HomeAboutProgramsEventsImpactInvestResourcesConnect
Our Story

We Are
Not an Accident

Black Girl Assembly was built from years of programming, community work, and a deep belief that Black, Brown, and Indigenous girls and women deserve more than survival. They deserve to bloom.

Our Vision

A world where every Black girl and woman knows she is worth building a life around.

We imagine a world where Black girls grow up in community, led by women who have done their own healing, surrounded by stories that look like them, with access to tools and spaces to become who they actually came to be — the full, complicated, beautiful truth of who they are.

Our Mission

To build leadership and healing infrastructure for Black, Brown, and Indigenous girls and women — using arts, community, and radical care.

  • Leadership from the inside out — always
  • Healing as strategy, not supplement
  • Arts as primary language, not decoration
  • Community as the curriculum itself
  • Access as a promise — sliding scale, scholarships, and financial aid always available
Our Values

The principles we will not compromise.

  • Truth before comfort. We name what is real.
  • Care without condescension. We serve, not save.
  • Rest is productive. We model what we teach.
  • Joy is not optional. It is a survival practice.
  • Black women first. Always, without apology.
  • Rigor and warmth together. Both. Always.
Our History

Programming Since 2018

Black Girl Assembly's programming didn't begin with our incorporation. It began years earlier — in 2018 and 2019 — in rooms with Black girls and women who needed more than what existed. We have been running leadership programs, healing spaces, literacy initiatives, and community gatherings since before we had a formal name for what we were building.

What we built formally as Black Girl Assembly is the infrastructure that the work always deserved. A name. A structure. A clear mission. Programs designed with intention and grounded in research. The community came first. The organization caught up.

Headquartered in Boston, MA, our programs reach girls and women nationwide through hybrid delivery — in-person cohorts in cities across the country and online community through The Culture Collective on Mighty Networks.

We built this as a mission-driven company because the work demanded a structure that lets us move quickly, pay our facilitators competitively, and answer only to the girls and women we serve. Programs operate on a sliding scale — tuition is income-based, and scholarships, financial aid, and payment plans are always available. That accessibility is a promise, not a footnote.

Culture Commitments

What We Promise — In Writing

Culture commitments are not aspirational statements. They are promises with teeth — published so our community and our team can hold us accountable to them.

To Our Community

What girls, women, and families can expect every time they walk through our doors.

You Will Always Be Named Correctly

Your name, your pronouns, your identity — exactly as you give them to us. We adjust. You don't have to.

You Will Be Fed

Every in-person program includes a real meal. Not a granola bar. Real food, because learning and healing happen better when you are not hungry.

You Will Never Perform Your Pain

We create conditions for truth. We never demand it. What you share in our spaces is yours.

You Will See Yourself at the Front of the Room

Every program is facilitated by women of color with shared lived experience. Representation is the architecture, not the talking point.

Cost Will Never Be a Barrier

Programs are offered on a sliding scale. Scholarships, financial aid, and payment plans are always available. If cost is a concern, note it in your application. We will work it out — every time.

Your Safety Is Non-Negotiable

Every facilitator is trained in mandated reporting and trauma-informed care. You are not on your own in our spaces.

To Our Staff & Interns

What everyone who works or volunteers with Black Girl Assembly can expect from us.

You Will Be Paid Fairly and On Time

Black women are chronically underpaid for this work. We are building against that norm. Interns are always compensated.

Your Healing Comes Before Your Output

Mandatory rest, flexible timelines, access to healing resources. We do not romanticize burnout as dedication.

You Will Be Seen as Whole

You are not your deliverables. We know your name, your story, your context. No one is invisible here.

You Will Have a Voice in How We Operate

Staff input shapes program design, policy, and organizational direction. The people closest to the work have a say in it.

Conflict Will Be Handled with Integrity

We have a written conflict resolution protocol. Hard conversations are held with care and structure, not avoided.

Your Facilitation Will Be Supported

Training, supervision, peer reflection, and mental health access for every facilitator. You cannot pour from empty.