Young Black Leadership Alliance takes steps toward justice, equality

Young Black Leadership Alliance (YBLA), with its long-standing partner Dixon Hughes Goodman, announced the launch of “Community Conversations,” a six-month long educational and action-oriented program created to help eliminate racial disparities and end racial injustice in the local community.

The three-phased approach will focus on education and collaboration, with calls to action throughout the program. 

“We want our discussions to lead to action that will create change to help mend a society that is broken in the areas of justice and equality for Black people,” said John Martin, Co-Founder and CEO of YBLA. “It is our vision to bring the community together to initiate system-level changes in Charlotte and build a better tomorrow for the Black community.”

The YBLA identifies, educates and develops young Black leaders to have a positive impact in their community and beyond. It focuses on helping our young people become leaders that are college and career ready. The young leaders are trained to reach back and mentor elementary, middle and high school students as they achieve. 

“I’m really looking forward to broadening the community’s awareness through our conversations, and I’m even more excited about the actions that will result from these discussions,” said Tammy Martin, Co-Founder and EVP at YBLA.

On July 14, YBLA launched its first phase of Community Conversations in which members of the Black community will share their experiences to shed light on issues they face in educational, professional and corporate institutions. 

In August, the programming will shift to phase two with the focus toward collaboration with experts in various fields including education, financial, healthcare, criminal justice, family, housing and employment. 

During this phase, the goal will be to create solutions to help eliminate racial disparity. There will be calls to action throughout the program, but phase three will focus primarily on the results of the actions that will be presented and celebrated. 

The YBLA and DHG target goal for the program is to have 2,020 actions toward bridging the gap of racial disparities in the Charlotte community.

“The events over the past few weeks have once again underscored the racism that our communities experience in the United States and across the world every day,” said Trey Ackerman, managing partner for tax services at DHG. “At DHG, we pride ourselves on inclusion and equality, but understand there is still so much more to be done. We hope our Community Conversations will serve as a catalyst for real societal change here in Charlotte, and throughout the country.” 

Ackerman joined the YBLA Board of Directors in 2016, and recently assumed the position as Chairman.

“I’ve been so impressed by the important work from the talented YBLA team over the past few years, and I’m tremendously grateful for this opportunity to combine forces as we work to educate and inspire the community to join in and take action,” Ackerman said.  

With the goal to facilitate conversations across the entire Charlotte community, DHG and YBLA invite local businesses, organizations and individuals to join. 

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUNG BLACK LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE.

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