A Short History of BWMP

Black Women’s Media Project has been in Alameda County since 1995. It was initially sponsored by the National Black Alcoholism Council / California Chapter in Oakland. When that chapter moved to Los Angeles in 1997, BWMP came  under the sponsorship of the  Health & Human Resource Education Center, co-directed by Colette Winlock, Kiara Harris and Shiela James. HHREC conducted an extensive community needs assessment to identify what Black women would like to see as the direction of the project. 

Out of the richness of those focus group discussions and meetings with professional black women came the idea to use this valuable community information as part of a health promotion tool. Thus was birthed “Crossing the Invisible Line:” a “Jet” style magazine through which the community speaks about alcohol related problems, including problems in families, neighborhoods, and the community as a whole. Crossing the Invisible Line 2 “Tellin’ It Like It Is” focused primarily on the Adult Child of an Alcoholic syndrome and Codependency  issues, with again implications to family, neighborhood and community.

In the past ten years BWMP has engaged in many projects including mass media campaigns, Women Standing in Love - a monthly community vigil against substance abuse and violence; and, most recently, a series of “Be Still” meditation retreats that have drawn hundreds of African American men and women each quarter to gather and learn about self-care and stress-reduction as prevention against substance abuse, serious mental illness and chronic disease.

The “Be Still” retreats have become a staple of ongoing self-care for many men and women in Alameda County and beyond, and yet almost 75% of attendees of each retreat are attending for the first time. Attendance has grown from 75 people at the first retreat in 2007 to a maximum capacity of 200 with a waiting list that had to be cut off at 50 people for the October 2010 retreat. This success was also followed up with a billboard campaign sharing the message “Be Still: Don’t Hate, Meditate.”