ABLE Mission
African Heritage, Inc. Academy for Black Excellence (ABLE) is a program designed to fight the opportunity gap by providing structured, out-of-school, culturally relevant, and responsive high-impact tutoring, and coaching to grades 2–8 students in Northeast Wisconsin. A carefully crafted network of experts and dedicated people offers consistent, personalized, culturally engaging, academic-social-emotional services for students with their families.
ABLE Vision
ABLE envisions a society where all Black Children excel, thrive and flourish in all spaces.
African Heritage, Inc. (AHI) in Northeast Wisconsin has launched ABLE – the Academy for Black Excellence. ABLE is primarily a virtual out-of-school program affirming, engaging, supporting, inspiring, motivating, positioning, and guiding Black, African American, grade 2–8 students in Northeast Wisconsin (NEW) to excel in school and out-of-school spaces. ABLE is a year-round providing structured, one-on-one, Afrocentric, Holistic, Culturally Relevant, Culturally Responsive, and interactive high-impact tutoring, leadership, and transformative social-emotional learning methods and coaching at no cost to families. Guided by the African proverb, “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child,” AHI designed ABLE to create a village to support and engage Black children to thrive and flourish in all spaces. Through our “it takes a village” approach, Black students and their families will collaborate with a village of dedicated individuals committed to advancing the academic, social, emotional, and cultural well-being of Black children.
The concept of Village is rooted in Black, African, and African American ancestry institutions, traditions, values, and beliefs, and honors and affirms the importance of culture, collaboration, and cooperation in raising Black children (Delano-Oriaran et al., 2021, p. 39). African Heritage, Inc. asserts that all Black children are gifted, talented, bright, curious learners, critical thinkers, leaders, inventors, and so much more, but that potential must be nourished consistently to emerge and thrive. Fifty Black students from Northeast Wisconsin are invited to participate in the Academy for Black Excellence, beginning in August 2022. ABLE is born out of AHI’s four cornerstones: Community, Leadership, Family, and Culture, and is grounded in cutting-edge research on high-impact, high dosage tutoring and the experiences, state, and status of Black Children.
Join the ABLE Village Family!
- Omowe – ABLE Fellow – Grades 2- 8 Student
- Village Elders and Partners (advisory board of experts) – Volunteers, supporters, and consultants who hold an unapologetic interest and sustainable commitment to African Heritage, Inc., Black children, and families.
- Imani Champions – Community liaisons.
- Ujimas – Academic coaches who provide high dosage, one-on-one virtual tutoring at least three times a week to our Fellows.
- Excellence Coaches – Counselors/Social Workers – Racially conscious professionals with counseling licenses, lived experiences, academic backgrounds, and clinical practices rooted and centered on Black children and families. Counselors and Social Workers are professionals who consciously employ research and practices rooted in the experiences of Black children and families.
- Investors – Funding Partners
Thank you to our Funding Partners
The African Heritage, Inc. Academy for Black Excellence (ABLE) is funded in part with: funding from The Just Recovery for Racial Equity Initiative, a partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison Population Health Institute, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the Wisconsin Governor’s Office; a grant from the David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region; a grant from Wisconsin Health Literacy; the Mielke Family Foundation; a grant from the Community Vision Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region; The Greater Green Bay Community Foundation; Schreiber Foods; Green Bay Packers Foundation and NFL Foundation; American Rescue Plan Act which allocated funding to Outagamie County by the U.S. Dept of Treasury.
******We thank the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Otto Bremer Trust, The Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, and Schreiber Foods for providing seed funding to create ABLE. We continue to seek additional funding to support quality programs offered to our fellows and their families.