From learning about your own identities, to fostering interpersonal inclusion, to interrogating our systems of injustice — there are many powerful ways that we can engage daily in service for justice.

Choose 1 or 2 of the options to engage in each day during this challenge. If you have time, do more. Set aside time to reflect. What did you feel? What did you learn? How has your perspective changed? What does this mean to you?

[ORGANIZATION] [DONATIONS]

The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union — beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.

For more than one hundred years, ACLU lawyers have been at the center of one history-making court case after another, participating in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization. With attorneys nationwide, we handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated.

[ORGANIZATION] [DONATIONS]

National CARES Mentoring Movement is a pioneering community-galvanizing movement dedicated to alleviating intergenerational poverty among African Americans. It offers Black children in low-income families and unstable communities the social, emotional and academic supports they need to unleash their potential and graduate from high school prepared to succeed in college or vocational-training programs and 21st-century careers. We employ two primary strategies. The proven-effective, consciousness-shifting model, ideated and built by experts over a decade, unearths hope and resilience in our young living with trauma-causing impacts of poverty—homelessness, hunger, unrelenting violence, gravely under-resourced schools and overwhelmed parents and teachers. The traumatic stress children in poverty live with fuels mental illness and physical disease, including anxiety, depression, hypertension, substance abuse, obesity, violence and also the recent spike in suicide.

[BOOK]

Black Fatigue is the first book to name and describe a phenomena Black people know well: the multifaceted physical and psychological damage wrought by simply living, day by day, in a racist society. This is a vital resource for Black and non-Black people who are looking for ways to heal, learn, and have productive and supportive conversations about racial injustice and trauma. To move forward, we need to know where we came from and where we are — Black Fatigue is the foundation from which we can begin to imagine a better world, together.

[VIDEO]

This video explains 'adultification bias' and highlights some of the stories discussed by Black women and girls during focus-group research conducted by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty's Initiative on Gender Justice and Opportunity. Share your story at www.endadultificationbias.org

[ARTICLE]

When you're a person of color, finding a clinician who shares your identity (be it ethnic, racial, or cultural), or who is also a POC, may become one of the top items in your list of “what I want in my therapist.” Here are six steps for finding a therapist of color who's right for you!

Originally sourced from: A guide to black wellness

[ARTICLE]

Here are some key questions to ask when scouting for a new therapist as a woman or queer person of color.

Originally sourced from: A guide to black wellness

[INTERACTIVE ONLINE EVENT]

Self care has never been more important than in the past year. It not only rejuvenates our bodies, but it also feeds our souls and it's essential for remaining resilient in difficult times. At It's Lit, we recognized a lack of spaces for Black and brown communities to celebrate ourselves and our culture, so we strive to provide the opportunities for authentically diverse communities to practice self care and find joy. If you find yourself needing to unwind, reminisce with us at our upcoming Girlfriends Trivia as we celebrate a successful Black show that ran for 8 seasons (and is currently available on Netflix). Tickets are $5 for individuals, and $10 for teams and can be purchased here. The winning team will receive a $50 gift card prize.

In my freelance work as “The Dramatic Health Educator,” I curate interactive and educational arts-based health and social justice interventions, workshops, performances, and other programming. Some of this work includes theatrical projects such as The #StayHome Project and We’re Having a Party! I am particularly interested in using theatre and storytelling pedagogies in health to address Black maternal and child health, adolescent health, and intervention-based research. More so, I offer consulting services and health coaching when able. I enjoy sharing wellness related tips on my Instagram (@DramaticHealthEducator). I have presented at the North Atlantic Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) 40th annual conference and the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) 4th annual conference.

Soul Circle is a Women’s Arts & Health Collective creating brave spaces for Women and Girls of Color to explore health and justice through art, performance, and storytelling. We are centering Black and Brown Women & Girls by putting art and culture at the forefront of our offerings…meeting you exactly where you are through a diverse sisterhood

Hey, hey! I'm Bre, the founder of Brown Girl Self-Care.

After my brother was killed in 2017 I was reminded that life can be short and I didn't want to spend another moment feeling stuck, unhealthy and miserable. From that point on I started implementing small habits into my day that helped me prioritize my wellness. I was no longer stuck but instead was blooming, becoming more free AND loving myself and life much more!! This is why Brown Girl Self-Care was started. I want to see all Black and Brown women live life with an overflow of abundance, longevity, health and happiness.

[VIDEO]

In this 1992 Oprah Show episode, award-winning anti-racism activist and educator Jane Elliott taught the audience a tough lesson about racism by demonstrating just how easy it is to learn prejudice. Watch as the audience, totally unaware that an exercise is underway, gets separated into two groups based on the color of their eyes. The blue-eyes group was discriminated against while the people with brown eyes were treated with respect. Jane says she first started this exercise in her third grade class back in 1968, the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

[VIDEO]

T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, founders of the health nonprofit GirlTrek, are on a mission to reduce the leading causes of preventable death among Black women -- and build communities in the process. How? By getting one million women and girls to prioritize their self-care, lacing up their shoes and walking in the direction of their healthiest, most fulfilled lives.

[ARTICLE]

There has been a shift in America following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Their wrongful deaths, as well as those of many other Black lives, have sparked nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality, shining a light on racial injustice and oppression.

With more people having conversations about race, many are looking to works of literature to better help them understand the issues that Black people face in the United States. From powerful essays, personal stories, non-fiction accounts of mass incarceration and police violence, Black authors have shared their experiences through the written word. While all wide-ranging, they all have one thing in common, highlighting the perils of racism in the U.S.

Here is a collection of books by Black authors that explore race in America.

[ARTICLE] by Doreen St. Félix
The details of the killing of Nia Wilson are particular in their horror, but her death also brings into brutal focus multiple American crises. Photograph by Jim Wilson / The New York Times / Redux

[ARTICLE]

Using databases from Mapping Police Violence and The Washington Post, CBS News has compiled a list of 164 Black men and women who were killed by police from January 1 to August 31, 2020. Many of the cases remain under investigation.

This data is based on reported and verified cases, and does not necessarily account for all incidents in which a person was killed by police. But based on the known cases, police have killed at least one Black person every week since January 1, and only two states — Rhode Island and Vermont — have reported no killings by police this year.

[ARTICLE] by Coshandra Dillard

Located in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, a town founded by former slaves, the tombstone of Fannie Lou Hamer features an unusual inscription. Bordered on each side by urns overflowing with flowers, the Civil Rights icon’s gravestone doesn’t just include the date of her birth (October 16, 1917), or the date of her death (March 14th, 1977). It also features her most famous quote–“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”– a phrase she coined during a speech made alongside Malcolm X, before an audience at Williams Institutional CME Church in Harlem on Dec. 20, 1964.

[ARTICLE] by Duvalier Malone

“We repeat that line over and over, almost as if we expect a complete and instant transformation in the hardened hearts of racists that will make them accept and believe those words. We think that if we continue to voice the fact that "we are people,” it will somehow break through the defenses of bigots who hate us for no reason other than the color of our skin.”

[ARTICLE] by SHERRONDA J. BROWN

“They’ve been in solidarity with Black people, many for the first time in their entire lives, for barely three weeks. And now they have “allyship fatigue.” I don’t know who coined this term. I don’t know why or to what end, and I really don’t care to. What I do know is that it’s a term that attempts to center white people and white feelings in the conversation about demanding an end to Black genocide.”

[VIDEO]

Everyone should have the opportunity to achieve good health. But, as Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones explains through her cliff analogy, that’s often not the case.

We can reduce health disparities and better connect people to high-quality medical care, but to really make a difference, we need to address the social determinants of health and equity that protect some people and push others off the cliff.

The Urban Institute collaborated with Jones to illustrate her analogy of the cliff of good health.

[ARTICLE] by JEWEL WICKER

Artists are taking to social media to remember Nia Wilson, an 18-year-old who was fatally stabbed on July 22 at the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) MacArthur Station.

[ARTICLE] by Morgan Taylor Goodwin

Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) was a term coined in 2008 by Critical Race Theorist William Smith; it was originally used in reference to the experiences of African American men in America but is now expanded to describe the negative and racially charged experiences of all people of Color (PoC’s) in the United States.

William defines racial battle fatigue as

“cumulative result of a natural race-related stress response to distressing mental and emotional conditions. These conditions emerged from constantly facing racially dismissive, demeaning, insensitive and/or hostile racial environments and individuals.”

[ORGANIZATION] [DONATIONS]

Alive and Well Communities recognize the impact of toxic stress and trauma on the health and well-being of our communities. Our communities are working to ask new questions, build common understanding, and create pathways to healing. While trauma does not discriminate and impacts all communities, our work centers the impact of the trauma of discrimination, which science increasingly shows has devastating health impacts. With all of this knowledge, we seek to build the will to change and to activate communities to heal.

[ORGANIZATION] [DONATIONS]

We are a training institution made up of yoga teachers, educators, clinicians, and activist. Our community is shaped by those who are looking to build community and receive training to enhance their leadership and engagement. We use the tools of yoga, somatics, and meditation as foundational practices of self-awareness and self-accountability which are central to effective and ethical leadership and engagement.

[ORGANIZATION] [DONATIONS]

After the death of Michael Brown, Jr. on Aug. 9, 2014, “Ferguson” came to symbolize racial strife and inequality in the United States. Throughout this country, the circumstances surrounding and following his death have sharply defined the challenges that demand transformation. The alternative to change is to accept an untenable environment that is fraught with inequities and continued conflict. The Governor asked a group of regional leaders — The Ferguson Commission — to study the situation and prove a path toward change. Forward Through Ferguson (FTF) was established as a 501(c)3 to be a catalyst for lasting positive change in the St. Louis region as outlined in the Ferguson Commission Report. Embracing the Commission’s mandate, FTF centers impacted communities and mobilizes accountable bodies to advance racially equitable systems and policies that ensure all people in the St. Louis region can thrive.