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00:00Hi everyone welcome to Black in Focus. I'm Karen Toulon in New York. And today we're talking about the pivotal role black women play in leading change. We're joined by Gabrielle Wyatt. She is the founder of the Highland Project. Hi Gabrielle. Hi Karen. How are you today. I'm good. I'm so delighted to be speaking with you. So two years ago you left your your regular full time job. You've had an amazing career in strategic education and funding. And you decided to focus on the black wealth gap as your full time reason for being. Before we talk about the specifics of the Highland Project which is the initiative that you've founded and you're and you're now raising funds for and you've even announced your first cohort of grantees I just want to talk about why. Why focus on the wealth gap. Why is why is that something to talk about. And is it just about money. Wealth in America equals opportunity right. The opportunity to go to a great school to access a quality higher ed to grow your business to have a home to have healthy foods. I spent my career to date in education systems change. And two years ago I had to ask myself as we saw systemic racism receive greater attention perhaps the most attention and seat received in decades. If I'm serious about educational justice. Am I serious about economic justice as well. And I decided to focus on what does it mean to close the racial wealth gap in the black community. Because I wasn't seeing enough interdisciplinary tables and I was certainly not seeing enough black women leaders centered in conversations around what did it mean to truly create wealth. I believe and we believe at the Highland Project that wealth is more than dollars in pockets. It's about your ability to access that great school. It's about healthy foods. It's about feeling that you can be protected in your streets not being afraid of walking through the street not being afraid of your police force. It's about being able to pursue your dreams. And so at the Highland Project you know we were focused on what does it mean to create holistic solutions that result in the closing of the wealth gap for black Americans. So I also want to mention that you also have a masters from the Kennedy School of Government and Policy. So this is something that you really have spent your your professional life and your and your academic life focused on. You have some fascinating data on your Web site. Seventy one percent of black masters and sixty five percent of women black women earn doctoral degrees. Major drivers of change but in terms of wealth single black women their wealth is one hundred one dollars versus twenty two thousand dollars for white males. The fraction of percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. And this piece of data I found fascinating. Three point six percent of school superintendents. And I guess that goes to the disciplinary part that you were talking about. So at the Highland Project where are you right now. You just announced some grants. How do you function. Sure. As you as you named. We're a nonprofit and we are unapologetically focused on centering black women who are powerful change makers and community systems and institutions across the country who are creating multigenerational wealth and change in their community. We look to support a pipeline of women every year 15 women across the country. We prioritize our recruitment in the South Midwest and Mountain West because we know those are the communities furthest removed from philanthropic and social capital. And we prioritize investing in the solutions that they're leading. And most importantly investing in their well-being. And so you talk about that three point six percent school superintendents that my hunch is it's much lower after the last two years that we have because we are not sustaining the very well-being of black women leaders. And so you ask what's ahead. We just announced on giving Tuesday our first round of investments we're investing two point five million. One point five of that is direct into the hands of leaders to scale their legacy building visions. And what they'll be experiencing over the next 18 months is frankly an unapologetically focused program on their own well-being. How are they preserving themselves in this work. That is hard. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't hard if it wasn't multigenerational works. We're focused on what does it mean to sustain them. What does it mean to continue to tap into their individual power. But most importantly what does it mean to tap into the collective power. And that's what gets me most excited about what's ahead. Because I don't believe that there have been many spaces ever before created like Highland where we're taking interdisciplinary leaders who are best in their fields best in their fields and one giving them trusting capital trusting capital that actually helps them to pilot to experience failure that good failure and to scale what's working and be paired with a cohort of 14 other leaders who are also focused on the same multi generational change that they're waking up every day thinking about. And so each of the 15 gets one hundred thousand dollars of unrestricted funds. And then there's another million that goes across all of the cohort for training and other support. Can you give us some examples of just one or two of the women and their organizations that are getting almost these genius type grants. Sure. Yes. So you're right. We are creating the MacArthur Genius Award for black women. What excites me the most about our first cohort of women is it reflects our definition of well which is that it's beyond dollars and pocket. So I think about leaders like Shelly Jackson who is based out of Arizona. Her day job at Instituto is organizing bipod communities against racial justice goals and strategies. But she also sits on an elected school board position. And yes she knows that to create the type of change we need we need not only organized communities but we need changes in policy. I think about Aisha who is based out of Jackson Mississippi who is piloting guaranteed income for black women in her community and seeing incredible results. I think about kind of Henderson who was formerly the chancellor of Washington D.C. who was unapologetically focused on ensuring our history of black Americans is into race. In her new organization Reconstruction. Well and so. Let's talk about your donors who who so far has supported you. Who are you hoping to get funding from. Tom Mackenzie Scott is a is a big name that's out there making really interesting donations to a lot of smaller and grassroots organizations. Melinda Gates as well. Who are your donors and why do they come to you. So we are raising a five year 13 and a half million dollar fund right now. We've raised three and a half million dollars to date from local and national institutions and we're supported by organizations like when out of Colorado the Chan Zuckerberg initiative. MARGOLIS Out of Colorado the mind trust out of Indianapolis the Walton Family Foundation and more. And I think that people have come to us because they believe in the power of black women leaders. And I think what we are seeing during the pandemic in particular is black women leaders walking away and creating their own tables and innovating. And we need more of that. And I believe that our funders believe we need more of that. And I think they're also asking how can we sustain women in the work. And I think that's the value add that we have right now. It's not just that we are empowering leaders with capital to continue to create their visions. But I can't I can't say it enough. We're focused on their well-being. We know that black women compared to white women experience accelerated aging by at least seven years from work related stress alone. Work related stress alone. We know that structural racism has an impact on the brain health for black women. And so I think our our donors are really wrapping their arms around. What does it mean for if we're serious about our racial equity commitments that we put out during the racial rocketing if we're serious about that work. How do we create a holistic approach to sustaining black women leaders. So when you talk about their well-being what does that actually mean in terms of the programming and supports that you provide. Sure. So we know I think you likely know as well Karen that well-being has rarely been practiced for us as women and certainly rarely been rewarded for us as black women leaders. And so what does that mean for our programming. It means the first interaction that applicants actually had with us was arrest session led by Octavia Rahim out of Georgia. She focused on meditation and rest. And it caught a lot of folks off guard because when do you ever have an hour to yourself during the work week in particular to step back and rest. But it's proven that when you rest you can imagine and what comes out of imagination as solutions. And so in our programming and when leaders come together with us we continue work with Octavia that's focused on what does it mean to define sustainability for ourselves from physical well-being to spirituality to mental health and more. And so are your donors. Are they only provide not only but are they only providing funds or are they also interested in providing that tactical strategic support for the organization through programming and through speakers et cetera. We have incredible donors. I can't say it enough. As you know this is an organization that's focused on multigenerational change not the short term. And so I think it takes a unique donor to believe in the power of multigenerational black women leadership. And so with that I share our donors support us in every way that they can from providing capital to making connection to coaches who can work with leaders to making direct donor contributions to the cohort. And so we really seek to as we build this community be one that yes. Centers black women. But frankly it's one that's also building a national network of allies in different seats of power who can help sustain this multigenerational change. And so after the 18 month long program they won't just graduate out of this. It will remain in the network. That's exactly right. What you will see us continuing to support leaders to convene leaders in the near term which my near term is five years. You will see leaders working together to create a policy platform on what does it mean to create multigenerational wealth in the black community and for leaders not yet placed because we did have over one hundred and fifty nominations had we had one hundred and twenty invites to apply for leaders not yet placed. We continue to provide programming opportunities for them as well. So I want to touch a little bit. We're going back to your Kennedy school experience. Just today the the Bided House administration announced some moves. Underrepresented small businesses when it comes to federal contracting. This is the US federal government is the largest procure of goods and services on the planet. More than six hundred and sixty five billion dollars but only 10 percent of eligible contracts go to black Latino and other minority or under disadvantaged businesses combined. And women while 20 percent of U.S. small businesses get less than 5 percent of federal contracting dollars. And so they've just announced saying that they're going to be moving to ask agencies to increase our goals to 11 percent of contracting dollars going to small disadvantaged firms from the current 5 percent and also releasing just aggregated data. So that's a long way of asking you. How important is policy. You're doing all this pushing on your end with organizations that you support. But how important are things just at the federal level or at the state level policy. Accurate data disaggregated data. Why does that matter. Policy is the word that says you know where I started my career at the Kennedy Center at the Kennedy School. And and I think it's incredibly important because. While entrepreneurship programs while accelerators can help to immediately provide dollars in pockets it can immediately create jobs it is a core factor into why we see wealth gaps. Today it's still not enough. If you don't have access to a great public education that you can afford. If you're not taught by leaders who look like you which is proven to make a difference in how you're achieving in school. You will not have access to those accelerators that are being offered right now. Right. It is too far of a chance right. There's not as much opportunity. And so I think policy is incredibly important because if it's not censoring black women and other invested under invested in communities we're not going to actually see long term change. So at the Highland Project that's why you constantly hear us talking about structural change. We think about policies practices resource flows and power dynamics. Data is a key practice. If we don't have data if we don't know the problem how bad that problem is that we're trying to solve and where we need to go. We can't chart the solutions that will get us there. But I'll also say that we need more than data right. We need quick action that results in change. So the rapidity of change is also crucial. Are there any of the women any of the organizations that you're working with are they specifically focused on on job creation policies in their communities. Yes I think about Aisha Hooley who we spoke a little bit about and I shot in my words wakes up every day asking herself what does it mean for black women to not live in poverty. What does it mean for black women to not live in poverty but to truly be centered and honored as key economic engines and lifeblood for their community. And so while Aisha has been focused right now on what does it mean to put to pilot guaranteed income. She's now also thinking about what are other policies that need to be true for in order to lift women out of poverty and really honor their brilliance and focus their brilliance on continuing to drive economic change. And so you have a you have a five year plan. What is what is your year one of it I guess. What is the. This isn't a trick question but what is the realistic future look like to you. Where do you. What are the milestones. What is success going to look like to the Highland project. And first as success looks like raising our first fund and we're raising that 13 and a half million dollar fine and we're looking to close on the next 10 million so that we can provide capital and resources for four additional cohorts of leaders across this nation. We're looking to continue to do work with Cornell Belcher Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies that focuses on what exactly do black women want and need. What are their aspirations around wealth creation. We we had a groundbreaking poll this summer of over 700 black women across the country. And we asked them just that. We asked them what they needed political and other leaders to be focused on in order to create real change. What you'll see from us is us doing that survey every year because we believe we need to shine a light on that data. What was the highlight of what were the top two or three issues that the survey raised up as being important to women black women. Sure. And so I think the most important thing to know is that we will continue to show our political force. Over 90 percent of black women said that they plan to show up for midterms which means leaders need to be actually not only listening but moving from rhetoric to action right now. They need to be moving to rhetoric to action right now on the top three issues that black women named first and foremost protecting voting rights. We saw nearly 90 percent of black women want leaders across sectors focus on protecting voting rights. The second is that we want leaders fighting racial discrimination. We found that over one third of the women that we spoke to experience racism in their daily lives and their daily lives. And finally three they want leaders focus on what does it mean to provide a quality accessible and affordable education across all levels. What was really striking to me in the data was that over 60 percent of women regardless of if they were parents regardless of income level or waking up at night about the quality of access to public schools for the generations coming up behind them. We heard that loud and clear. And what we learned. Well Gabrielle this was a great conversation I really enjoyed talking with you about the Highland Project Capital why the founder of the Highland Project Lift Lifting up black women leaders. That'll do it for this edition of Black in Focus. Next week we're going to talk with Clay Williams and Colleen Vincent founders of Black Food Folks. They support and provide activists advocacy to organizations in the food and wine and drink industry. So until then I'm Karen Toulon for Black in Focus. And this is Bloomberg.

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Black in Focus: Cultivating a Pipeline of Skilled Black Women

Gabrielle Wyatt, founder of Highland Project, talks to Karen Toulon on Black in Focus about the pivotal role of Black women in erasing the wealth gap.

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