Better to Speak Nominated for a 2023 Powerful IDEA Award

The State of the Young Black Advocate Campaign recognized for Organic Digital Content aimed to reach and uplift young Black voters, community members and changemakers.

WASHINGTON, DC – Better to Speak is honored to share that we’ve been nominated for a 2023 Powerful IDEA award by GAIN POWER! Specifically, our State of the Young Black Advocate campaign received a nomination for Organic Digital Content.

The Powerful IDEA Awards celebrates, elevates and honors powerful people and programs impacting our democracy, elections, and advocacy. 

Our category recognizes “creative communication or pieces of content using video, print, digital, audio, and other media for the purposes of communicating with members, voters, donors, or activists.”

Community voting is now open until May 12! Here’s how you can vote for us: 

1. Visit powerfulidea.gainpower.org 

2. Register for an account and complete your profile

3. Click the button below to vote for Better to Speak by or before Friday, May 12, 2023! 

 Please note that there’s a maximum of one vote per nomination. Thank you in advance!

We want to especially lift up our Freedom Summer mini-activation under the State of the Young Black Advocate outreach campaign, which paid homage to the Freedom Summer Project of 1964 and aimed to continue its legacy by engaging Black youth and young adults 18-30 ahead of the 2022 midterms.

This activation was generously supported with a digital organizing stipend from the Andrew Goodman Foundation – a nonprofit that works to engage and mobilize young people to use their voices and votes for our democracy.

Thank you to GAIN POWER, the Andrew Goodman Foundation and our community of writers, partners, readers, donors, and supporters who helped to make this happen!

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Stay connected to SOTYBA

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Stay connected to SOTYBA 〰️

As a reminder, State of the Young Black Advocate is a community outreach campaign that aims to connect with and build narrative power among Black youth and young adults through a peer-led research study, community events and content.

While this award recognizes work during the 2022 midterms, this campaign is still going on! State of the Young Black Advocate is the home for our long-term strategic vision and goals, which includes our study of Black youth and young adults, upcoming membership program launch and more! Revisit our 2023 launch blog to learn more.

We’re super thankful to GAIN POWER for the recognition, and we’d like to use this moment to invite our readers and supporters to join us as we continue this journey! Visit this page on our website to take any of the following actions:

• Sign up for our email newsletter for campaign updates

• Donate to Better to Speak to support our ongoing editorial work and programming for our community of young Black storytellers and changemakers

• Volunteer as we work on our community outreach goals and survey! 

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Revisit Our 2022 featured content!

2022 Featured Stories: State of the Young Black Advocate

• Campaign Launch Stories

• Officially Introducing The "State of the Young Black Advocate" 

• The Future Of Blackness And The People Creating It – Written by Chidinma Iwu

• The State of Youth Address – Written by Peter Lubembela 

• Mental Health Awareness Month

• Better to Speak Joins Second National Mental Health Action Day to transform #SilenceIntoAction for Black mental wellness 

• The Black Woman's Path to Emotional Healing – Written by Edisana Stephen

• Sis is Tired. Mental Health Professionals Break Down the Value of Self-Care for Black Women & Girls – Written by Imani Stephens 

• Celebrating Black History and Culture

• The Dream Team Takes D.C. for the Powerful IDEA Expo [EVENT RECAP]

• A Holiday or a Commodity? What's Happening with Juneteenth – Written by Avery Oliver 

• You're Invited to the Cookout: The influence of traditional African-American dishes in the summer – Written by Imani Stephens 

• Freedom Summer

• Better to Speak Launches ‘Freedom Summer’ Campaign Ahead of 2022 Midterms 

• What, to the Young Black American, is “democracy”? – Written by Kési Felton

• 5 Ways to Take Action in Support of Abortion Rights – Written by Kési Felton 

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ABOUT BETTER TO SPEAK

Better to Speak is a Black youth-led community media platform working to transform silence into language and action.

Through content, community engagement, and communications, Better to Speak works to amplify the voices and stories of Black people and communities, equip them with the storytelling tools, and cultivate a cultural narrative of self and community actualization. Learn more at www.bettertospeak.org. 

ABOUT THE STATE OF THE YOUNG BLACK ADVOCATE

Better to Speak’s State of the Young Black Advocate community outreach and narrative power-building campaign will seek out the perspectives of young Black leaders to inform peer-driven community programming in 2022 and, ultimately, build narrative power among Black youth and young adults.