Powerful Partnerships
We want to take a break from our usual educational content to highlight one of our Black-led women-owned partners. We have deep appreciation and admiration for this organization and want to publicly celebrate their achievements! They have educated us about the systemic barriers that they are committed to overcoming. We believe in them and in what they do, and want to make sure you know about them too! After all, we believe that we are on this earth to support each other. Lifting up and honoring these changemakers is one way of doing that.
In 2021 we made a commitment to be stronger allies for Black and Indigenous/Native People of Color (BIPOC*) and, as part of that, acknowledge the privilege and power we experience due to our skin color. Neither of us see ourselves as ‘powerful’ or ‘influential,’ but we know enough to know that the color of our skin has afforded us significant benefits, and is part of the reason we are where we are today. With that being said, we have leaned into this commitment and will continue to lift up our partners.
There’s not enough room to do justice to all of our partners, so for now, we are highlighting one fledgling organization that we believe has - and will have - a profound impact on Colorado’s Black communities, specifically families and women.
We first met co-founders Whitney Dunlap, IBCLC, and Vita Malama, MA, of Blacktation Certified, through the Denver Foundation. We still are not sure how we got on a list at the foundation, but we’re grateful that we did because it connected us with Whitney and Vita! These two incredible women have created a grassroots movement in Colorado to address the disparities and inequities of the Black breastfeeding experience. Blacktation Certified increases the visibility of Black breastfeeding resources and creates access to breastfeeding support through mentors, doulas, and lactation consultants. Somehow, Vita and Whitney carved out time to start Blacktation while juggling full-time jobs, parenting, caretaking, and doing all the other ‘life things’.
It hasn’t been an easy journey. Blactation Certified represents the culmination of years of work, experience, and the combination of its founders’ strengths = tenacity, wisdom, kindness and compassion, generosity and resiliency. In our video calls, Whitney is typically on the road, either commuting to or from work or attending speaking engagements. The last time we connected with Vita, she joined the conversation while juggling her newborn infant and managing the packing process for her upcoming move! Meanwhile, the two have taken the time to create a truly community-based organization honoring the difficult past of Black breastfeeding and creating access to low-cost support. A story many of us don’t know. Here is a link to the Milk that Built America Reflections - a publication that highlights stories of families in Pueblo County. - https://blacktation.com/mtba-reflections(.) We hope you will take the time to review this publication and check out Blacktation Certified’s website. Interested in supporting their work and supporting families in Colorado? Send them a message and learn more: https://blacktation.com/home (.)
We believe in Vita and Whitney, and last time we spoke they shared with us that The Nonprofit Strategy Group facilitated a safe space where they could speak freely about the development of the organization, and this was very rare in their journey of creating a comprehensive community resource. I don’t know if they realize just how powerful that statement was for us. We hope it means we are doing something right.
Thank you for taking the time to review and for letting us highlight Blacktation on our website!
*NOTE: We recognize that the acronym BIPOC is a simplified term that does not fully capture the complexity and representations of racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States. We want to acknowledge this limitation while fully elevating Black-led organizations and the communities they serve.