Hearts of Empowerment host Town Hall to address racial injustices

As a minority-led organization, Hearts of Empowerment has sought ways to voice their support for the BLM movement and generate discourse on how to act on pathways for positive change. The organization hosted a Virtual Town Hall on June 11, 2020 with Black community leaders of Washington D.C. in an effort to stimulate conversation on what systemic problems exist in the nation and ways to fix them, rather than merely address them. This event was organized solely by Hearts of Empowerment, feeling a responsibility to provide a platform for community-level conversation with agents of change in the area.

Panelists included Bob Ross, President of the Prince George’s County NAACP, Marcus Goodwin, Executive Director of Run Hope Work and 2020 candidate for D.C. Council at large, Dr.Malacai Richardson, holding a Ph.D. in Psychology, and Sharece Crawford, Elected at-large Committeewoman for the DNC. The four joined Hearts of Empowerment to engage, teach, and provide opportunities for solutions to an attentive audience of over one hundred young adults who attended via Zoom, Facebook, and Instagram Live. These leaders voiced their opinions and provided productive dialogue on what change looks like from both social and policy perspectives. Participants were able to ask questions and cater the conversation topics in real-time.

"The best feedback our Town Hall received was that several interracial relationships within our network used this as an ice breaker to spark the conversation about the injustices and the racial tensions the black community faces. These are tough and important conversations to have and we’re glad we were able to provide an outlet for people to discuss these uncomfortable topics amongst their loved ones” shared CEO, Correy Faciane.

Click here to view recap video on youtube.

Hearts of Empowerment is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Arlington VA. They provide strategic event planning, marketing and fundraising to other organizations, so that no charity has to close its doors due to lack of funding and awareness.