An Empowering Name: Leaving a Legacy for Black Children

It’s always at the top of my agenda to ensure Black children know their greatness through the past, but for others to know our greatness, too, because people can’t see the greatness in you unless they know your history.

—Community Incubator Lead staff member

BCLC’s communications and information systems strategy is best explained by the name given to the initiative, the Black Child Legacy Campaign. Educational researcher Maisha T. Winn (2018) has shown that language matters because words or images may either uplift or deflate the morale of those associated with a particular group. Recognizing the need for an inspirational and forward-looking name for implementation, SC-RAACD led a community-engaged process that yielded the name “Black Child Legacy Campaign.” BCLC has become known as a positive and inspiring movement all over the Sacramento Valley and is motivating individuals and agencies to work collectively to improve the quality of life for African Americans. When asked about the effectiveness of BCLC’s messaging and its ability to share information with the community and families, many BCLC participants mentioned the purposeful naming of the effort. For example, one BCLC participant stated, “Legacy is the antithesis of death.” The name of the movement is asset-based and challenges mainstream deficit models steeped in anti-Blackness and antiracism (Kendi 2019). Rather than leading conversations about Black child deaths with naming conventions and verbal framing that signal hopelessness, despair, and a lack of agency, the strategic and purposeful use of “legacy” emphasizes a fruitful past and bright future—despite the persistent systemic barriers that hinder the progress of African American families. Several participants commented about the significance of BCLC’s name:

“I knew very little of the Black Child Legacy Campaign prior to and at the time of, the name really had no significance to me because I heard the title Black put on a lot of different organizations, yet … I was more so optimistic.”

“Black Child Legacy, you want to speak a message of hope.”

“I’m building a legacy of leaders.”

By removing the stigma associated with Sacramento County services, the name and mission of the BCLC have made it easier for partner agencies to do outreach and offer services to community residents in the seven neighborhoods. According to one BCLC member, “BCLC gives me cover as a county worker to provide assistance in ways I could not because of the stigma that comes with working for the county.”

The Sierra Health Foundation was responsible for ensuring the success of the brand through its implementation of the communications strategy. BCLC has been publicized in multiple ways, including in widely distributed brochures, event displays, media coverage, and “swag” apparel. For example, at meetings of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and the City Council and local events such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations and marches, Sacramento Kings games, health fairs, and community town halls, BCLC’s green-and-black logo can be found on scarves, posters, t-shirts, handouts, and banners. At the January 29, 2019, meeting of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, more than one hundred BCLC supporters either wore BCLC t-shirts or had brochures in their hands. BCLC’s logo and collateral material are displayed at every one of its events. For example, in the North Highlands-Foothill Farms and Oak Park CIL offices, literature and informative resources are neatly displayed throughout the lobbies and workspaces. Posters of Black families hang on the walls, and one-page resource lists are readily accessible for guests.

The BCLC website, annual reports, and media releases/write ups provide another means of communication and branding to get key messaging out to the community. The website features images of Black families (mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and so on) and Black people celebrating together or volunteering. The interactive digital platform provides information, data for all seven neighborhoods, videos, links to past interviews, upcoming events, and PDFs of every published report. BCLC has been featured in the Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Observer, and local television news programs. In July 2019, Priska Neely, a Los Angeles public radio station reporter, described lessons from BCLC that should be applied by Los Angeles to achieve similarly positive results. Other reporters wrote articles about the succes of BCLC between 2017 and 2020.¹

Social and Political Capital: Access to Opportunities and Resources

We all receive training for this work. Now I have more opportunities.

—Crisis intervention worker

The advocacy and policy transformation strategy has been implemented primarily through a Community Leadership Roundtable comprising residents who volunteer in the seven neighborhoods. Roundtable members meet monthly and receive training in advocacy, crisis response, and evaluation of the quality of CIL implementation. This process provides a platform to foster unity and address issues with one voice. Representatives of CILs, the seven community-based organizations that lead BCLC at the neighborhood level, have presented at City Council and county meetings, board commissions, and policy-making forums. CILs have been able to cultivate relationships with local police officers, elected officials, universities, and businesses—coordinating efforts to maximize impact.

Youth projects such as Youth Participatory Action Research, SAYS spoken word events such as Poetic Service Announcements, and the Kings and Queens Rise Youth Basketball League promote advocacy for youth programs and reduction of violence. One CIL staff member states that we have these programs so the youth can “use their voices, provide solutions, discuss their fears, and actively collaborate for brighter futures.”

A Countywide Infrastructure to Support Black Children

Seeing that services can collaborate, we don’t have to be in our silos; we’re able to each align ourselves with what best supports we can give them and then once we feel like they’ve completed that job, employment, mental health services, then we kind of reevaluate where they’re at.

—CIL staff member

The equitable investment and systematic impact strategy was originally envisioned for implementation through an Interagency Children’s Policy Council comprising executive leadership, elected officials, and other policy makers from county agencies that affect the lives of low-income and vulnerable children and families. Although it was subsequently decided not to create the Interagency Children’s Policy Council, there are many instances of coordination across public agencies. The most significant examples are the out-stationing of county staff in neighborhood-led organizations and the use of multidisciplinary teams made up of county and community service providers to provide wraparound services to families and children.

Before BCLC was created, there was limited collaboration between nonprofit organizations and government agencies, nor were there common goals and a shared vision. Nonprofits and county agencies often worked and operated in silos within their communities. By placing staff in the offices of community-based organizations, county agencies have built relationships with and through local resources and residents. Staff placed in CILs represent Child Protective Services, Department of Human Assistance, Probation Department, and the Sacramento Employment & Training Administration. The significance of the multidisciplinary teams is best described by the service providers who participated in them:

“Through Black Child Legacy Campaign, we’re able to go above and beyond and dive deeper and be intentional on the cultural matches, be intentional on the wraparound services and all of that other great stuff that is important to actually bridging the gap.”—CIL staff member

“First time as a county worker getting the chance to sit next to and across from others doing similar work. I see these people on TV or read about them. Now we are doing this together.”—multidisciplinary team (MDT) staff member

“I’ve been with the county for eighteen years and I’ve been out-stationed ten years. So, this is the first time that I’ve actually been able to see the people whose name I recognize on email or whose name I see.”—MTD staff member

As discussed in chapter 3, “History Matters: Realities of Redlining in Sacramento,” communities that have a higher percentage of African Americans have experienced disinvestment and faced economic challenges since the 1960s. The partnership between BCLC and Sacramento County provides CILs with human capital, making it possible for them to deliver the services and resources needed by the most vulnerable and under-resourced.

Challenges remain despite this equitable approach. One emerging challenge concerns the sustainability of the funding needed to continue making progress and improving the lives of Black families. “What happens if the county changes course or [County Supervisor] Serna is no longer around?” one MDT staff member wondered. She added, “Sustainability depends on the county’s support.” Other concerns include the high turnover rate among CILs. “The reason for turnover in the CILs is better pay. They are talented and inspiring but need to be compensated more,” commented an MDT staff member. Between 2017 and 2020, only a few CILs retained one or two leaders for multiple years, and most experienced an exodus of three to five staff members only after six to twelve months on the job. Short-lived tenure makes consistent record keeping, data collection, and community outreach more difficult and reduces institutional knowledge. Some of these challenges have been offset by support from CILs with lower staff turnover and a strong network of community partners.

Local and Countywide Social Network of Change Agents

Building partnerships is difficult. It means you have to let go of something, but you also have to invite others in. Ultimately it leads to change and change is hard.

—Steering Committee member

Coordinated systems of support, advanced primarily through the seven CILs as trusted community organizations implementing the BCLC vision, are at the heart of the effort to reduce African American child deaths. CILs are building a network for change within their neighborhoods and across the county. All CILs provide a wide range of services, with some more focused on youth and family services and others maintaining a broader community development agenda. To develop the infrastructure and system of services and supports needed to reduce Black child deaths, CILs leverage partnerships with community-based nonprofits, churches, schools, and business located within their respective communities. Two of the seven CILs are two faith-based organizations.

The emphasis on community partners is part of the collective impact framework employed by BCLC. These words—“community,” “together” in “partnership,” and “work[ing] across sectors”—appear throughout BCLC literature and annual reports. Making Equity Happen: Year, Actions, Learnings, and Deliverables (2019–2020), written by the CIL staff and shared with participants at the SC-RAACD retreat held in September 2019 in Berkeley, states on its first page, “The Black Child Legacy Campaign brings together members, city and county agencies, healthcare providers, community-based organizations and faith community to address the causes and disproportionate rate of African American children dying in the county.”

This language is consistent with other reports and collateral material. In bold blue print the 2018 Annual Report: Growing a Community Movement states, “The Black Child Legacy Campaign uses a collective impact approach to bring agencies and individuals across multiple sectors together to work toward a shared vision to improve outcomes for African American children in Sacramento County.”

Community and collaborative efforts are also underscored in the application for presenters for the Gathering for G.L.O.R.Y.: Giving Love to Our Rising Youth Conference. It states, “With this year’s theme of Building Our Beloved Community, this conference seeks to bridge wisdom, perspectives and experiences from the faith-based community to those of our Black Child Legacy Campaign communities.… This year’s conference will focus on collaborative community-based strategies.”

Community partnerships play an important role in the coordinated system. The number of community partnerships for each CIL varies. For example, the CIL in Oak Park has more than forty community partners.

CILs are required to regrant a portion of their grant funding to community partners. Known as Legacy Grants, these regrants are intended to build local capacity to support Black children and supplement CIL activities. Grant recipients are determined through a systematic review process. Other formal partnerships, including those developed with local schools or school districts, are established through Memoranda of Understanding. To reinforce these partnerships, most CILs have monthly partner meetings in which all the organizations supporting the neighborhood’s campaign to reduce Black child death come together to review and coordinate their work. CILs also rely on informal partners, including volunteers and local businesses, to strengthen the network of supports they provide to families and children.

As mentioned previously, CILs and other stakeholders often worked and operated in silos within their communities before BCLC’s formation. The significance of the coordinated network is best captured through participants’ reflections:

“I think for our community to come together to see that there’s something outside of this neighborhood and that we can do something collectively together and make the impact that we have made, that’s huge. I think that’s historical for Sacramento.”—community intervention worker

“Our greatest success is the community coming together. Not just Oak Park but Meadowview, Del Paso, North Highlands. BCLC has brought everyone together.”—CIL staff member

During the spring of 2020, many families in the seven neighborhoods were severely affected when Sacramento County mandated sheltering in place. The CILs held multiple Zoom meetings to assist families with meals and other essentials. More than 50 community members and staff were on a Zoom call in April 2020 to discuss their community needs and actions taking place. The CIL staff provided updates. One participant stated, “I only have twenty minutes for the call because I have to meet the families and pass out the food.” Another participant responded, “I will be right behind because we have families coming now.” In addition to coordinating a network for families to receive essential services, BCLC members also spoke out against the lack of resources during COVID-19. ABC News-Sacramento featured a press conference led by Rev. Les Simmons, Kindra Montgomery-Block, and Berry Accius in which they addressed the need for resources for youth development, mental health services, violence prevention, and jobs.

With a strong focus on shared outcomes, goals, and deliverables, CILs have created both local and county-wide advocate networks. At the same time, some CIL staff mentioned in interviews that they would like more recognition of their programs and the experiences they brought to their work with BCLC, so that all progress is not attributed to BCLC. In addition, although some CILs are working closely with schools to reach youth, this connection needs to be strengthened and expanded to keep youth engaged in education—an essential strategy for reducing deaths by third-party homicide.

Beyond the Numbers: Humanizing the Data

Data is essential.

—CIL staff member

The data-driven accountability and collective impact strategy has been implemented in multiple ways. Because BCLC’s mission is reducing Black child deaths, statistical analyses of patterns in child deaths and the disparities between rates of Black child death and those of all other children in Sacramento County are at the core of the work. Although quantitative data neither tell the entire story nor humanize the process and work involved, data on the disproportionate rates at which Black children die in Sacramento County have led to a commitment to change. According to one participant, “BCLC made Black health and Black lives a high priority in Sacramento. As a result, deaths and violence has been down, and communities have been made safer.” Data are not only helping communities learn and understand disparities but also giving hope to the next generation for better life outcomes.

Data are the driving force of the BCLC. The website has information about upcoming events, resources, and CIL updates. Each CIL has a link to a “Neighborhood Profile, “Education Dashboard,” and “Neighborhood Crime and Safety Profile.” These user-friendly profiles created and prepared by LPC Consulting Associates, Inc. make it possible for community members and CILs to have access to data specifically for their communities. Data are also the focus of each annual report. At the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting in January 2019 and the RAACD retreat in September 2019 in Berkeley, data were the rallying cry and provided a reason to celebrate.

At the CIL level, implementation of strategies is assessed through progress reports their staff prepare, as well as external quality assessments. Several participants discussed the challenges of completing the reports and the advantages some CILs had because of their greater capacity and human capital. Several participants reflected on the challenges of data collection:

“It is a struggle and we have to find the time with all that we have to do. We don’t have the help but we get it done.”

“Our data sucks. We’re just not good at collecting.”

“They have been collecting the data for twenty years. That’s another example, I think, of institutional racism and poverty pimping because you’re in these neighborhoods collecting this data and you’re not analyzing it for the benefit of the neighborhood.”

“Early on there was a lot of challenges in creating forms, getting them to use the forms, getting people to upload data, getting people to have the right technology to do that. We now have the database.”

“Data is essential. You have to show the numbers. You have to show what you’re doing for it to reflect, ‘Is this impactful?’ ”

The Steering Committee on Reduction of African American Child Deaths has made data systems and training a priority for CILs. Recognizing that the CILs had different degrees of experience with data collection systems, The Center created a data hub with consultants who provide technical assistance and periodically update reports with neighborhood data. Although the data hub does reduce the burden of data collection, some CILs continue to feel burdened by the time it takes to input and analyze the data requested. Over the years, data systems and data collection have been streamlined; the challenge now is to establish a uniform tracking system that is user friendly, secure, and accessible. A hub data analyst discussed how collecting data has been made easier through trainings and having meetings with each CIL. After assessing each CIL’s data system to determine its capabilities and capacities, the analyst acknowledged that the CILs have varying data-related strengths: “There is this big broad spectrum so we come with a blanket approach. There are some CILS with years of experience while others have tried to invest in data systems but have no funds to invest.”

In addition to progress reports, the quality of the programmatic efforts of each CIL is assessed through site visits carried out by teams of four to six that include representatives from The Center, Technical Assistance providers, CIL staff, and others. Each team member uses a rubric to rate the CIL’s implementation of BCLC work along dimensions such as youth engagement, community capacity building, mission focus, and communications. Site visits are held every six months and have affirmed the continued improvement in CILs’ implementation of activities intended to reduce Black child death in the county.

Recommendations for Other Counties and Cities

Sacramento County’s success in reducing Black deaths, building an effective and well-organized network of community leaders and nonprofits across multiple neighborhoods, and advocating for policy and structural changes provides a roadmap for other regions, counties, or networks looking for effective strategies to improve the quality of life for historically marginalized communities of color. Located in Northern California, Sacramento County is the home to a majority of the state government’s agencies, a major gateway to agricultural commerce, and a desirable city for new families relocating from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Area. As a midsized liberal metropolitan area with a very diverse population positioned next to several conservative counties, Sacramento is unique. These characteristics do play a role in the successes and challenges of BCLC’s strategies. Although no two cities, counties, or organizations are the same, here are four recommendations for communities interested in implementing a transformative framework:

1. Solutions need to be systemic, consistent, and courageous. There are no bandages that can cover up systemic racism in this country; the wounds run deep. As John Lewis taught us, “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year; it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
2. Examine the historical context of the target communities. Racial inequities and injustices are the result of discriminatory policies, practices, and processes. Each of the seven communities served by BCLC has a unique history, but they share common threads of divestment and neglect that help explain why these contexts evolved into spaces hostile to the lives of African American children.
3. Any new plan, strategy, or action should be inclusive, equitable, and antiracist. Local residents, organizations, activists, and leaders should have as much say, influence, and decision-making authority as elected official, policy makers, and funders. Community-driven initiatives depend on the belief that “we are all in this together” and the future depends on every member in the community.
4. Alongside strategic advocacy, the dollars need to make sense; do not examine any one cause in isolation. Political pressure from a wide range of stakeholders is imperative: it holds those in power accountable to the genuine needs of the people. For example, when BCLC received an additional two million dollars from the City of Sacramento, it was a win. But relative to the overall city budget (say, for instance, the amount provided to law enforcement), this funding underscores that the struggle over equitable and preventable resources is still contentious. How does Black health and well-being connect to white privilege and property? An intersectional analysis fortifies a stronger bridge to racial justice.

Building a Legacy for Black Families

There [are] so many issues that need to be addressed but little resources … We need more time. 2020 is here and there is going to be so much work to do. We must continue past 2020 and work toward sustainability.

—MDT staff

The future of BCLC and its sustainable depends on County’s support. What happens next?

—MDT staff

In the year 2020, Black Lives Matter became a global cry and urgent call for justice, equity, the defunding of school resource officers, and the end of racial violence toward Black people all over the world. Demands to end racist policies that were producing racial inequities in health care, education, criminal justice, employment, and housing prompted a deep examination of institutional and systemic oppression. As the movement carries forward, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. continues to ring loud: “Where do we go from here?”

The Black Child Legacy Campaign’s community-driven efforts and collective impact model are examples of what should be coming next and what the future holds for Black communities across the United States. From its inception, its mission was to protect and support the growth of Black children. Saving the lives of Black children remained central through BCLC’s process of forming its steering committee, outlining goals and outcomes, selecting the seven neighborhoods, and determining strategies and priorities. Intentionally selecting the word “legacy” in its name connected the present to the future as the work took place in the present. The collective action of the SC-RAAD, CILs, cultural brokers, crisis intervention, community partners, and Sacramento County and City of Sacramento agencies ensured that the ground was stable for the present generation to prosper in the years to come. In the Black Child Legacy Campaign Five Year Report (2020) Chet Hewitt states, “We’ve created home-grown infrastructure that can continue to serve communities, save lives, and build more promising futures.”

Future Forward

What is the legacy you’re trying to leave for black children in Sacramento? They can expect to live a life of hope, peace and have longevity.

—CIL member

What is next for the Black Child Legacy Campaign? Being future forward means not merely moving but also requires intentional and strategic thinking and planning for the next ten to twenty years to affirm that futures matter for Black children and their families (Winn 2019).

What is meant by being future forward in the context of BCLC? Here, we argue that it is imperative to imagine possible lives while working to liberate the public from fatalistic renderings of Black children and Black lives. Futures forward is embedded in the name “Black Child Legacy.” The decision to focus on legacies as opposed to mortality is key here. As we imagine the future of BCLC, we think about the year 2032. What is the preferred future of BCLC and Sacramento? What is needed to create this preferred future? The portraits of stakeholders in this book provide a mapping of assets and identify areas of growth that need to be addressed to move BCLC in this direction. Can we get to this place? The answer is yes.

NOTE

1. 1. For example: “Black Infant Death Rates down in Sacramento following Massive Community Efforts,” Capitol Public Radio, December 3, 2018; “For the First Time in 35 Years, No Children Were Murdered in the City of Sacramento Last Year,” CBS Sacramento, January 21, 2019; and “Teen Homicides Fall to Zero as Sacramento Sees Overall Decline in Murders in 2019,” Sacramento Bee, January 28, 2020.

REFERENCES

• Kendi, Ibram X. 2019. How to Be an Antiracist. New York: Random House/One World.
• Neely, P. 2019. “Sacramento Is Reducing Black Child Deaths: Here Is What LA Can Learn.” KPCC-FM, July 29. https://www.scpr.org/news/2019/07/29/90390/sacramento-is-reducing-black-child-deaths-here-s-w/.
• Winn, Maisha T. 2018. Justice on Both Sides: Transforming Education through Restorative Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
• Winn, Maisha T. 2019. Paradigm Shift in Teacher Education. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan TeachingWorks.