NBCDI

As a high school senior, Rotimi Kukoyi was accepted to all 15 colleges to which he applied. Now, as a UNC student, NBCDI Public Voices Fellow and Morehead-Cain Scholar, Kukoyi explains his mission to ensure that our “education system is properly equipped to provide students from all backgrounds with equitable opportunities in education.” Education, he notes, “should not be limited by a student's income, geographic area or their parents' education status.”

Dr. Raquel Martin, a licensed clinical psychologist, professor and scientist, describes how black mental wealth encompasses mental health and well-being “because mental health and physical health and the way individuals are treated in society are all linked.” And shares how we all can start to address the challenge by first seeing “children as children.”

Every child has a story. And the BCDI-Carolina’s Marketing & Communications Manager explains why—in order to improve all children’s learning experience—it’s incumbent on all of us to listen to their stories and know how to share them with others.

BCDI-Atlanta recently released its State of the Black Child Report Card for Georgia, which identified several paths for immediate improvement, from supporting positive discipline to end suspensions and expulsions, to supporting the social-emotional development and mental health of Black children. As President, Dr. Bisa Batten Lewis explains, it’s all with the goal to address the group’s three key focus areas: Early care and education, literacy and family engagement.

Hotep is an artist and educator, but most importantly, he’s a father to two young “cubs.” Hotep has created a family friendly anime series, centered around a father and his two children, representing characters that look like them and instilling some of the important qualities for positive human development: Confidence, self-esteem and belief in oneself.

Dr. Lee Johnson III doesn’t just run NBCDI’s Policy Fellowship program, he graduated from it. Now, with a new cohort who joined the18-month program, Dr. Johnson and his colleagues are advancing “Breakthrough Action Leadership” that focuses on growing responsive, self-reflective leaders. As well, the group is addressing the climate and environmental concerns that also affect early childhood development in many communities.

Kumani Bey may still be in high school, but her art—using words, filmmaking and more— is giving voice to multiple causes and making impact across all ages. Kumani joined the NBCDI Conference as a Youth Speaker to highlight America’s technology gap and its impact on Black children.

Sonya Soni, Advocacy Program Director, Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, connects global insights from India to Los Angeles to explore how a sense of belonging—as well as something she calls “poetry in policymaking”—can impact structural obstacles to child and family welfare.

With experience from around the world, the President of BCDI-Carolinas compellingly synthesizes what she sees as the root challenge to early childhood learning: Mindset. Dr. Devonya Govan-Hunt outlines the five ways she and her colleagues have set out to tackle that obstacle, with special focus on excessive disciplinary actions in preschools.

As Senior National Education Administrator for T-Mobile for Education, Dr. Kiesha King helps oversee T-Mobile’s Project 10Million, a $10.7 billion effort to bridge the digital divide by providing access to devices to “ensure internet access is not a barrier to a child's education.”

As part of their effort to target early childhood from ages zero to eight, BDCI-Colorado President Jalen Taylor is working to expand their reach across the Rocky Mountain state – with a special focus on mental health and wellness.