Project: Afrimerican Academy (P-001-AA)

Project Summary

The core of all our projects is to add African diaspora cultural competency perspective to existing systems which usually do not accommodate the needs of people of color. The history of education in the USA implores us to research, identify and develop systems to rectify a legacy of racism.

After schools in the USA were desegregated the curricula the necessary revision of what , how and why educational content affects children of color is yet to be truly addressed. For instance, the exclusion & lack of emphasis in our educational content of African Americans encourages a worldview that unfairly discounts the contributions of African Americans to the building of America as merely ‘unfortunate footnotes’.

The Afrimerican Academy project is designed similarly to the New York Times - 1619 project to reframe the history from the African diaspora perspective. We take this idea a bit further by also focusing on linking history to the present and even working on how to resolve many of these multigenerational issues.

Project Update

Completed 9 week Virtual summer session 2020 with 5 students of color 15-18 years old.

Completed 9 week Hybrid summer session 2021 with 10 students of color 15-18 years old.

Completed Fall 2020, Spring 2021 and Summer Session 2021 service learning projects with 4 teams of Northeastern University graduate students.

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Theory of change

With study, research and development of this project, communities can be empowered to achieve educational goals for their students of color by embracing an African diaspora culturally centered education. The African diaspora are multicultural communities made up of people who come from diverse backgrounds namely African Americans, Afro-LatinX, Afro-Caribbean, African immigrants & community members of non-African descent. As these communities are located in traditionally racially marginalized or “Redlined’ areas, all members of these communities must be educated and armed with empowering knowledge to advocate and determine their own destinies.

Project goal

Developing an after school African Diaspora Cultural Educational online resource to compliment the ‘traditional formal education’ that our students of color currently receive is the goal. Other goals include:

• Providing online access and services to spur access to the educational content.

• Partner with organizations, donors and sponsors to provide resources e.g. computers, extra curricular activities & sports equipment etc.

• Improve online technology to ensure youth & adult engagement.

Culture is fun! We must communicate that in our curriculum and branding to spark the interest in the youth with adaptations for adult students.