B.L.A.C.K. 2 Life (B2L)

Bringing Love And Conscious Knowledge 2 Life

 

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Mission

Empower Black men to strengthen underserved communities through education and inspiration.

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Our Story

Research shows there is an undeniable connection between literacy and incarceration rates. The Literacy Project Foundation found that three out of five people in U.S. prisons can’t read and 85 percent of juvenile offenders have trouble reading. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 70 percent of the adult prison population cannot read at a fourth-grade level. The U.S. Department of Justice states, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.”

 

So, in the summer of 2017, three friends decided to organize and raise money to purchase and hand out books and school supplies to children in an underserved community in North Dallas. The event was held in the parking lot of a heavily trafficked shopping center and a total of 10 Black men decided to show up and help in deliver books to children throughout the neighborhood.  The event was such a success, the three friends decided to reach out to others across the nation to encourage them to do the same in their communities.

 

This outreach turned into a five city (Dallas, Atlanta, New York, D. C., and Shreveport) book giveaway which resulted in over 5,000 books being provided to the community. After the inaugural event, the group decided to establish B.L.A.C.K. 2 LIFE, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The acronym B.L.A.C.K. stands for Bringing Love and Conscious Knowledge 2 LIFE.

 

Our activities include, but are not limited to:

 

• Promoting Childhood Literacy

• Mentorship

• Scholarship Promotion

• Community Service Initiatives

• Charitable Giving

 

As Black men, we plan to galvanize our communities to combat this aspect of mass incarceration and the criminal justice system, as it seems to be intentionally overlooked and ignored, creating a catastrophic cycle of illiteracy, delinquency, and incarceration.

 

Please help us inspire children in our communities through the promotion of literacy and change the image of Black men in our communities for others to look up to!