU students had access, knowledge, and ability to apply for for the BLM Foundation Student Solidarity Fund we launched last year.
The BLM Foundation HBCU Student Ambassadors are a diverse group of HBCU current students and alumni. They provide invaluable perspective and understanding about the HBCU experience and, with their individual communities and networks both on and off campus, are able to mobilize HBCU student communities on issues that matter most to them.
This partnership planted the seed towards deepening relationships and collaboration between HBCU students and alumni and BLM Foundation.
The Student Solidarity Fund was launched in 2021. As people across the U.S. waited for Congress to approve a $2 trillion coronavirus pandemic relief package that included direct payments of $1,400 to those earning less than $75,000 a year.
Instead of waiting for the state to offer aid, we created our own fund that offered microgrants of $1,000 to nearly 3,000 Black people.
After seeing the success of our first fund, we expanded our work. In 2022, we launched a second initiative with a $500,000 fund which awarded grants to more than 500 HBCU students and Black alumni from various colleges and universities. This relief was also awarded to those who did not complete their degree but still carry student loan debt.
This is just the beginning of our educational work. Our people work on all fronts, reimagining our futures and empowering generations to come and we’re excited to keep building and supporting relationships that best serve our communities.
Can you help us continue our work to support Black students of all ages, backgrounds, and stages of education by contributing anything you can right now? As a reminder, we’ve set a goal to raise $17,000 by September 30!
—Team Black Lives Matter
Our grassroots movement is pushing for Black liberation every single day. We are striving to create a world where Black people do so much more than just survive. It’s time we thrive.
As an organization one of our biggest hurdles is consistency.
A recurring contribution of anything you can afford goes a long way as we plan for the months, years, and even decades ahead. This is the most effective way for small-dollar donors (like you) to power our Black liberation work.
Will you make a recurring contribution of $5 or more today so that we can keep building momentum for our movement?
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