Today we’d like to introduce you to Yolande Beckles.
Hi Yolande, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The National Association of African American Parents and Youth known as NAAAPY was started by 15 Black parents in South Los Angeles. Following the years of underachievement of Black children in LAUSD schools and the fact that following the Black Lives Matter Global movement and the tragic death of George Floyd and the impact, especially on Black families and their children, we were moved to create something unapologetically Black nationally with the first chapter starting in Los Angeles our home. We started on September 24th, 2021 and today we have over 180 members mostly from Los Angeles, two internationally and five national members so we are growing fast. The need is obviously there!
Over the past year, we formally launched the organization, built our website and digital social media platform and held meetings every month both virtually and face-to-face. We will begin 2023 with our first Black Family Summit. The theme is The Smell of Success – P.E.R.F.U.M.E. taking place at The California Endowment on Tuesday January 31st, 2023 from 8am – 5pm. Our target is to recruit 1000 Black families before the end of 2023. It shouldn’t be difficult considering that there are 46.8 million Black/African Americans living in the US. Following the summit, we will be introducing our Black Family University, a year-long program of training, seminars and workshops. These will take place both offline and virtually. Education, training and capacity building of our people, community and youth is the priority of our work. We turn no one anyway from getting the support from our members. Remember it’s only $1 to join!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We started this organization with no funding! which is normally the case for Black organizations. So we decided to take a leaf our of President Barack Obama campaign fundraising strategy where he asked everywhere he spoke leading up to his presidential run that his audience should drop a $1 in his bucket and of course some people wrote sponsorship checks of more than $1. We are proud to say that this year we partner with a sister organization Parent Organization Network aka PON that works with Latinx families and we were successful in obtaining our first grant from the Amity Foundation $150,000 for three years which will assist both organizations in the development and training work we offer to our families. In the words of the Rapper Tupac Shakur “The Struggle is Real!” So the fight continues we are determined to build Black family wealth, create Black healthy, emotionally, socially, spiritually and educated families. Nothing will stop us because we believe in the brilliance of our Black community and will continue to meet their need By any means necessary – Malcolm X
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
NAAAPY is a nonprofit created in 2022. Our mission is to empower Black parents, families and guardians to become educated, trained advocates for their children and students. We empower our families not only by offering them space to express their perspectives, insight and knowledge but by being culturally responsive to their needs as they support their children. We specialize in training and education for our community. We are known for advocating for the Black family and their children. What makes NAAAPY different is that as a new organization we are very grassroots driven and listen very closely to the needs of our community. So for instance a number of our members asked us to address the Black Student Achievement Plan BSAP launched by LAUSD were not meeting the needs of our Black students. So we attended meetings with our parent members and supported them as they address the plans outcome directly with each school. This is something our brand is known and recognized for. Advocating and supporting families at schools with teachers and administrators and representing them with Board and District staff members.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I love Black people and my community. I am passionate about our success as so many of us have not achieved our full potential so far. Some of us have had to deal with systemic and institutionalized racism and it has had a long-term profound effect on our community. Our role as a nonprofit is to assist them in finding real solutions to their problems from finding affordable housing, finding and navigating school systems, creating financial wealth for their children, and changing the disparities that exist in the healthcare industries for our families. So there is a lot of work to do but we are challenged to deal with the problems head-on and support our community. What’s important for the success in this model is to make ourselves available to offer support and guidance to our families when they most need it and if we are not able to support them directly research the best organization out there to provide the resource and needed.
Pricing:
- $1 to become a member
- $1.50 to become a member online
- $$$ we accept donations online
- $50 for our upcoming summit
- $$ for our launch of the Black Family University 2023
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.naaapy.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/n.a.a.a.p.y
- Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/NAAAPY
Image Credits
Yolande Beckles, Board President NAAAPY
