Young, Black, and Safe
A National Community Safety and Advocacy Initiative of the Black Youth Empowerment Network. Building safer conditions for Black youth through education, advocacy, community engagement, and strategic partnership.
Overview
Young, Black, and Safe is the Black Youth Empowerment Network's national community safety and advocacy initiative.
The initiative unites Black youth, BYEN chapters, community organizations, public institutions, and advocates around a shared goal: expanding access to resources, strengthening awareness, and advancing solutions that protect the safety and well-being of Black young people.
Through national campaigns, local programming, public advocacy, community conversations, and strategic partnerships, Young, Black, and Safe keeps the safety of Black youth visible, urgent, and central to the decisions that shape their communities.
The initiative draws on BYEN's national network of more than 700 members and multiple collegiate chapters across the Southeast and East Coast.
“How can young people fully learn, lead, and pursue opportunity if they are not safe?”
Why This Work Matters
Gun violence remains one of the leading causes of death among Black youth. Its impact reaches far beyond the immediate loss of life, shaping how young people experience their schools, neighborhoods, relationships, and futures.
Young, Black, and Safe responds to the urgent need for gun violence prevention while recognizing that safety extends well beyond protection from physical harm. For Black youth, safety also means access to mental health support, accurate legal information, trusted community resources, responsive institutions, and a genuine voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
Our work is organized around three areas:
Physical Safety
Advancing education, prevention strategies, partnerships, and youth-led action in response to gun violence and other threats to the physical safety of Black youth.
Mental Well-Being
Connecting young people with information, professionals, support systems, and community spaces that recognize the effects of violence, grief, discrimination, and trauma.
Legal Awareness
Equipping Black youth with accessible information to understand their rights, navigate public systems, and advocate for fair treatment in their schools, campuses, and communities.
Our Track Record
BYEN's commitment to community safety is established and ongoing.
200+ Black Youth Engaged
BYEN has hosted two in-person gun violence convenings, bringing together more than 200 young people, community members, advocates, and organizational leaders. Both convenings received local news coverage and opened new pathways for education, dialogue, and collective action.
Established Partnerships
BYEN has built formal partnerships with government officials and national and local organizations, including the Everytown Community Safety Fund, Students Demand Action, and the Atlanta Mayor's Office of Violence Reduction.
BYEN Community Safety Fellowship
The BYEN Community Safety Fellowship is a four-week leadership development experience equipping emerging leaders with the knowledge, skills, and relationships to advance community safety, address gun violence, and explore community violence intervention strategies. The program includes virtual learning and an in-person convening in Memphis, Tennessee, held in partnership with the Everytown Community Safety Fund.
Apply to the FellowshipWhat We Do
Young, Black, and Safe delivers programming that gives Black youth practical knowledge, trusted resources, and real opportunities to shape community safety efforts.
Workshops and Trainings
Educational sessions on gun violence prevention, personal safety, mental health awareness, legal rights, and community advocacy, designed so participants leave with information they can understand, apply, and share within their own networks.
Public Advocacy
We engage young people in policy conversations, public education campaigns, and community initiatives addressing gun violence prevention and the broader safety and well-being of Black youth, ensuring they are not only represented in these conversations but prepared to shape the solutions.
Resource Development and Distribution
We create and distribute accessible materials that connect young people and families with information on legal rights, mental health services, safety resources, and community-based support systems.
Community Convenings
We host forums, workshops, listening sessions, and public events that bring together young people, community leaders, professionals, and institutions, strengthening relationships and creating pathways for coordinated action.
Our Approach
Young, Black, and Safe is grounded in the belief that Black youth must be active participants in shaping the systems, policies, and programs meant to protect them.
The initiative pairs national visibility with local engagement. BYEN provides the infrastructure, partnerships, and shared direction, while chapters and community partners adapt programming to the needs of the young people and communities they serve. This structure allows Young, Black, and Safe to stay nationally aligned while remaining responsive to local conditions.
Our work is designed to:
- • Increase access to practical safety information and resources
- • Strengthen youth knowledge of legal rights and public systems
- • Expand youth participation in community safety and policy discussions
- • Support prevention, healing, and community-based intervention
- • Build stronger relationships between young people and trusted institutions
- • Position Black youth as informed contributors to long-term solutions
Partnership Opportunities
Young, Black, and Safe invites nonprofit organizations, corporations, foundations, educational institutions, government agencies, healthcare providers, legal professionals, and community leaders to support the initiative. Organizations may participate as an Institutional Partner or an Endorsing Organization.
Institutional Partners
Institutional Partners provide substantial, ongoing support to Young, Black, and Safe, which may include financial investment, in-kind services, subject-matter expertise, professional training, research or data support, and access to facilities, speakers, or community resources. Institutional Partners are formally recognized across initiative programming and materials as core contributors to the sustainability and growth of Young, Black, and Safe.
Become an Institutional PartnerEndorsing Organizations
Endorsing Organizations provide public support for Young, Black, and Safe and help extend awareness of the initiative within their networks. Endorsement does not require a financial contribution; it reflects an organization's public commitment to the safety and well-being of Black youth.
Endorse the InitiativeJoin the Initiative
Young, Black, and Safe is building a national network of young people, institutions, and community partners committed to improving the conditions in which Black youth live, learn, and lead.
Young people can take part through educational programming, community conversations, advocacy campaigns, local activations, and leadership opportunities offered through BYEN and its partners. Organizations can contribute funding, expertise, platforms, resources, and institutional access.
Together, we can move beyond awareness and build the partnerships, programs, and systems required to advance safer futures for Black youth.
Questions about the initiative? Email us at ybs@wearebyen.org