At its core, the BSTRONG Learning Hub addresses the problems of the fractured community and Black student disparities, builds economic vitality that puts Black needs first, and breaks systemic cycles of trauma and separation for Black youth within education.

The BSTRONG facility is expanding so that students will have a place to combine school year and extracurricular learning and activities including cultural immersion, healthy leadership development, self-advocacy, community mapping, personal journaling, and story development through engagement with African American elders, artists, and civic leaders who paved the way for today’s generation. Our curriculum supports youth education at the intersection of racial and environmental justices. We partner with Portland leaders advancing environmental justices, such as Nesika Wilamut and the Portland Harbor Superfund Site cleanup, so that our students engage with policies and initiatives that will affect their generations to come.

At the BSTRONG Learning Hub, students have a place to explore career opportunities and economic wealth building through hands-on learning experiences. Additionally, community members of all colors have the opportunity to have conversations from the heart that start to break down cycles of misunderstanding, ignorance, and harm. This project is unique in that it is 100% a Black-led initiative. It has been imagined and designed by the BSTRONG students themselves in collaboration with Black elders, environmental advocates, university students, social and spatial justice advocates, and members from other initiatives in the area such as the Albina Vision Trust and (re)Building Cornerstones.