Trauma is something few Americans can truly escape, especially Black Americans. With communities of color facing historical and systemic hurdles, trauma particularly affects our youth. Forward Promise, a national initiative, addresses the effects of these issues on boys and young men of color.

With a national office in Huntsville, Alabama, Forward Promise is dedicated to creating culturally responsive programs and solutions. Acknowledging the impact of systemic racism on Black men in America, Forward Promise facilitates grants and other funding opportunities for organizations that ensure some of those hurdles are removed for a new generation of young men, while also fostering supportive networks and relationships. This initiative pushes public systems to understand dehumanization and how it appears in their policies and practices, and beyond that, it demands change from those systems.In describing their work, Forward Promise Director Dr. Rhonda Bryant says, “We are so proud of the work our grantees are doing across the country to support boys and young men of color as they heal, grow, and thrive. Black boys and other young men of color in our funded programs are being given safe spaces in which to learn, process, and interrogate their worlds. They are healing from the wounds that dehumanization inflicts — the shame, the anger, the sadness that sometimes comes from being mistreated for their Blackness. The programs we fund become their place to grow strong. Then they become the leaders in their communities to strengthen their peers, to push back on dehumanization and to contribute to making their communities whole again.”

The concept of dehumanization is nothing new, but it takes acknowledgment to even begin dismantling such a system. Looking to build on their existing efforts, Forward Promise recently launched a five-part web series, “The Way Forward: A Webcast Series on Disrupting Dehumanization,” designed to examine the ways in which racism and ongoing historical trauma have shaped our communities.

Each episode of the web series addresses a different way dehumanization impacts boys and young men of color and their communities as a whole. These issues are tackled by experts and community activists directly involved with youth-serving institutions and services, with episodes featuring Dr. Howard Stevenson (UPenn Racial Empowerment Collaborative and Forward Promise), Héctor Sánchez-Flores (National Compadres Network), Azza Altiraifi (Abolition and Disability Justice Collective), Dr. William P. Jackson (Village of Wisdom), Dr. Phyllis Hubbard (Radiant Health Strategies) and others.

According to Forward Promise, “The Way Forward” series was designed with three primary goals: “1. Raise awareness of the five dimensions of dehumanization and how it underpins white supremacy and policies that thwart thriving in communities of color; 2. Propose solutions to disrupt dehumanization from every direction; and 3. Encourage allies to join the movement to disrupt dehumanization with actionable steps that they can take in their workplaces, schools, and in their local halls of government to positively impact the lives of boys and young men of color.”

Born out of the idea that “boys and young men of color are jewels and it is society that needs to be fixed — not these young men,” The Way Forward series is the latest way that Forward Promise is furthering their mission of ensuring that the crowns of these young men are always intact and held high.

Learn more about Forward Promise by diving into “The Way Forward” here.

This editorial was written in partnership with Forward Promise.

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