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BALTIMORE —Â In roughly one week, the We Give Black Fest will host its annual CLLCTIVLY event at West Covington Park in Baltimore.Â
The three-day festival is aimed at highlighting black-led organizations and raising money. WJZ is a proud media sponsor of the event.
Ahead of the festival, CLLCTIVGIVE is trying to draw up support from community members for funding. CLLCTIVGIVE is a central platform to donate money to more than 50 black-led organizations.
“When we launched in 2019, folks said, ‘Why are you just focusing on black-led,'” CLLCTIVLY founder Jamye Wooten said. “When the pandemic hit, and the murder of George Floyd happened, people began to get it. People began to look for places where they could support black-led organizations.”
CLLCTIVLY is the organization behind We Give Black.
One of the dozens of organizations being highlighted is Fight Blight Bmore.
Robilyn Heath, the program director of Fight Blight Bmore, hopes to draw up support after Fight Blight Bmore was able to raise more than $18,000 in funding in 2021.
Heath said the organization’s work focuses on educating residents on the impact of blight plus using technology to map out and identify properties beyond repair.
“They’re collecting data on whether the bricks are falling, whether the tree is boarded properly, if it’s a demolition site, or whether it’s gated properly,” Heath said.
The African Diaspora Alliance is another black-led organization hoping to draw support for black youth to fully-fund study abroad opportunities.
“Most of the funding we get is for one year, and that is good,” Elu Omelora, co-founder of African Diaspora Alliance, said. “We can make a promise to those students for one year. But we want students to know that they could stay with us the entire duration of their high school and collegiate careers.”
Wooten hopes this event will provide a path to help fund black-led organizations and raise awareness within the community.
“Our first 24-hour campaign we raised $5,000 dollars; in 2020, we raised $50,000 dollars,” Wooten said. “Last year, we raised over $100,000 dollars in 24 hours, this year we are extending it to 48 hours.”
