“Moving from Survivors from Healing to Advocacy.”
Black Women’s Blueprint is an organization that envisions a New York City in which Black communities are free from sexual violence and its consequences. BWB believes that black survivors of sexual violence have the power to advocate and pave the way for political change. The organization uses an approach to move survivors from trauma to healing through ancestral re-memory and survivor-centric approaches. In addition, Black Women’s Blueprint contributes to national policy debates about sexual health and reproductive equity.
In 2014, Black Women’s Blueprint won unprecedented recognition for Black women at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland with the first ever report and testimonies on racism and sexual assault against Black women in the U.S. to UN Committee on the Convention on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination.
BWB’s Guiding Vision
Black Women’s Blueprint envisions a world where women and girls of African descent are fully empowered and where gender, race and other disparities are erased.
Results
- The March for Black Women (M4BW): Inspired Black women and girls across identities to march on Washington on September 30, 2017, creating space for black women and girls and fueling existing movements by Black cis and trans women was a key priority for BWB. BWB reached out to Trans Sistas of Color Project (Detroit) and Black Youth Project (BYP100 Chicago) to co-organize the March with Black Women’s Blueprint, along with Sister Song (Atlanta). BWB organized over 10 Town Halls and marches in almost two-dozen cities and held critical discussions and opened dialogue across difference.
- Mute R. Kelly and Cosby Watch: Mobilizing and galvanizing Black communities to visibly challenge Black misogyny resulted in a successful campaign which is part of BWB’s Emerging Sons gender-violence prevention initiative. Through Emerging Sons BWB engaged men, stood with survivors and supported local and national actions where groups were already mobilized to interrupt R. Kelly concerts and in the case of Bill Cosby, to hold Black men who rape accountable.
- Drafting the Cities for Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Resolution in NYC: After 4 years of advocacy with the City of NY, the Cities for CEDAW campaign has gained support from the City Council, The Mayor’s Office Gender Justice initiative and BWB have a bill in draft form. BWB is the head of the Steering Committee for the Cities for CEDAW campaign in New York, andmade progress on obtaining a NYC resolution. f passed, the bill will model after the inaugural resolution first passed by the City of San Francisco in 1998 and reinvigorated at the 2014 US Conference of Mayors, which requires Including women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences in all city affairs and budget audits and corrections across all city departments to ensure line item allocations that meet the needs of women and girls of color.
