COMMISSION
The Commission on Black Girls will meet monthly through the end of the year to research issues impacting black girls ages 11 to 22 in Columbus. The panel will employ surveys, focus groups and listening sessions.
Experts will be brought in to talk about a variety of topics, including school discipline, mental-health issues and child welfare. And the commission will specifically examine issues surrounding safety, education, spirituality, poverty, justice, life preparation and behavioral health.
Starting in January, the commission’s board will meet quarterly to discuss the group’s findings, Tyson said. It also will issue yearly reports to track its progress and will pitch recommendations to the city council on how to improve the quality of life for black girls before the group disbands in December 2020.
“I wanted the commission to be seated long enough to help implement the recommendations we are giving to the city,” she said.
Tyson said the group hopes to attract black girls from a variety of backgrounds to participate and will reach out to community organizations and media outlets to spread the word about its work. The commission will be comprised of 25 people from social services groups, schools, health systems, businesses, faith communities, organizations focused on black girls and women and more, she said.
Commission co-chairwoman Fran Frazier studied trauma and resilience among black girls in four Ohio cities in 2011 as part of Rise Sister Rise, a research project developed in partnership with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and women’s organizations across the state.
Frazier, a consultant who specializes in dealing with racism and racial inequality, began working Lexy Cooper, 14, of Reynoldsburg, photographs Caiden Younger, 12, of the Hilltop, during their recent field trip to the Franklin Park Conservatory. The new Commission on Black Girls will pitch recommendations to Columbus City Council on how to improve the quality of life for black girls in the city. on issues specific to black girls in 1990, analyzing relational aggression, which is sometimes referred to as emotional bullying. She said she was thrilled to be asked to join the commission.
“I have a lot of passion for this,” Frazier said. “Yes, I am a black woman, but I remember being a black girl, too.”
Frazier said the commission’s findings will not be designed to sit on a shelf, gathering dust.
“This is designed for action and change,” she said. “It would be a disservice to our girls if we collected all this information and did not act on it.”
Paiden Williams, 19, of Olde Towne East, is a charter member of Rise Sister Rise and the youngest commission member.
“It’s amazing to be so young and be able to create a change for black girls in my community,” Williams said.
This is not the first effort to address issues facing black youth in central Ohio.
City Councilman Shannon Hardin serves as co-chair for My Brother’s Keeper, a similar effort aimed at creating opportunities for boys and young men of color in Columbus. Former President Barack Obama created the initiative in 2014.
In 2011, the Kirwan Institute conducted a study analyzing the challenges facing black girls ages 12 to 19 in Franklin County.
This new study will be Columbus’ first focusing on black girls, said Lee Cole, a city council spokeswoman.
“Black girls have a story,” Tyson said, “and we want to tell it.”