H3AL (Highlighting Equality & Equity through Education, Advocacy & Love) is a Black empowerment initiative founded in northwest New Jersey. In America and abroad there are many wounds of injustice and oppression, and H3AL takes an intersectional approach to collective healing. Our mission is create supported networks of people who are aligned in our vision, and the mantra is "many hands make light
work." Our network consists of stakeholders in the community, business owners, community leaders, church organizations, non-profits, and more. We are committed to not being frozen into inaction by the daunting task of addressing systematic oppression, but to fluid active healing. Firstly, by acknowledging racism and the damage it does. By educating ourselves through the works and words of those whose shoulders we stand on, we will create a map where there isn’t one, in service to the creation of community healing. We will provide resources to learn and empower ourselves and others with knowledge. Through the vehicle of understanding our shared history through education, and uplifting the lived experiences of Black people, we can be in service of mainstreaming this information so that problems in marginalized communities can be faced and solved. By recognizing that antiracist work requires continuous deep self looking and ongoing commitment, H3AL will serve to facilitate this collective work by providing the tools, information, conversations and a wider, safer container for the sharing of Black-American culture. The best part of ourselves, families, our county, state and nation is the ability to face hardship with grace and commit to supporting each other in the process. By filling the voids in our collective education we will shine a light so that the dark pain of our history reflecting and impacting our present, will not become our future.
