The Black Kinship Network

The Black Kinship Network's purpose is to be a catalyst for a change within the Black community. Rosanita Ratcliff noticed that many of the social and non-profit groups could work closer together and that our kids need more than what is out there. Rosanita's background is social services, geriatrics and education. She decided to create a positive change within the community. She felt as though history could teach us what needed to be done. What they Rosanita found was this:

In the late 1880s, we began to search for family and create businesses during Reconstruction. In the 1920s, we had the Harlem Renaissance (our cultural revolution) and in the 1960s, we had the Civil Rights movement. Another 40 years has passed and it is time for another Revolution. This time, it is time for a social revolution, a kinship revolution. Our kinship revolution is the creation of a support system from a group of peers within the African Diaspora. The African Diaspora encompasses Blacks from around the world. A lot of us have lost ties to our communities, our history and with each other. We are actively seeking strong, quality ties to bind us to our community. It is time to begin relying on our ethnic counterparts within the Diaspora for support, for assistance, for networking along with the reliance we have on other ethnic groups. It is time for us to begin learning from each other again and appreciating what we, as Blacks, can offer each other and the world at large. It is time to demonstrate the power of our community and what we have to offer. It is time for us to become cohesive, to heal, to share, and to empower ourselves with the necessary knowledge and connections to succeed, regardless of our socio-economic backgrounds.