The Culver City Community of Color Collective spent their efforts for Black History Month delivering “BHM Kits” to the five elementary school and the middle school this February.
The kits were the brainchild of Dr. Giavanni Washington, parent of a La Ballona student and founding member of The Collective, also affectionately known as 5C; a group of moms of color who either live in, or have children that go to school in, Culver City. The Collective coalesced in October 2018 in response to a shared experience of isolation. In short, they support families and students of color through education and advocacy.
Washington noted “This year, we wanted to create a unified effort for BHM across the district so we created these posters. We accessed our relationships at each elementary school to proudly display the posters during the month. We also provided an information/activity packet (with some longer bios and age-appropriate activities) to support student exploration of our theme: Black History Is Now! We focused on young, entrepreneurs with the hope that the children would see themselves in the successes of these dynamos.”
The collective provided ten posters – two sets of five and one banner – plus information packet for each of the school.
Kelli, a student at El Rincon said, after studying the poster about Gabby’s Bows, “I was just reading about Gabrielle Goodwin and she started something when she was seven. I can do that. I think I’m going to start a store for kids!”
Now that the month is ending, the collective is looking forward to their next gathering and offers that “families of color who live in, work in or have children that go to school in Culver City can look out for our Summer Family Cook Out and our Kwanzaa Celebration in December.”
The next General Meeting is on Thursday, March 19, 2020, from 5:30 pm to 7 pm at the
Julian Dixon Library Meeting Room.
Judith Martin-Straw
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