Black Girl Rising: Placing Black Girls At Promise

What are the challenges facing today’s young people, how do they see themselves, and how can the adults in their lives best help them to succeed in life? How can young people be placed “at promise” as opposed to “at risk”?

Researching these critical questions – and working to find and promote the right answers – is the pioneering 501(C)3 nonprofit Black Girl Rising. Headed by fran frazier (who spells her name in lower case), Black Girl Rising is working to steer Black girls in Ohio ages 11 to 18 to success through a multipronged approach that involves research, advocacy, community-based work, and inclusive and honest conversation.

Research suggests Black girls, with an Ohio population of over 200,000, are exposed to more traumatic stressors than other racial groups. Black Girl Rising carried out a groundbreaking 104-page study in partnership with the Ohio Department of Mental Health to first understand in depth how Black girls in four representative Ohio cities – Columbus, Akron, Dayton, and Lima – viewed themselves, their families, their strengths and weaknesses, and even their physical appearance.

The comprehensive “Rise Sister Rise” study compiled data collected from 400 girls on the prevalence of good and mundane elements in their lives – their role models, athletics, hobbies, and chores – and on their risky behaviors, including drug use, theft, and fighting.

The study showed great promise – more than three-quarter of girls reported liking their intelligence, friendliness, their skin tone and complexion, face, hair, and their ability to stick up for themselves.

But Black girls also reported high levels of risky and dangerous behavior, including drug and alcohol use. Almost half of girls said that they had threatened someone with harm at least once in the last year. A little over one-quarter reported participating in a group fight at least once last year.

Common stressors included divorced parents, single parents, missing-in-action fathers, death and loss, gender victimization, unreported molestation, witness to domestic and street violence, relational aggression, mental and emotional abuse, “living while Black,” alcoholism, drugs, gangs, guns, and chronic sickness of a loved one.

But the study also made clear the value of “developmental assets” – the positive commitments, skills, and values that form a youth’s inner guidance system and affect their personal choices.

The study found an inverse relationship between the presence of positive developmental assets and risky behaviors. Engagement in risky behaviors was clearly blunted by the presence of engaged families and caring schools, by opportunities to provide service to others, by accessible religious and community programs, and other positive factors.

What does the future hold for Black girls in Ohio? Can the lessons learned by Black Girl Rising and its in-depth research be applied to help other struggling youth populations throughout Ohio? Black Girl Rising’s model of spearheading critical research, providing advocacy for and direct support of impacted youth, and holding blunt conversations with its youth constituents, may offer a model ready to benefit others.

Featuring fran frazier, Principal Investigator, Black Girl Rising, Camille R. Quinn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College of Social Work, The Ohio State University, Aliya Horton, Charter Member, Rise Sister Rise Black Girl Think Tank, and host Tonisha Johnson, Anchor/Reporter Spectrum News.

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