Join Our New Rewilding Cohort
The Ark Effect™
Starts July 26-28, 2024
Ends October 12-15 2024
Radical Self Preservation and Leadership for Catastrophe Survival: How to Divest, Rewild and Keep Everyone Safe
(2 Part Journey in the Ark Effect Series)
This series kicks off in July 2024 in Upstate, NY, meets virtually monthly, and culminates in Oaxaca, Mexico in October 2024
July 26-28 2024 (Upstate New York)
October 12-15 2024 (Oaxaca, Mexico)
When systems fail, communities too often look to political leaders who repeatedly fail them. This training retreat is a call to leaders who know we cannot solely rely on our political systems to save us. This training retreat includes journeys for those who often stand in the gap, who open their organizations’ doors, and the doors to their homes in times of chaos to ensure everyone’s safety.
This retreat includes journeys designed for leaders whether you lead a non-profit or a major corporation, whether you lead on your block or in your community, whether you lead in your place of worship or in your family
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Featured Programs
Seeding Health
We’re creating space to seed health and turn the tide on the social determinants of health.
We Serve:
Families & Groups
Healing Communities
We’re creating spaces for healing to exist and where radical reconciliation is practiced at the individual, relational, communal and societal levels.
We Serve:
Individuals & Communities
Restoring Land
Along with our Haudenosaunee indigenous sisters we’re creating space for what is possible for our climate and communities by enabling people to have access to land and to be in mutuality with the land.
We Serve:
Philanthropic / Foundations
Transforming Institutions
We’re creating powerful partnerships with institutions through our DEI approach, racial healing, holistic and integrative frameworks.
We Serve:
Public Sector & Corporate Partners
Nonprofit Organizations
Government / International Bodies
Request Special Services
Our Village
Farah Tanis
Sevonna Brown
Ann Duckett
Cecile Lipworth
Sophie Delfeus
Melody Monteiro
What We Do
Seeding Health
Healing Communities
Restoring Land
Transforming Institutions
Frequently Asked Questions
What prompted BWB to expand to Restore Forward?
Upon engaging in what we at Black Women’s Blueprint appreciated as both a mandatory and selective pause, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly realized that we needed to build a space which could hold our vision for a new society and a new social contract for sustainable repair and reconciliation as practice that honors the past and brings sacred humanity forward.
Who is BWB engaging through Restore Forward
BWB seeks collaborators yearning to engage, fashion, and embody new, innovative communities responsive to the profound effects of injustice, violence, and exploitation on women and all people.
Where is the organization primarily based?
BWB is still anchored in Brooklyn, NY. BWB also secured almost 300 acres of land previously owned by the US Air Force in Ava, New York, in the township of Boonville in Oneida County. The property lies 30 miles north of Utica, 60 miles northeast of Syracuse with access to airports, hospitals and stores in surrounding towns.
Why does the organization anchor its work in two centers?
When Black women’s Blueprint began, it sought to fill a need for spaces and services designed by and for Black Women and survivors to heal from trauma and violence in retreat. Having advanced these goals and navigated momentous change, we realized that we needed to move to a less restrictive paradigm in order to manifest the vision for repair and reconciliation mandated by our 2010-2016 Black Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. To do that, we needed to create an environment for every being to find a place inside our vision while still centering Black women. Two centers, Black Women’s Blueprint and The Reconciliation Center
Allows us to ensure our financial sustainability as we grow, build on the learnings of our past and transition to a reality where people from all backgrounds build towards a collective future, and cultivate a joyful space to connect with the land and each other and seed peace, liberation, and justice across communities.
How is BWB’s work sustained?
More than 5000 donors make our work possible. The philanthropic community has shifted the landscape beneath us as foundations do away with “Safety” portfolios, sexual assault prevention funding has largely given through governmental sources, and racial justice funding is precarious and not guaranteed. Moving to a less restrictive paradigm allows us to cultivate and nurture new relationships to ensure our sustainability and future-proof BWB as it lives inside of Restore Forward.