NCNW strategy focuses on expansion and voter turnout
If you think you know the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), look again. Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, the first NCNW leader to hold the title of president and CEO, believes this “organization of organizations” is uniquely positioned to have an impact on voter turnout.
Arline-Bradley said she is honored to carry on the legacy of an organization that was founded in 1935 by iconic leaders: the late Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, an influential educator and activist, and the late Dr. Dorothy Height, who was NCNW’s president for more than 50 years.
The 61st NCNW National Convention, with the theme “Our Voice. Our Power. Together, Our Future,” is taking place this week in Baltimore, Md. Founders will be honored, and topics will include recognizing the NCNW’s accomplishments; global plans for expansion; and the NCNW’s Eight-State/All-State Strategy for voter mobilization.
Arline-Bradley, 46, is clear about her purpose-driven assignment, and emphasized that engaging college and high school students is essential, “I want NCNW to be a relevant, solvent institution forever. My job is to create the kind of infrastructure to do that.”
The NCNW comprises members, associates, affiliate organizations, and partner organizations. With more than 350 sections and 37 national Black women’s organization affiliates, the NCNW reaches 2 million women and men.
The range of “NCNW Priorities” includes education, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, economic stability, health and healthcare access, civic engagement, and advocacy for public policy and social justice issues.
The group is also poised for growth. Arline-Bradley is leading an international expansion plan to establish charters in Africa and Caribbean next year. “We were the first Black American organization to have an NGO status with the United Nations,” Arline-Bradley said. “After that was Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Now, we’re expanding the global conversation because there is a desire for many women across the waters who are interested in making sure their issues are known…We have a lot of interest in Senegal, Jamaica, Bermuda, and the Bahamas.”
As the NCNW’s footprint expands, efforts to mobilize citizens in the United States are underway during this presidential election season. The NCNW Eight-State/All-State Strategy was created to increase voter turnout when compared to the presidential election in 2020.
The plan targets eight states: Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. A second tier of states includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Wisconsin.
A toolkit helps members, affiliates, and associates across the country mobilize and engage with Black women and voters between ages 17 and 24. According to Arline-Bradley, when the strategy was created, there was a focus on battleground states, the electoral college, and geographic locations where the NCNW has a strong membership and could engage, including New York, which is a tier-two state in the NCNW’s plan.
“We are nonpartisan, but we’re very politically astute and factual about the way the map lands,” she said. “If a Black woman is to be the president of the United States, carrying New York is a basic requirement. It does not pan as a battleground, but it is a battle area because New York represents the country. It’s rural, it’s urban, it’s suburban, it’s progressive, it’s conservative, it’s moderate,” added, who believes New Yorkers have a great opportunity to collaborate with affiliate partners and identify high schools where seniors could be encouraged cast their vote of choice according to the rules by state.
In addition to voter registration, the NCNW plan is about helping people understand their right to take up space in a democracy during this historic moment.
“As nonpartisan as we are, it is also to talk about the history and the historical moment that we’re in,” Arline-Bradley said. “Kamala Harris a member of the NCNW. She is a member of two of our national affiliates, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Links, Inc. Kamala is Black. I want the world to know that she’s a proud graduate of Howard University.
“I’m blown away by the energy that I’m seeing. I’m also disheartened by a lot of the rhetoric that I’ve seen, and some of it comes from our own community. Let NCNW be a place of information, of clarity, of debunking myths [so] sisters and brothers across this country can know there is a seat at the table for Black women.”
She credits NCNW’s team for the progressive shifts that are occurring within the organization, and through the Bethune-Height Changemaker Pathways program, a leadership development initiative for college students from both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and PWIs (predominantly white institutions).
With the first cohort in progress, Arline-Bradley said, “If NCNW is going to live, it’s going to live because we invested in young women…but I cannot be more proud to have brought that vision in and that vision is actually coming to pass.”
Arline-Bradley, who is a wife and mother, added that “NCNW is ready. NCNW is a place where every Black woman has a seat at a table. No, we’re not perfect. We’re an organization that’s almost 90 years old, with the only Black-owned, women-owned building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. We want to be the place that Black women find not only safe, but also…see themselves as valued and a part of a solution.”For more info, visit www.ncnw.org.
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