BMe Community

BMe Network Inc. (BMe or doing business as BMe Community) is a nonprofit national network of Black leaders and innovators that works to reimagine a better collective future by investing in aspiring communities. BMe stands for Black male engagement. The organization aims to build more caring and prosperous communities by promoting a culture change model that reframes the narrative about Black people, and particularly Black men. BMe’s activities include asset framing, fellowships, and narrative change, and the organization also facilitates workshops and seminars aimed at helping leaders address the root causes of systemic problems facing the United States. Rooted in insights from leading research on cognition and decision-making, BMe’s core programs equip leaders to stop stigmatizing their constituents so that subsequent solutions these leaders seek are far more resonant, engaging, and impactful. This award provides project support to help with the purchase and distribution of the author and criminal justice activist Shaka Senghor’s book, Letters to the Sons of Society, to social impact organizations, as well as the development of a related curriculum guide for teachers, librarians, and program directors.

BMe Network Inc. (BMe or doing business as BMe Community) is a nonprofit national network of Black leaders and innovators that works to reimagine a better collective future by investing in aspiring communities. The organization aims to build more caring and prosperous communities by promoting a culture change model that reframes the narrative about Black people. BMe facilitates workshops, seminars, and fellowships aimed at helping leaders address the root causes of systemic problems facing the United States. Rooted in insights from leading research on cognition and decision-making, BMe’s core programs equip leaders to stop stigmatizing their constituents so that subsequent solutions these leaders seek are far more resonant, engaging, and impactful.  BMe activities include asset framing, fellowships, and narrative change. A key emphasis of BMe is reframing the Black male narrative by presenting Black men as assets to society (BMe stands for “Black male engagement”). The organization helps Black men connect, exchange ideas, and receive resources to advance high-impact local projects. These efforts have supported more than 300 projects and community-building events, including annual conferences, rallies and fundraisers to stop violence against women, forums on post-incarceration reintegration, national gatherings of leaders in Black male engagement, and youth conferences for restorative justice, and ending the school-to-prison pipeline. This award provides general operating support and enables BMe to expand its core asset-framing content and leadership development fellowships.