SQUADS
The structure of BLM5280 is made up of three squads:
Community Wellness Squad, Economic Justice Squad and the Education Squad.
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The work done by BLM5280’s squads provides essential services
and programming to our community, while allowing our team
to work on the issues they are most passionate about.
COMMUNITY WELLNESS
The BLM5280 Community Wellness Squad houses our chapter’s efforts to provide direct support toward upward mobility for our communities. Our efforts to fight systemic racism and white supremacy in service of our community would be incomplete without energy devoted to meeting the immediate needs of our friends and neighbors.
Community Wellness aims to be the bridge between Black Liberation work and Black Healing. We identify the needs within our community and seek to connect our people with resources and care that would otherwise be unobtainable. Toward meeting those needs, we distribute anywhere from $2000 - $3000 in crisis intervention funding, monthly. These funds are paid directly to community members to assist with housing security, legal services, education costs, food security, utility payments, transportation, medications, mental health services, and childcare. It’s not uncommon to see our squad members hand delivering diapers, groceries, even hand sanitizer to our disabled or chronically-ill neighbors as the pandemic rages on.
Over the years Community Wellness has led many successful programs from bail/legal service funds to regular food and supply drops to Denver’s unhoused community. Our most recent project, the BLM5280 Displacement Defense Fund has kept 40 BIPOC Coloradans housed in direct response to the crisis created by the Covid-19 pandemic. This project was birthed through our devotion to maintaining close connections to community members living in Denver Metro areas that are most vulnerable to gentrification.
Displacement Defense Fund:
Help provide financial assistance for those facing loss of housing due to COVID-19
BIPOC Therapists:
BIPOC Wellness Providers:
Legal Resources:
EDUCATION SQUAD
The Education Squad of Black Lives Matter 5280 aims to support students, parents, and educators of color in Denver and Aurora area schools. The Education Squad addresses pressing issues that result in disparities in the school system, including school discipline issues, school-to-prison pipeline factors, educational inequities, and inadequate cultural training. The Education Squad is presently composed of mostly K-12 educators who teach in Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools. BLM 5280 and its Education Squad are continually educating its members to provide better relationships with the community. Members attend local, regional, and national conferences to become knowledgeable about social justice efforts, grassroots organization, and direct-action approaches to bring back to the Denver and Aurora communities.
Black Lives Matter At School
ECONOMIC JUSTICE
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Our work is to cultivate communities of abundant joy where all Black people are emboldened and empowered to lead, love, heal, and thrive.
