YOUTH CENTERED PRACTICE
EveryBlackGirl, Inc is focused on ensuring all programs and strategies center the wisdom, leadership and needs of Black girls. Core components of our youth centered strategy include allowing for youth choice, responding to youth feedback, centering youth stories, and creating opportunities for youth to learn new skills and lead.
WHAT DO BLACK GIRLS NEED TO THRIVE?
Supportive Community
Self Love
Stamina
Learning Personal
Power
Emotional Intelligence
A Creative Outlet
High Self-Esteem
Love and Care
Self-Empowerment
Feeling Worthy
Bravery
Determination
Hope
Courage
SELF-CARE
EveryBlackGirl,Inc’s
work with populations experiencing intersectional oppression, trauma and responding to high stress environments, centers the need of integrating self-care into all elements of the work.
For many participants, EveryBlackGirl, Inc. is the first place they learn about self-care as an aspect of justice work, and it serves as their sole source of growing their healing justice skills.
SELF-CARE
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Self-care practices used have included deep breathing, dancing, singing, artistic expression, storytelling circles, and drumming.
EveryBlackGirl, Inc. will continue growing this arm of the work by offering more workshops, and collaborating deeper with
schools, daycares, churches and Black owned business.
OUR TEAM
FOUNDER
VIVIAN ANDERSON
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FOUNDER
Vivian Anderson is a healer-activist dedicated to building a world where all Black girls thrive. Since 1996, Vivian’s work has been rooted in youth, teen, family and community health/well-being, racial and social justice. Vivian begin her career as a teacher in 1996 at Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology, then moved to NYC where she would run programs and become a Senior Director at the YMCA of Greater New York from 2000-2013. In 2012-2013, she became interim Executive Director of Momentum Teens, where program enrollment reached their highest numbers compared with previous years. Since 2014 she has been a member of BlackLivesMatter NYC.
In 2015, Vivian traded the rich networks of her home in New York City, for many unknowns in Columbia, SC. Her courage was inspired by that of two young Black girls, introduced to the world when a school resource officer at Spring Valley High School brutally assaulted one, Shakara, for refusing to hand over a cell phone, and threatened and arrested another, Niya, for standing up for Shakara in a moment when nobody else did. Thus, the #EveryBlackGirl campaign was born.
Since then, the #EveryBlackGirl campaign has become EveryBlackGirl, Inc, a 501c3 focused on creating the radical systemic change that is needed to have a world worthy of the genius and heart of Every Black Girl.
Dr. Gloria Boutte is a Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her scholarship focuses on equity pedagogies. She is the author/editor of five books:
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We Be Lovin’ Black Children: Becoming Learning to Be Literate About the African Diaspora;
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African Diaspora Literacy: The Heart of Transformation in K-12 Schools and Teacher Education (2019 AESA Critics Choice Award)
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Educating African American Students: And how are the children;
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Resounding Voices: School Experiences of People From Diverse Ethnic Backgrounds; and
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Multicultural Education: Raising Consciousness.
She has nearly100 publications. Dr. Boutte has presented nationally and internationally on equity issues and has received prestigious awards such as the Fulbright Scholar; Fulbright Specialist; 2020 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Outstanding Educator in the English Language Arts—Elementary Section; and the 2021 American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2021 Division K Legacy award. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students (CEEAAS). She has presented on every continent except Antarctica.
Governing Board Member
In the fall of 2019,
Dr. Aleksandra Chauhan obtained an OJJDP grant to start a Juvenile Defender Advocate position at the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense. In that position Dr. Chauhan focuses on South Carolina juvenile justice data collection, training, and support of juvenile defense attorneys in the state. Prior to that, Dr. Chauhan was an assistant public defender in Richland County, SC. In 2015-2016, she obtained two federal grants to open a Youth Reentry Program at the Public Defender’s Office. The Youth Reentry team that she supervised consisted of a social worker, youth advocates and a civil attorney. It focused on holistic representation of the youth.
Dr. Chauhan received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. During her doctoral studies she focused on researching the Convention on the Rights of the Child. After obtaining her Ph.D., she studied law and in 2013 received her J.D. at the USC School of Law. In addition to representing youth,
Dr. Chauhan is on the Board of Directors of the Lawyers’ Committee for Children’s Rights, Every Black Girl, Inc., the Columbia Film Society and is on the Advisory Committee of the Southern Juvenile Defense Center. Dr. Chauhan has presented keynotes and workshops on issues of reentry, trauma, and racial justice at local and national conferences. She is actively involved in creating systemic change in her community and raising awareness about needs and challenges youth face in their communities. Dr. Chauhan was recognized as a 2017 Juvenile Public Defender of the Year. She is a 2019 SC BAR Leadership Academy graduate and a 2020 Georgetown Law School Ambassador for Racial Justice.
SECRETARY
TREASURER
Julia Dawson is a middle school social studies teacher in Columbia, SC. She is a member of the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students (CEEAAS) teacher cohort.
Through CEEAAS, she has participated in study and exchange trips to Cameroon and Ghana. She is a graduate of the EveryBlackGirl, Inc. Legends adult leadership program.
In addition to the above, she also finds sacred: research and sharing classroom curricula and practices that are: pro-Black and rooted in actions of truth, reconciliation, restorative justice, and tikkun olam.
BOARD CHAIR
Shanequa Lassiter is a Posse Foundation and Teach for America alumni from New York City. She has served as a public school educator for 8 years in North Carolina and supported over 10 elementary schools across the Southeast region as a curriculum implementation specialist. She is a graduate of EveryBlackGirl, Inc. Legends and adult leadership program. In addition to the above, she is committed to identifying pathways to elevate the importance of mental health support and advocacy for teachers.