In celebration of Black History Month, Swanson Family Academy (SFA) is hosting an event series titled “Bring Back the Village,” aimed at unifying, empowering, and educating communities around D.C.
“Bring Back the Village” is organized into four educational workshops: Save Ourselves; Save Our Youth; Save Our Families; and Save Our Livelihoods. The event is hosted each Wednesday in February in the Denny’s Community room at 1250 Bladensburg Road Northeast.
Founded in February 2024 by Andria Swanson, SFA is a non-profit organization grounded in Nguzo Saba’s principles of unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, purpose, faith and cooperative economics.
A D.C. native with roots in Wards 5, 7 and 8, Swanson is currently a teacher in D.C. Public Schools (DCPS). She said her upbringing in D.C. and her experiences with poverty and youth violence inspired her to create SFA, which she hopes can be an outlet for positive community change and youth development.
“Restoring the village is a huge part of my purpose in the program because we don’t have that, we don’t know our neighbors, we’re fighting, no one’s listening, our children are dying,” said the educator. “Swanson Family Academy is my solution.”
After noticing gaps within her own community and through her work as a teacher, Swanson and her siblings, Kiara Swanson and Marquise Walton, came up with SFA.
“Our mission and purpose is to restore, uplift and protect our youth, our families and our livelihoods by reclaiming the power of community, education and collective responsibility,” said Swanson. “This is all about actionable solutions that will challenge our communities; we need to come together to face everything from youth violence to economic instability.”
Walton, who is development director at SFA, said that his and Swanson’s connection as siblings has helped to strengthen their mission as an organization.
“We are strong and united, whether that’s blood family or family by association,” he said. “Part of the mission is having everyone attuned to the same frequency so we can be on the same page.”
The development director also emphasized the importance of building leadership skills among Black families.
“Since the assassinations…of MLK and Malcolm X and other leaders throughout Black American history, we’re afraid to be a leader,” he said. “We don’t need one leader, we need an organization of leaders. I hope to accomplish something that’s deep rooted, that grows toward the earth and is hard to pull up.”
Building Better Futures for Black Youth, Culturally Relevant Education
The Feb. 5 “Save Our Youth” workshop focused on building better futures for young African Americans, engaging the community, and fostering a sense of self-identity and pride outside of cultural stereotypes.
The event was moved to a virtual platform because of inclimate weather, so participants communicated via chat box, while Swanson led a powerpoint presentation introducing the concept of cultural identity and the importance of instilling strong belief systems in Black youth.
“We have to look at poverty and adverse childhood experiences, collectively,” said Swanson. “How can we learn from the past? Like Black Wall Street in Tulsa, where they developed economic self sufficiency, community investments, and entrepreneur unity. They had resilience and legacy, despite the massacre, it’s still a great symbol of self determination and freedom.”
Each workshop is interactive and has a discussion-based format, in which attendees are encouraged to share their thoughts, concerns, and solutions about issues in their respective communities.
Swanson’s presentations are accompanied by community vision screenings, where participants can share visions for what they’d like to see in their communities, identify their individual goals, and consider how they align with broader community goals.
“Save Our Youth” emphasized the need for culturally-relevant education and character building for Black youth.
“Not knowing who you are, whose you are is a deficit; that’s something we continually struggle with in our communities because we’ve been educated by our oppressors,” she said. “Our oppressors are not going to educate us to be liberated, but I do. It’s important to know who you are, not just in not just in terms of what you do, what you like and what you’re passionate about, but also in terms of who you are in this country, as an African in America.”
Each event concludes with a call to action, in which participants make a “unity pledge,” identifying ways they plan to apply skills and knowledge learned in the session and build community connections with their neighbors.
Swanson said that, for the final “Bring Back the Village” workshops, attendees can expect to access resources on violence, drug prevention and conflict resolution, as well as engage with tangible strategies to strengthen Black families.
Najai Knox, a student at SFA, said that the organization has been a resource for community building and cultural uplift.
“We all need the ability to rely on each other; it’s a proverb that says ‘it takes more than one head to make a council.’ I can’t be the only one that holds everything and I got to heal myself and other people, it takes community to do that.” said Najai. “That’s what we’re working on here, I found this community and now we’re building it together.”
I love the article, it was well written. We do, need to rely on each other!