The Black Prosperity Initiative (BPI) is a project led by All Home to cultivate Black prosperity in all its forms through self-reclamation and collective reimagining. 

Black peoples’ brilliance and strength are woven into the tapestry of the Bay Area, as neighbors, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, as culture-makers, and more. Despite our immeasurable contributions, we have had to learn to live within intentional, systematic discrimination, in environments of violence and under-resourced communities that continue today. This has led to stark disparities in education, income, housing, criminal justice, health, and employment designed to hold us back from flourishing in our communities and understanding who we truly are as a people.  We are a resilient and powerful people, and the region can only truly thrive when our Black community is thriving!

As part of the pilot iteration of BPI, we conducted a series of Thought Leader Discussions where we convened small groups of Black people from the Oakland community to talk about what prosperity means to them and what they felt was needed for transformation within our communities and ourselves.  The overwhelming answer was “more time for us to be together like this, in discussion around the truth of us.”  We felt the exact same way and wanted to create a space that would be solely for Black people to reflect each other in our brilliance, in our grace, in our shine.  

This is the basis of Explorations on Black Liberation—a book and a facilitated experience that take participants on a journey of self-reclamation and collective reimagining.  Below is a further breakdown of the process: 

Premise: Exploration of our inherent prosperity within.  It is not someplace to get to, it is our birthright, our inheritance, our very nature.  Prosperity and abundance do not exist outside of us, they are the essence of who we are.

Experience: Robin Raveneau created the Explorations on Black Liberation (EBL) book as a way to explore this idea through inspiring quotes, images, and writings that speak to the ways that white supremacist culture, colonization and capitalism attempt to keep us from the truth of who we are.  

EBL is designed as a companion to all the current work, efforts and strategies already in place throughout Oakland’s Black community around the historical, systemic atrocities of white supremacist culture, colonization and capitalism. A brief respite of introspection to remember who we are as a people, and for individual contemplation around thoughts of internalized ideas of our worthiness and Black liberation.  

Sessions: Starting in Spring 2025, Robin will facilitate one cohort per month of 5 to 10 people. 

  • Week 1 will include the first session, an in-person gathering to introduce the project and give the participants the EBL book.
  • Weeks 2 and 3 are for each person to continue the explorations and answer the questions in the book. Robin will check in with each participant to see how they’re doing and to talk about any thoughts, ideas and feelings that may be coming up. There will also be a group chat set up for attendees to communicate throughout the process.
  • Week 4 is for the group to reconvene over an intimate, private dinner catered by a Black chef to share their experiences and complete an evaluation. This final week will also include a facilitated Vision Board experience for each attendee to reimagine themselves and their community.

To learn more or bring an EBL cohort to your community, contact Robin Raveneau, Program Manager, at [email protected].