Hattie B – Black Women in Progress

Connections: What did you learn from your grandmother?

Acacia: She taught me how important it is to give back. She was always bringing me from one outreach activity to another. It was part of our day-to-day life. And she taught me that education can overcome fear. When she moved to Sierra Vista, it had very little diversity. Black Women In Progress made it a point to teach residents about Black history and culture, showing them that black people are not scary.

Connections: When and how did you decide to launch Hattie B. Black Women in Progress?

Acacia: I had opened a salon in Sierra Vista, specializing in eyebrows. I told my customers that they could bring their kids along, and those kids were curious about what I was doing. Meanwhile, a friend of mine was doing some etiquette training in Phoenix, and that sparked the idea to start a three-day program that would teach girls some basic grooming tips, like how to brush their hair and wash their face properly. It may sound simple, but kids who don’t come from traditional homes might not have these skills. Then I brought in someone to teach them Zumba and a mental health expert to talk about suicide prevention. We held an anti-bullying workshop. All of this took place in the parking lot in front of the salon, and I funded the activities with my tip money. But the participants kept coming. We started with 44 girls and then grew to 88 and then 200. At that point I figured that I should try to get 501(c)(3) status. That’s when Hattie B. BWIP officially launched.

Connections: What sort of feedback have you gotten from the interns and the campers?

Acacia: About 75% of last year’s interns are returning this year, so I see that as a good sign. They really seem to like it. I think it’s because we’re putting them in a weeklong situation where they get close with each other and deal with little people and their emotions. It really pushes them to develop soft skills. As for the campers, there’s one girl that I’ll never forget. She came to the camp from foster care, and when she arrived, she was bawling her eyes out. She said she hated camp and wanted to go home. That went on for a few days. And when camp ended, she was crying again. But this time she told me that she was crying because she didn’t want to go home.

Some of our campers aren’t getting consistency at home or regular schedules, and camp is highly structured. We wake up at the same time every day and eat lunches and dinners at the same time every day. We all eat together as ‘families.’ And there are no cellphones allowed. It’s quite a contrast for some of the campers. I always tell people, “If I can see this much progress in a week, imagine what we could do in a summer.” And that’s one of our goals – to create a program that lasts the entire season.

Connections: Do you give out scholarships to kids whose parents can’t afford to pay?

Acacia: Yes. But it’s not like the Girl Scouts where kids have to sell anything to raise money. It’s my job, as the founder, to get the money. It’s not the job of a child. The job of a child is to be a child.

Connections: How are you raising the money?

Acacia: It started with my tip money, but we now have some funding from grants like the grant from the NBA. A typical entrepreneur might raise prices, but the families we serve cannot afford those prices. So we are looking at building a hotel in Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee needs a conference facility, and that could be a source of revenue for us. Arizona is too hot for people to visit in the summertime; that’s when we could use the hotel as a summer camp and make it free for girls in our county to attend, and open it up to other camps to rent out.