Rise Sister Rise has changed her name!

       Welcome to Black Girl Rising, Inc.  In order to incorporate as an official organization so that we can do more to “Place Black Girls At Promise”, we changed our name. We are now a not-for-profit 501.C3 organization with tax-deductible status. Our Vision, our Mission,  and our work with Black girls have not changed.

We thank you for your continued support.

Vision and Mission of Black
Girl Rising, Inc.

Founded in 2010, the vision of Black Girl Rising Inc., formerly known as Rise Sister Rise, is to ensure that all African American girls live lives of authenticity, equality, and resiliency. With the collective work and responsibility of women and men who care about Black girls, our girls will be self-loving, empowered leaders, and advocates for change. The mission of Black Girl Rising, Inc. is to research and evaluate the ways in which Black girls experience their lives, especially in the areas of trauma and resiliency; to serve as a catalyst for institutional and policy change that will enhance the likelihood of improving outcomes for African American girls and their families; and to create programs, products, and services that will encourage community engagement with a focus on change and collaboration, to influence the quality of life of Black girls.

The work of Black Girl Rising Inc. is strategically designed to do the following:

1. Research and evaluation of African American girls’ lived experiences,
2. Creation of programs, products, and services that encourage positive community engagement,
3. Provision and dissemination of research, programs, products & services, and information regarding the lives and promise of Black girls to public and private institutions, individuals, and entities in the United States and elsewhere,
4. To serve as an advocate on behalf of African American girls and their families, and
5. Organization and presentation of academic, cultural, and other activities and events, which help achieve items one through four above.

Fran Frazier, MA | Principal Investigator

Thank you for your interest in Placing Black girls at Promise! We look forward to working with you as, together, we help our girls navigate their way toward resiliency. Every day I enter a school building, walk through a mall, look out my car window as I drive, I see a Black girl and wonder about her. Is she at promise or at risk? Our approach to this work is unique. We collected data and shared the results. Through the local networks created, we are building a collective community enhancing the strengths and addressing challenges revealed in the data. Black Girl Rising Inc™ and the work of others suggest that Black girls living in urban areas are exposed to more traumatic stressors than other children. We want the lives of Black girls to reflect collective work and responsibility by their families, communities, leaders, and government. Placing Black girls at promise means we talk to girls, those at risk, and those who are doing well. We ask the hard questions that may not be “any of our business” but we ask them because we want them to be “placed at promise.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Why focus on African American girls?

Our research and the work of others suggest that urban adolescent African American girls are exposed to more traumatic stress ors than children of other groups.  Not every Black girl is a victim of poverty. Yet, most Black girls live with some kind of trauma every day.

Why focus the research on Akron, Columbus, Dayton and Lima, Ohio?

The cities have a higher percentage of African American girls than statewide averages, are medium to large urban areas,  and all four counties in which these cities are located have higher percentages of children living in poverty and youth adjudicated for felonies. Some of the counties also had higher rates of children receiving food stamps or reduced price lunches, higher rates of births to adolescents, and higher rates of students not graduating from high school.

What does Black Girl Rising INC. Research logo symbolize?

The logo for our Study is a group of three girls holding hands, symbolically singing an urban street song where the girls encourage “Sally” to rise and wipe her weeping eyes. They sing her into feeling better about herself and make a circle of support for her new behavior. We took a similar approach to this research through a path of collective work and responsibility.

How does the Black Girl Rising Research Project promote the resiliency of girls?

Our work symbolizes a circle bound by listening to girls’ stories, asking questions, recruiting community involvement, conducting research, promoting community engagement by opening the dialogue about trauma and Black girls, and offering community-based activities to honor the resiliency in girls.

Partners care about black girls and align with the vision of Black Girl Rising, Inc., to lead the charge in creating historic opportunities for our girls that improve their social, emotional and economic outcomes in life. We appreciate their support in helping place Black girls at promise.

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