One More Idea

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier. It speaks less to the specifics of the Rashawn Brazell or Sakia Gunn cases, and more to what we as adults can do for our Black Lesbian and Gay Youth.

Eleven years ago, one of my older brothers passed away while pursuing his Ph.D in African Art History at Yale. To honor his memory, our family established a scholarship in his name, given to a graduate student studying African culture.

This is much easier to set up than you might imagine. You don’t have to be rich nor responsible for managing the process yourself. There is plenty of help out there.

First, we found a community foundation, to act as fiscal and fund administrators. There are hundreds across the country with expertise in helping ordinary people set up charitable giving programs. They helped us create the parameters—how much would be awarded, how people apply, who decides on grant awardees, a timeline, etc.

The community foundation we worked with set up the account to manage the funds, and then we spent the first several years just raising money to put in it. Family members made our own contributions but we also held fundraisers and hit up everyone we knew. We are now entering our fifth year of awarding scholarship money, and the assets in the fund continue to grow thanks to the foundations careful management.

I say all this to say, the same thing can be done either in memory of Rashawn and Sakia or just in general, anywhere in the country, to show our young people we care not just when tragedy befalls them, but while they are still capable of enjoying a bright future.