As we kick off Black History Month, we want to highlight and honor Black women who are making history now. These changemakers may work in different fields, but their similarities lie in the fact that their work is focused on making our world a better place, especially for the most marginalized among us. Keep reading to find out how they’re doing just that—in their own words. (Plus, learn how you can help them out!)

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

When I was born, both of my parents were struggling with heroin addiction. When I was 5, my mom was recruited into a county-based program that helped her get clean. My mom was in the program for over a year, got clean and is still clean to this day—she is now 73. I think about how different my life would be if instead of getting help, my mom had been criminalized like millions of people in this country have been for being addicted, or for being poor, or for their trauma, or for making a mistake. The people in power want us to think that there is no alternative to our prison and policing system, that the only way to keep you safe is to lock someone else up and throw away the key, and that punishment is the solution to all our problems. Well, I am the product of another way.

Today, I am the director of the Healing & Justice Center, a community based public safety program that Dream Defenders has been building alongside a coalition of organizations in Miami (The Circle of Brotherhood, Dade County Street Response, and Touching Miami with Love). Our team is made up of trusted community members with deep relationships in the neighborhoods we work in and lived experience with violence and incarceration as well as medical and mental health professionals and other types of healers. The power of our model lies in its reliance on community relationships and our ability to meet needs through a trauma-informed, culturally-competent approach.

The Healing and Justice Center’s goals are to: reduce violence without incarceration; divert people from the criminal legal system; and expand access to mental health services that address decades of trauma caused by the cycle of poverty, violence, and incarceration. We respond to and de-escalate crises and violence in our neighborhoods and connect people to long-term services. We have a hotline (1-866-SAFE-MIA) open seven days/week that dispatches our team. Some of our services include: providing mentorship and case management to those at greatest risk of becoming a victim or a perpetrator of violence; supporting survivors of violence through therapy and case management to help them meet their basic needs in the aftermath of loss, such as housing, food insecurity, financial and legal support; mediating disputes that may result in violence and preventing retaliation; de-escalating mental health crises and supporting people in accessing long term services.

If you’re interested in joining Dream Defenders, visit our website. We have a welcome call for interested members. To make a donation, click here.


Being born and raised in Alabama, I’ve seen the impacts that politics has on our communities. I’ve seen and felt what it is like to be systematically disenfranchised. Because of this, I am bold about centering Black and brown communities in all my work, especially in reproductive health, rights, and justice.

To that end, I oversee the Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council (RFLC) at State Innovation Exchange (SiX). The RFLC is the nation’s only cross-state network of state legislators who support reproductive health, rights, and justice. The reality is that there are over 7k state legislators in this country. Many receive support when running for office, but there is no playbook once you assume your position to represent the people. That’s where SiX comes in—as a trusted resource for state legislators as they fight back against legislation that restricts our freedoms and introduce proactive measures to expand abortion access in their communities.

With a growing maternal mortality crisis across our country, Black women are impacted by implicit bias, systemic racism, and barriers and lack of access to care. Many of the states with the most restrictive abortion bans have the worst maternal and child health outcomes and the least supportive social welfare and family support programs, particularly for Black women and birthing people. As threats to access rise, so does the surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people, particularly people of color. Black women need access to quality care, and the freedom to make decisions about their pregnancies and their healthcare without political interference.

This BHM, it’s essential that we recognize our fights are connected. Whether it be abortion access, access to gender-affirming care, food insecurity, the fight for our democracy, economic security, or ensuring that Black folks can give birth and parent in healthy, thriving communities, one cannot come at the expense of another. Learn more about what your state legislators are doing to protect bodily autonomy (you can follow us @sixrepro), get involved with the organizations in your community whose values align with yours, and make your voice heard for the issues you care about.

I spent years in corporate America saving major corporations money and improving processes but never felt fulfilled. In the summer of 2016, while on a babymoon with my husband, we disconnected from the world. When we returned, we learned of the murders of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and Ronnie Shumpert. It shook my world as I was carrying my first child, a son. Here were three Black men, three cities, and three police departments, and all were murdered within a short timeframe. At that point, I knew I had to use my skill set for something that was not only meaningful, but could potentially reduce harm to my son later in life. That was the start of my journey to founding 1M4 and committing to help end a systemic issue in one generation’s time.

In a time where Black people are killed by police at a rate 2.6 times higher than white people, there is an urgent need to address the impact of police violence on the preservation of Black history. Prioritizing efforts to minimize police violence is a vital step in safeguarding and honoring the rich tapestry of our community.

The Right Response Directory is a first-of-its-kind, free, national crisis resource, providing information for mental health crisis response alternatives to police, completely derived and driven by the community. So far, we’ve identified 268 local response organizations and mobile crisis teams for mental health, behavioral health, and substance use emergencies across 44 U.S. states and territories! If you know an alternative local response organization that should be included in the directory, you can share it with us here. And, of course, you can help us grow awareness by sharing The Right Response Directory on your social media profiles with the hashtag #therightresponse. Finally, we always welcome donations to keep us going!