FACTSHEET: Mental Health of Black Girls: The Case for Gender-Specific and Culturally Affirming Services

October 2021

There is an epidemic of unmet mental health needs among Black women and girls. But instead of addressing those mental health needs, Black girls are punished and criminalized. This factsheet outlines why it is imperative that we develop and remove barriers to culturally and gender affirming mental health services.

In the Extreme: Women Serving Life Without Parole and Death Sentences in the United States

September 2021

One of every 15 women in prison—amounting to more than 6,600 women—is serving a life sentence and nearly 2,000 of these have no chance for parole. Another 52 women in the U.S. are awaiting execution. Black women account for 1/3 of women serving life sentences and virtual life sentences in the U.S. Many women serving extreme sentences were victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse long before they committed a crime.

Boy as Allies: Increasing the Capacity for Adolescent and Teenage Boys to be Allies in the Work to End Sexual Violence Against Black Girls in School

August 2021

Boys as Allies is an interactive educational resource designed for Black boys and young men, ages 11 to 18. This curriculum was created by centering the voices of youth and conducting focus groups with Black and Brown male-identifying adolescents and Black and Brown female-identifying adolescents. Boys as Allies is ultimately challenging the age-old notion of “boys will be boys” and seeks to educate boys and young men about taking accountability for their behaviors and increasing their awareness and capacity to join the work of eliminating sexual violence.

NBWJI 2020 Impact Statement

December 2020

This report is an overview of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI) work in 2020 to help eliminate racial and gender disparities in the U.S. criminal legal system that are responsible for its disproportionate impact on Black women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people.

End School PushOut for Black Girls and Other Girls of Color: Federal, State, and Local Policy Recommendations

September 2019

This new brief amplifies resources, policies, and practices to create supportive learning environments, where all students have the opportunity to succeed and where Black girls have access to a robust array of targeted services and supports able to propel them to a lifetime of success.

Expanding Our Frame, Deepening our Demands for Safety and Healing for Black Survivors of Sexual Violence

February 2019

Expanding Our Frame, Deepening Our Demands calls for an expansion of messaging and responses to more explicitly center the experiences of Black women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people. The brief highlights ways in which systems advanced as sources of “safety” from sexual violence—including law enforcement, educational settings, social services, and health care provider—often in fact serve as perpetrators of sexual violence against Black women and girls.

NBWJI Data Sheet on School Discipline and Girls of Color

October 2018

This report is a data analysis from the 2015 - 2016 U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Data Collection. The data summary offers national trends and regional trends associated with school discipline for girls in public U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools. This document also presents data for charter schools.

PROJECT FOCUS: School Culture and Discipline Reform in Boston-Area Primary and Secondary Schools

March 2018

This document is the culmination of a year-long participatory learning and community-response project. The document outlines policy and school-led practice recommendations responsive to a host of conditions that were named to be of concern by girls of color in the Boston community, and that are typically associated with negative disciplinary and performance outcomes among girls of color nationwide.

Be Her Resource: A Toolkit About School Resource Officers and Girls of Color

September 2017

This toolkit is based on first-of-their-kind focus groups and interviews conducted by the Center on Poverty and the National Black Women’s Justice Institutite with school resource officers (SROs) and girls of color. It offers strategies and guidance to improve interactions between school-based police and girls of color and decrease the disproportionate use of school discipline with girls of color, The report was focused on the South, an area often overlooked in related research.

Centering Black Women, Girls, Gender Nonconforming People and Fem(me)s in Campaigns for Expanded Sanctuary and Freedom Cities

September 2017

This report discusses concepts of "sanctuary" and "freedom" through a policy lens that centers Black women, girls, gender nonconforming people and fem(mes). Offering a policy platform that amplifies the work of the Ms. Foundation Safety cohort, this report offers a policy framework that expands constructs of freedom and offers anti-criminalization strategies to uplift safety.