Phone Number: (917)-225-0836
Email Address: kirkwesleymail@gmail.com
Statement
Mission Statement
Building Leaders across Communities (BLaC) Strategies specializes in providing diverse communities with leadership development training and strategies through the lens of racial equity and gender justice. BLaC Strategies offers businesses and individuals with diversity, equity, and inclusion training to increase organizational efficacy, ensure community partners, and center staff relations on respect and equal access. BLaC Strategies also provides industry best practices and strategic planning consultation for those who wish to work with and in communities of color. Our approach puts people of color at the center and holds space to keep us there.
“After spending a decade working in electoral politics and community organizing, I recognize that there is a severe gap in leadership development and training for the diverse leaders of the 21st century. BLaC Strategies, INC. was founded on the principle that leadership is not monolithic; in order to successfully build leaders and communities, we need strategies that are not one size fits all but tailored to different leaders and leadership styles.”
– Kirk Wesley
“My decade-long journey through the nonprofit ecosystem in CT proved how wide and deep the gaps between diverse communities and leadership opportunities currently are. Equitable solutions to the challenges facing residents in CT and beyond require a collective approach that intentionally brings people from diverse backgrounds together to propose and advance inclusion solutions. BLaC Strategies Inc. exists to fill a void that has existed for far too long. We offer strategies to complex problems that create an inclusive pathway forward based on intentional partnerships, collective impact, and accessible access to decision-making tables for all people through a community-centric approach.”
– Erika K. Stanley
Services
Our Services
BlaC Strategies work together to help provide communities with leadership development training and strategies through the lens of racial and gender equality. With our services, we help them learn and discover these strategies to have them apply them to their company and businesses. Services we provide are “White Ally Coach”, ( ), and more.
Our “White Ally Coach” program is described as …
Erika K. Wesley is a nonprofit leader with over ten years of experience in constituency building, relationship management, program development, strategic planning, leadership development, teaching & curriculum development. As a scholar, she is researching Organizational Leadership through the lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship to understand better how youth leadership and voice can become organizational levers of change. At heart, Erika is a writer and storyteller committed to unearthing the experiences of Black people in CT and raising them up in poem or prose. She is the author of the book For the People to Drink and the creator and host of the Show of Hands podcast. Erika is an educator in higher education with teaching experience in Business Writing and Creative Writing. She is the Chairperson of BLaC Strategies, Building Leaders and Communities, an emerging nonprofit in CT focused on cross-community leadership development and community messaging.
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Kirk A. Wesley is a seasoned community organizer and campaign strategist with over 10 years experience of local, state, and national political and community organizing. After starting out as a volunteer Field Organizer on Congressman Jim Himes’ first re-election campaign, Kirk has gone on to organize and manage political campaigns in multiple states across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. As a political strategist, Kirk has provided guidance to the winning campaigns of Atlantic City, New Jersey Mayor Marty Small, Sr., and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marlin Mosby. In 2018, Kirk oversaw the statewide field operation for all the cities in the state of Connecticut, which led to a historic turnout across the state to secure the win for Governor Ned Lamont’s gubernatorial campaign. Currently, Kirk is an Organizing Consultant with Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut (CONECT) a collective of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and civic organizations from New Haven and Fairfield Counties. He is the Co-Founder of Building Leaders and Communities (BLaC) Strategies, INC. an emerging nonprofit in CT focused on cross-community leadership development and community messaging. Kirk is an avid reader and writer and is the author of the book “Youthful Offender,” a memoir about his coming of age as a youth in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
With a BS in Finance from Wagner College and an array of experience in marketing, communications, and brand development, Philippe Lerebours offers dynamic and thoughtful perspective to any team. His passion for community, creative expression, spaces, and inclusion drives his commitment to continue exploring the intersection of people and the space they inhabit. Philippe makes it a priority to take long drives with loud music often, most of which end at the beach.
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WHITE ALLY (defined by me)
Noun:- A White person, or predominately White group, organization, religion, or nation who have merged their efforts with the BIPOC community to combat the social constructs of racism and white supremacy in any setting they may find themselves in.
Verb:- One who uses the power of their White Privilege to elevate the voices and concerns of BIPOC community in White spaces.
How do you define a White Ally?
We are living in a new world and a new time.
2020 changed the way we approach life but the pandemic has not only forced us to change how we look at things, it’s forced us to change the things we look at. The murders of Ahmaud Ahbury, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd sent shockwaves through the world and, with everyone home, many white people were forced to recognize for the first time that there truly is a problem with racism in America.
In the wake of the horrifying video recording of George Floyd’s death and the demonstrations following it, I received tons of emails, calls, and messages from white people who I knew who did not know what to do in this time. They didn’t know what to say and they didn’t know what to do beyond putting a “Black Lives Matter” lawn sign in their yards. Some didn’t know what to tell their kids while others didn’t even know how to even engage with black people in general. Some called me simply to tell me sorry and share with their sense of hopelessness.
Good people. Good white people- struggling to be a good “White Ally.”
Around the same time, I started a coaching program to become a certified Life Coach and, as I began to learn the principles of coaching, I started to tie it with the conversations I was having with white people. I quickly realized that the missing link in white ally-ship was coaching. In order for white people to truly maximize being a “White Ally” they would need a coach, so I decide to become the first official White Ally Coach. With the recent guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin and the uptick in recorded police murders of unarmed males of color, now more than ever white people should look to tap into their full potential as an ally to people of color.
White Ally Coach is designed to give white people practical information and tangible skills on how to use their whiteness to be an effective support for black people in personal and professional spaces. Through 1-1 and group coaching sessions White Ally Coach specifically curates the coaching experience for you and your organization to get you from where you are to where you want to be as a White Ally.
Topics discussed in White Ally Coaching:
- Coaching vs. Counseling
- White Ally Definition
- Allies vs Friends: which one do you strive to be?
- Ally-ship in Action
- Directions for a Good Ally (White Ally Cheat Code)
To schedule a White Ally Coaching session email kirk@kirkawesley.com or call (917) 225-0836.
POWER TO ALL PEOPLE
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