HOW WE DO THE WORK

Providing for Community Needs

Community led solutions

“Those who are closest to the problem are also closest to the solution.” We create safe spaces for the most vulnerable voices to be heard and focus on meeting even the most basic needs. That’s how we create community led solutions.

Restorative Justice & Advocacy

Block Builderz build HOPE block by block. Hope is Healing Our Post-traumatic Experiences. Our healing circles are rooted in the indigenious practice of Restorative Justice. We speak our truths in efforts to change a broken system. We center our voices to be heard across the gap with policy makers, decision makers and those who are able to affect systemic change.

We aim to address the residual trauma lingering across the generations from the 1921 Tulsa Racial Massacre.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Block Builderz aims to rebuild a Black Wall Street mindset by investing in Black entrepreneurs. Economic instability is a root cause for incarceration. “The Prison Policy Initiative has also reported that formerly incarcerated people are five times more likely than the general public to be unemployed.

We build relationships with employers to be able to provide people with economic opportunities and we promote entrepreneurship as a way to overcome the barriers.

RACIAL JUSTICE

Our goal is to increase access to affordable and quality housing by creating community partnerships that address the immediate housing needs and increase access to homeownership. We strive to address the disparity faced by justice-involved people.

“A recent report by the Prison Policy Initiative has reported that formerly incarcerated people are nearly 10 times more likely than the general public to face homelessness. Formerly incarcerated women have higher rates of homelessness than men and formerly incarcerated Black women have the highest rates of homelessness.

Racial Disparities in Oklahoma’s injustice system

“Black Juveniles in Tulsa are more than 3 times more likely to be arrested than white juveniles.” Once arrested, our youth become entangled in the unjust system. It is a pathway that feeds into the gates of prison. We offer a safety net for our youth in order to offer a way out of the system. Our community led approach offers innovative partnerships and solutions that are centered around, ”Justice that’s Just.”

CREDIBLE MESSENGERS

As directly impacted people, we have led the problem and now we are leading the solution by bringing forth innovative solutions as alternatives to incarceration.

“The Credible Messenger movement is emerging based on a holistic, comprehensive approach to justice that transforms and improves individual lives, rearranges the relationship between communities and the justice system, and empowers neighborhoods to use the resources they have within to maintain public safety. Using this people-up perspective, the Credible Messenger approach seeks to build trust and inspire change from within communities so that they can feel positive about possibilities rather than facing a future of frustration."

Referenced: https://cmjcenter.org/approach/