the pilot
For our initial pilot project, our goal is to provide a guaranteed income of $1,000-$2,000 a month to 2-6 fellows over a 18 month period. We want to use our pilot to understand how a guaranteed income can support fellows during their inquiry process. In addition to funding, we want to explore ways to provide mentorship, technical assistance, and community care for our fellows.
Learn more about two of our pilot fellows below!
Our Pilot Diaspora Bridge Fellow:
YAW MANKATAH ASARE
Yaw Mankatah Asare, author of the Pan African Review’s “Ghana Calls but Who Benefits: Year of Return and Beyond” is a research coordinator for an archive, Saman - a Ghanaian archive institute. Here, he coordinates a research project which allows for the documentation of oral histories and stories along the coast of Ghana. He is also a co-founder of the Black travel organization Abibikwantuo where he develops and leads educational travel programs in West Africa.
Interested in language as a liberation tool and Afrikan deep thought, Yaw continues to study the language and has since shared his knowledge with several schools, institutes and people across the globe. He also writes news articles for the office of Diaspora Affairs, Ghana.
Yaw Asare has been accepted to pursue a PhD in African Studies at Howard University. While studying there, Yaw working in direct supervision with professors at the department will deepen his theoretical and methodological skills. Moreover, through interactions on the HBCUs campus and beyond, Yaw would pursue research on Ghana’s Diaspora Engagement policies and how the African diaspora is responding to it.
Our Pilot Democratic Education Fellow:
GIA CLAYBROOKS
Gia Claybrooks is an activist educator dedicated to sharing love, expanding community, and empowering those around her that thriving is not a privilege but a birthright. She started the process of imagining Thrive Liberation Community Center in Charlotte, NC in 2022 as a love letter to her community who helped raise her into the woman she is today. While she is building the first community center in Charlotte, it most certainly won't be the only city. Gia is on a mission to see Black people gather together in the community, learn how to effectively create community change, heal from the things that have harmed them from shining brightly, and just be all over the United States.
Gia is a very proud graduate of Howard University where she received her Bachelor’s in Political Science. Gia has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, a community organizer in Charlotte, received her Master's in Education from Vanderbilt University concentrating in Learning, Diversity, and Urban Studies in 2020, and the Site Director at UrbanPromise Charlotte.
Gia is dedicated to leading with a heart to serve and is inviting anyone who is passionate about Black communities being free to join hands with her in partnership. After all, we cannot do this work alone.