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Program

Community Partners Program

The Black Studies Collaboratory is pleased to announce our Community Partners for the 2022-2023 academic year. This partnership brings together Black organizations across the Bay Area from a broad cross-section of community-building and service. Through generative, insightful partnerships, we are striving toward expanding this year of deep communal work, world building, and public engagement with Black Studies.

BSC & BAOBOB Announce Membership Directory

The Black Studies Collaboratory (BSC) at UC Berkeley and the Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses (BAOBOB) have developed a close partnership through the BSC’s Community Partners Program. We have worked together to uplift the quality of life in all communities by uplifting the economics of Black-owned businesses here in the Bay Area. For years, BAOBOB has been refining a membership list of local businesses, and we are thrilled to share the list with you.

We understand this work as one way to redistribute wealth and build a more just and equitable world. It is our hope that as we prepare to celebrate Juneteenth, you can find a business on this list to support. And more than support, we encourage you to build a relationship with a local business as a way to recognize that all our well-being is interconnected.

BAOBOB is a membership organization committed to connecting, informing, and representing Black-owned businesses to expand customer awareness and enrich the economic landscape. BAOBOB’s commitment to that connection and expansion advances economic empowerment for the Black business community throughout the Bay Area. You can find out more about BAOBOB on their website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Clothing and Accessories

Health and Wellness

Beauty and Self-Care

Arts, Culture, and Entertainment

Business Services and General Services

Food, Drinks, and Catering

Venue Spaces and Property Services

2022-2023 Black Studies Collaboratory Community Partners

Learn more about BAOBOB.

Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses (BAOBOB), empowers the Bay Area Black business community by promoting a climate of intentional spending, facilitating collaboration and introducing business development opportunities that help direct and keep our dollars circulating within our community.

Learn more at BAOBOB’s website and follow them on Instagram.

Berkeley High School’s African American Studies Department’s mission is to empower students with a positive sense of identity, purpose, and direction; educate students and the greater community with an awareness and appreciation for the accomplishments, contributions, history, and culture of people of African Descent; encourage students to strive for excellence and embrace the attributes of the African American S.P.I.R.I.T., which stands for Strength, Perseverance, Imagination, Responsibility, Integrity, and Talent.

Spencer Pritchard and Dr. Dawn “Doc Dub” Williams are the co-chairs of Berkeley High School’s African American Studies Department. Dawn Williams has been an educator for over 25 years and received her Doctorate in Education at UC Berkeley. Spencer Pritchard has been teaching for six years and received his bachelors in African American Studies at UC Berkeley. The African American Studies department was born out of the activism of Black students and parents in 1968. Thanks to the many leaders who have stewarded the department over the years, we are lucky to celebrate over 50 years of excellence and African centered education for our students. Today the department hosts 5 teachers, 7 courses, and 15 sections. Beyond the courses, the department also hosts many annual events including Black to School, Kwanzaa, Black History Month, Black Graduation, and the African Diaspora Dance concerts each semester. They additionally have a Black Scholar Center, an after school tutoring program where students are hired to tutor and support their peers, snacks included. 

Read more about Dream Youth Clinic.

The Dream Youth Clinic, was established in 2017 by Roots Community Health Center under the leadership of Dr. Aisha Mays, Roots Director of Adolescent and School Based Programs, and Founding Medical Director of the Dream Youth Clinics. Dream provides free, youth-led, youth-inspired, and youth-engaged programs and health services for Oakland’s most vulnerable youth, including youth affected by homelessness, commercial sexual exploitation, the foster care and juvenile justice systems, LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming youth, and newly immigrated youth – with 70% of youth identifying as Black or African American. Responding creatively to the health needs of young people, Dream incorporates visual art, music, technology, and youth jobs into its service delivery. Dream delivers over 1,000 medical visits to approximately 400 youth annually. The Dream Youth Clinics are located within the Wellness Centers of Dreamcatcher and Covenant House Youth Shelters in downtown Oakland.

“Health is everything. It’s not just going to a clinic with four walls to see a doctor for a phyiscal exam. It’s how you interact with your friends, what you put into your body and how that makes you feel, what music you listen to, what parts of your life excite and feed you,” – Aisha Mays, MD

Follow the Dream Youth Clinic on Instagram. 

Read more about Hummingbirds.

The Hummingbirds Urban Farming Collective is dedicated to creating deep connections to land and community for Black children and the communities that help to raise them up. Our goal is to create multi-generational Black centered spaces that focus on deepening connection to land. We are building community and conversations through workshops, gatherings, reclaiming public spaces, resource sharing, curriculum development, and urban farming projects.

Learn more about Hummingbirds on their website and follow them on Instagram.

Read more about People's Kitchen Collective.

People’s Kitchen Collective (PKC), works at the intersection of art and activism as a food-centered political education project. Based in Oakland, California for the past decade, our creative practices reflect the diverse histories and backgrounds of legacy co-founders and crew. Written in our families’ recipes are the maps of our migrations and the stories of our resilience. It is from this foundation that we create immersive experiences that honor the shared struggles of our people. We believe in radical hospitality as a strategy to address the urgent social issues of our time. The goal of People’s Kitchen Collective is to feed the mind, nourish the soul, and fuel a movement.

Find out more about PKC on their website and follow them on Instagram. 

Read more about People's Programs.

People’s Programs, is an Oakland-based Black/New Afrikan organization dedicated to the liberation and unification of ALL Afrikan people through scientific socialism. We are governed by the ideologies, theories, principles, and practices of Revolutionary Nationalists and Pan-Africanists, and we are aiming to do our part to contribute to the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Our organization runs various decolonization programs such as a free breakfast program, free community health program, legal and bail support, a community garden, and a free grocery program, all to expose the contradictions of the state, practice self government, and move our people towards true independence. To find out more about People’s Programs, go to peoplesprograms.com. 

Read more about Rich City Rides.

Rich City Rides (RCR), founded in August 2012, is a not-for-profit bicycle advocacy organization that helps make Richmond a healthier city where our youth and families thrive. 
 
Rich City Rides understands that sedentary lifestyles lead to debilitating, devastating, and preventable chronic illnesses that plague our community with obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. Although our primary demographic is youth, RCR programs and activities gather people of all ages in fun, healthy activities that emphasize positive, collaborative outdoor social activity over screen time, competition, and inactivity. Since its inception, RCR has hosted over 300 social rides gathering more than 20,000 participants. We have visited over 40 city, county, and regional parks introducing our riders to the assets of our community, increasing their sense of civic and personal pride. We have hosted 280 bike clinics and repair workshops serving over 8,400 community members and rescued over 3,000 bikes from a fate at the local landfill, redirecting them back into the community.
 
In addition to their youth and family programs for the past four years, RCR has hosted monthly park cleanups at their adopt-a-spot on the Richmond Greenway. Rich City Rides is dedicated to building the capacity of youth to lead in making Richmond a healthier and more sustainable city. Our approach has been to fully utilize every possible benefit that bicycles bring and share them with our community. We know that we ride stronger when we ride together and are committed to ensuring that no one is left out of this movement.
 
For the most up-to-the-minute information on your favorite cycling organization, check out RCR on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.