When CBV was founded, we didn’t set out to change the world, rather, we had a passion and mission of changing our communities. Now, don’t misunderstand us – we want to change the world. We want to see racial equity become a reality.
However, we believe the best way to make this happen is to first change the mindsets of those in our community. We envision thriving people and flourishing communities and that vision forms every program and effort we make at CommunityBuild Ventures.
How Are We Doing This?
We change our community by building relationships with influential partners who have the same desire for racial justice. By working with entrepreneurs, corporations, and community leaders, we’re able to provide education and systems to help root out the causes of racism. We’ve had the immense privilege of partnering with key leaders in major organizations, forward-thinking entrepreneurs, and members of our educational system to create equity-centered systems.
At CBV, we have two main focuses when it comes to systems and education:
THRIVE Design
We imagine communities where outcomes are not predicated based upon the color of people’s skin, and we believe this can be a reality through the hard work and commitment of leaders. Our THRIVE Design service helps organizations solve problems by combining history, research, policy, community culture, and self-care practices to define strategies focused on racial equity. CBV works to ensure the strategies and systems created aren’t only internal but external as well.
Learn and Practice Services
This new way of delivering services developed by CBV builds community power by acknowledging harmful white dominant cultural norms and choosing to do something different. We work with businesses and organizations to create learning opportunities full of tools and resources to advance racial equity-centered design.
Our Foundation
No matter what specific task CBV is focused on at any given time, our underlying foundation is always the same. We truly believe that people and communities can heal through self-care and community care practices. This belief is woven into every relationship and partnership that we form at CBV. By doing so, we’re able to have a far larger impact in our communities and are often given the opportunities to answer challenging questions.
Once we realized the profound impact that self-healing can have on not only an individual but on organizations, we decided it was crucial that CBV included this practice in everything that we do. Since then, healing the inner hurt and pains that most Black people carry has been at the center of every system, session, and speech that we’re a part of.
The Pursuit of CBV
The founding members of CBV set out with the goal of changing our communities and bringing about racial equity. By teaching community leaders about self-care and healing, our pursuit of racial equality will be realized and that our young Black brothers and sisters will be the beneficiaries for generations to come. No community should suffer based on the way they look, and at CBV, we believe this is a pursuit worthy of every sacrifice and effort possible.
