Up From Slavery Initiative

Up From Slavery Initiative Our mission is to heal, inform, and empower our underserved community through our many initiatives. Freedom from racial oppression and thoughts of inadequacy.

Our vision is to build sustainable wealth and self-empowerment among the black and brown community. This initiative will create a pathway to freedom:

Financial Freedom- Debt Management, Business, Property & Investments. Freedom from unhealthy mental and physical habits.


--------

Ways to give (https://www.ufsi.org/get-involved):

UFSI is sponsored by United Way of Kitsap County. All monetary do

nations can be sent to:

United Way of Kitsap County
645 4th Street Suite 101
Bremerton, WA 98337

​Checks made payable to: Up From Slavery Initiative

Grateful doesn't begin to describe the impact. Our Youth Mental Wellness golf event brought members of our community tog...
08/30/2026

Grateful doesn't begin to describe the impact.

Our Youth Mental Wellness golf event brought members of our community together, young people, mentors, and partners, for a day centered on connection, resilience, and having fun while talking openly about Youth mental health.

Thank you to everyone who made it happen. This is the work, and we're already planning for next year.

Thanks to speakers:
Dr. Kimberly Riley, Dr. Keandra Thompson, Ursula Volwiler for this year’s engaging conversation with youth on mental wellness.

Thanks for sponsorships:
Catalyst Public Schools
Connection Credit Union, Silverdale
Kevin J Mitchell - Your WA Realtor
STRATAGEM Law Group, Matthew T. Macklin, JD, MBA

Thanks to all the volunteers and parents showing up as caring adults.

Thanks to event coordinators at Gold Mountain Golf Club

Logo by artist, Estela C

📷: CCR Photography

Hey parents, before getting your students back into the classroom, please encourage them to learn something new and get ...
08/25/2026

Hey parents, before getting your students back into the classroom, please encourage them to learn something new and get on the green. ⛳️

Ursula Volwiler (not pictured) will be joining Dr. Kimberly Riley and Dr. Keandra Thompson for this year’s engaging conversation with youth on mental wellness.

Registration closes Wednesday August 26th at midnight. Let us know if your youth needs transportation to and from Gold Mountain Golf Club. Space is limited including 🍔🌭. https://forms.gle/K4SgpkhZbuG2ZXrQ8


***************

Join the R.E.A.L Youth Advocates (Resilient. Empowered. Active. Leaders. Powered by Up From Slavery Initiative) for a fun, interactive, and informative event at Gold Mountain Golf Course on Saturday, August 29th from 11:00am - 3:00pm. All registered participants are required to arrive by 10:45am.

Space is limited. https://forms.gle/K4SgpkhZbuG2ZXrQ8

This FREE opportunity is open to participants (ages 14 to 26) who will have the opportunity to learn and/or improve basic golf skills through a clinic environment with pitching, putting, and driving stations. No experience necessary, clubs and prizes provided!

Lunch will also be provided. Followed by interactive presentations and discussions about youth mental wellness.

Thank you for your sponsorship:
Catalyst Public Schools
Connection Credit Union, Silverdale
Kevin J Mitchell - Your WA Realtor
STRATAGEM Law Group, Matthew T. Macklin, JD, MBA

Thanks to volunteers showing up as caring adults.

Logo by artist, Estela C

Hey Students, before getting back into the classroom, you and your friends are invited to do something different and get...
08/24/2026

Hey Students, before getting back into the classroom, you and your friends are invited to do something different and get on the green. ⛳️

Registration closes Wednesday August 26th at midnight. Let us know if your youth needs transportation to and from Gold Mountain Golf Club. Space is limited including 🍔🌭. https://forms.gle/K4SgpkhZbuG2ZXrQ8


***************

Join the R.E.A.L Youth Advocates (Resilient. Empowered. Active. Leaders. Powered by Up From Slavery Initiative) for a fun, interactive, and informative event at Gold Mountain Golf Course on Saturday, August 29th from 11:00am - 3:00pm. All registered participants are required to arrive by 10:45am.

Space is limited. https://forms.gle/K4SgpkhZbuG2ZXrQ8

This FREE opportunity is open to participants (ages 14 to 26) who will have the opportunity to learn and/or improve basic golf skills through a clinic environment with pitching, putting, and driving stations. No experience necessary, clubs and prizes provided!

Lunch will also be provided. Followed by interactive presentations and discussions about youth mental wellness.

Thank you for your sponsorship:
Catalyst Public Schools
Connection Credit Union, Silverdale
Kevin J Mitchell - Your WA Realtor
STRATAGEM Law Group, Matthew T. Macklin, JD, MBA

Thanks to volunteers showing up as caring adults.

Logo by artist, Estela C

Registered to vote?Good.Are you voting?That was the conversation this morning.Up From Slavery Initiative and Kitsap Stro...
08/09/2026

Registered to vote?

Good.

Are you voting?

That was the conversation this morning.

Up From Slavery Initiative and Kitsap Strong joined the League of Women Voters of Kitsap and League of Women Voters chapters across the country in recognizing the Voting Rights Act and reminding people that having a voice and using it are two different things.

We took that message to the Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Bremerton, and Southworth ferry terminals.

Some people stopped and talked. Some nodded and waved. Some gave us a thumbs up.

And more than a few simply said, “Thank you for being here.” We were humbled by that.

Being registered matters. Showing up matters.

Use your voice.

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. It should never have taken that long....
08/06/2026

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. It should never have taken that long.

Ninety-five years earlier, the 15th Amendment had already declared that no American could be denied the vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." On paper, Black men had the right to vote since 1870. In reality, the South spent those 95 years making sure they couldn't use it — with poll taxes, rigged literacy tests, and the raw terror of losing your job, your home, or your life for trying to register.

By 1965, activists set out to break the South's grip on the ballot. In Selma, Alabama, peaceful marchers set out to demand the ballot. On March 7 — "Bloody Sunday" — state troopers attacked them on the Edmund Pettus Bridge with clubs and tear gas. A young activist named John Lewis had his skull fractured. The images went out across the country, and the nation could no longer pretend it didn't know.

Johnson sent the bill to Congress within days. It banned literacy tests, sent federal examiners to register voters directly, and required the worst-offending states to get federal approval before changing their voting laws — a provision called "preclearance." When he signed it, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and John Lewis — his skull still healing — stood in the room. The impact was immediate: in Mississippi, Black voter turnout jumped from 6 percent to 59 percent in five years.

But the right men and women bled for was never permanent. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the preclearance formula in Shelby County v. Holder, and within hours, several states began changing their voting laws again.

It was won on the Edmund Pettus Bridge — and it has been fought over ever since.

Franklin Armstrong made his Peanuts debut on this day in 1968Franklin became the first Black character in the beloved co...
08/01/2026

Franklin Armstrong made his Peanuts debut on this day in 1968

Franklin became the first Black character in the beloved comic strip, joining the Peanuts gang after Los Angeles schoolteacher Harriet Glickman wrote to Charles Schulz following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

His first storyline began on July 31, 1968, when Charlie Brown met Franklin at the beach. What followed was a warm friendship that made Franklin a meaningful part of the Peanuts world.

An active kid who played baseball, learned guitar, joined a swim club, and loved spending time with his grandparents, Franklin reminded readers that Black children belonged in everyday stories too.

There’s many facets to the debate about the Tuskegee dress code.
08/01/2026

There’s many facets to the debate about the Tuskegee dress code.


On February 4, 1999, 23-year-old Amadou Diallo was standing outside his apartment building in the Bronx, New York, when ...
07/22/2026

On February 4, 1999, 23-year-old Amadou Diallo was standing outside his apartment building in the Bronx, New York, when four plainclothes NYPD officers approached him.

Believing he matched the description of a r**e suspect, the officers confronted him. As Diallo reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet, the officers believed he was drawing a gun.

They fired 41 shots.

19 bullets struck him.

Diallo was unarmed.

In 2000, all four officers were acquitted of criminal charges after a change of venue moved the trial from the Bronx to Albany.

The killing sparked nationwide protests and became a defining moment in debates over police use of force, racial profiling, and accountability in the United States.

More than two decades later, the name Amadou Diallo remains a symbol of a case that continues to be discussed in conversations about justice and policing.

History matters. Remember the name: Amadou Diallo.

Address

Bremerton, WA
98312

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Up From Slavery Initiative posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category