LOCAL NONPROFIT RECEIVES GRANT TO SUPPORT EFFORTS TO CREATE SAFE SPACES FOR BLACK GIRLS

Co-Founders of Black Girls Break Bread Jessica Davenport-Williams, Khadija Warfield, and Jazzy Davenport-Russ (left to right) Photo Credit: Edith Bradford
Co-Founders of Black Girls Break Bread Jessica Davenport-Williams, Khadija Warfield, and Jazzy Davenport-Russ (left to right) Photo Credit: Edith Bradford

Local Nonprofit Receives Grant To Support Efforts To Create Safe Spaces For Black Girls

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

For the third year in a row, Black Girls Break Bread, a nonprofit organization that creates safe spaces for black girls to gather, has received a rapid-response grant from the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities. Austin, Garfield Park, Roseland, South Shore, Woodlawn, Englewood, Washington Park, Chatham, and North Lawndale are communities who will be the beneficiaries of the grant. The purpose of the grant is to support community organizations in their efforts to reduce violence across the city.

“Black Girls Break Bread is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that focuses on social and emotional wellness programming for black women and girls of all ages. Our effort in achieving that is by creating safe spaces, to uplift, empower and inspire and we do that in academic institutions from middle school through college as well as in high-need and high-risk populations,” said Jessica Davenport-Williams, co-founder of Black Girls Break Bread.

The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities is a coalition of more than 40 Chicago funders and foundations who have gathered their resources to financially support promising approaches to reducing gun violence in Chicago, according to information from the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities.

The goal of the grant program is to address violence in the city and Black Girls Break Bread plans to use the grant to shine a light on the violence that black women experience in Chicago and bring together black women in nine communities who experience a heightened rate of violence to have conversations about the role they play in their communities and how they can contribute to violence prevention.

“Our goal is to heighten the awareness that violence is also perpetuated in the demographic of black women and girls,” said Davenport-Williams. “Our mission in being able to host events in these communities is to be able to have open conversation about how we can take care of the women and girls in our community.

Whether it’s teen dating violence, domestic violence, suicide prevention, or depression and anxiety awareness, we want to create an understanding of the issues that our black women face.”

The conversations that they will be hosting as a result of this grant will bring together black women from all walks of life including youth, private citizens, community stakeholders, and black women working in law enforcement to discuss community issues and resolutions.

“Our goal with activating this grant is to be able to go into nine of the communities that have been identified as having high crime and be able to bridge different organizations as well as the Chicago Police Department. We want to be able to connect with a lot of the women on the force and have an open dialogue about what some of the stresses of the community are and how we can best support the community to be able to provide a safe environment,” said Davenport-Williams.

To learn more about Black Girls Break Bread visit www.blackgirlsbreakbread.org.

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