What We Do

Black Women’s Coalition Core Members plans, supports, and facilitates the gun violence survivor and grief circles in the community and after-death care for families. Makes decisions about how to implement community events, legislative and policy work. Schedules and supports logistics of pop-up community events and moments of blessings to commemorate and reclaim spaces with a sacred ceremony where homicides within the city of Seattle and King County occurred. We amplify the voices of mothers and engage the community through town halls, digital media campaigns, listening sessions, and healing circle work. We work collaboratively with other like-minded community-based organizations on anti-violence strategies.

1. Accountability and Oversight

This group should be built into public grant making processes to help guide community spending for violence prevention and intervention. We provide expert consultation and oversight of regional distribution of funds. Our aim is to be contractually built into the RFP process. Thereby, ensuring genuine community-informed efficacy and oversight. An accountability board will ensure that those who get grant money and contracts for community safety and gun violence prevention work are accountable to the matriarchs of the community and have measurable outcomes that meet community expectations. We offer support to the city and county to make sure that grant recipients successfully deliver services and actually reduce violence.

2. Public Awareness and Community Engagement

We host and produce pop-up community events that engage those directly impacted and call the larger community to action. We will host events, facilitate and support memorials to engage the community in a grieving and healing process. We want to facilitate “Moments of Blessing” – a sacred ceremony to commemorate a space where a homicide has occurred . We will amplify the voices of mothers across multiple platforms such as town halls, digital media campaigns, listening sessions, healing circle work and victim-offender dialogues.

3. Legislative Advocacy

We are giving a voice and building power to Black mothers who are directly impacted, but are also most invisible and silenced legislatively so that we can inform policy recommendations, connect to national initiatives, mobilize the community leading into legislative actions, and host community listening sessions to bring sustainable change. Earlier this year, Leslie Cushman connected me with Jennifer Chan who is Congresswoman Jayapal’s Legislative Director. She was interested in being connected with Washingtonians impacted by gun violence, not necessarily a killing by police, who are people of color.