Open Collective
Open Collective
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What are your plans for 2023? Anything exciting coming up?
Published on December 20, 2022 by Jen McClain

 2023 is the year of expansion, growth, and funding for Malika Collective. With a new team and additional consultant services, we are focused on expanding our organizational capacity through alternate streams of incomes, funder relationships, and foundation support. As we continue to grow, we aim to always remember that community is inherent to our organization and we understand that as long as those around us are struggling, so are we. Going beyond diversity and inclusion, we want liberation and have intention to provide a safe-haven & community for Black folks offering economic empowerment, community, and accessibility, driving our creative digital marketing concepts, community outreach efforts, and high-quality product offerings. Our goals and objectives for 2023 include: 
  • To help balance the wide unemployment gaps between non-black and Black demographics in the US, we want to jumpstart the Malaika Mentee Program, a four-month internship program for Black & African youth living in New York City. 
  • This will build on our existing community partnerships with organizations like the Department of Youth and Community Development and Brooklyn Community Pride Center, with whom we have been working with the last 2 years to provide economic opportunity and practical experience to LGBTQ+ New York City youth. Most recently, we hired 7 youth interns of color through DYCD, giving them invaluable insight into a dynamic industry and budding a viable career option for them. We hope to reach a level where we can sustain these internships from our own funding capacity to maximize their experience.
  • Raising capital to launch Malaika Space – An immersive, inclusive membership-based innovation hub for Black creators and entrepreneurs, providing everything from interactive educational walls to a kitchen preparing Afro-fusion inspired cuisine. This space will be used to strengthen our collective economic power and connection to the African continent. By utilizing my native background and ties to African countries (i.e. Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria), I plan to create networking spaces for start-up e-retailers and native wholesalers. The space is intended to be located in Brooklyn, the mecca of Black & African creatives.