BGEA | Gwen's Girls

The Black Girls Equity Alliance

After the first annual Equity Summit, practitioners, researchers, stakeholders, and concerned community members were inspired to take actionable steps to begin to address the structural inequities and subsequent disparities experienced by Black girls in our community.

This call to action resulted in the Black Girls Equity Alliance (BGEA). The BGEA currently has four workgroups which focus on improving the outcomes for Black girls in child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and health and wellness.

These workgroups have created a space for collaborative interdisciplinary initiatives that have included the development of trauma informed care training, data driven problem solving, participatory action research, and honing community resources to better serve the need of Black girls.

Join Our Work Groups



Education

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Amanda Cross, PhD

Janine Fiorina-Cody

To foster collaboration between school districts and community organizations to address issues that disproportionately impact Black girls in school, including sexual harassment and suspensions.



Child Welfare

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Rikell Ford, PhD, LSW, MA

Angela Steele

Betsy Caroff

To analyze the underlying reasons Black girls have disproportionately high child welfare referral rates and use these findings to inform and improve service delivery.



Juvenile Justice

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Kimberly Booth

Sara Goodkind, PhD, MSW

To collaborate with local law enforcement officials to identify communities with the highest referral rates for Black girls, the associated behaviors, and changes in order to partner with local diversion programs, community members, and policymakers to reduce rates of referral.



Health & Wellness

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Britney Brinkman, PhD

Jose Garth

To support Black girls in obtaining accurate health information and services by building the capacity of providers to deliver trauma-informed care and comprehensive sex education.