Mission and History
Black Visioning Group (BVG) is a collective co-created in 2020 by a community of Black Queer/Trans loved ones in Philadelphia. BVG centers Black Queer/Trans/MaGes (marginalized genders), darker skinned, fatter, disabled, poor, hood, femmes. Over 3 years, BVG has liberated and redistributed over $800,000 of wealth and materials, including funding for gender-affirming surgeries, long-term care planning, debt clearing, move support, transport, cleaning, cooking, child care, therapy, renovating homes, paying car loans and insurances, dental surgeries, and legal consultations for over 31 Black Queer & Trans folks. BVG has provided direct services and facilitated hands-on experiences to develop sustainable skills like house renovation, gardening, farming, outdoor living, cooking, communal living, and artistry.
BVG aims to provide life-affirming services that build capacity to create interdependent economies capable of sustaining care networks for Black Queer/Trans Philadelphians, independent of and resistant to existing systems of violence. Fiscal sponsorship is provided by the non-profit Beyond Trenches in Atlanta, Georgia, providing aid and programming to Black individuals and families affected by mass incarceration and homelessness.
Our Vision & Theory of Change
Our vision is to co-create and steward a network of interconnected sanctuaries with Black Queer Trans people. We aim to collectively cultivate a thriving community by sharing land, building homes, exploring artistic talents, reconnecting with indigenous practices, implementing community-developed conflict resolution rituals, and repairing intercommunal harm.
By providing Black Queer Trans folks with basic material needs without stipulations, redistributing wealth through a lens of reparations, and investing in practical and sustainable skills, we can nurture autonomous, self-determined lives centered in liberatory relationships that remove our dependence on exploitative systems.
Collective Structure
BVG is a collective organization with a unique horizontal leadership structure exclusively composed of Black Queer Trans individuals. Five primary working groups made of our members are responsible for: our three programs, our member needs, and our financial goals. We hold monthly member meetings to assess the needs of our members and receive updates on the progress of each working group. Through democratic consensus, we identify these needs and shape our services accordingly, deciding how to prioritize initiatives.
We plan yearly dreaming retreats where all members gather to set goals beyond crisis intervention. Our dreams mostly revolve around living debt-free, rent-free, financially stress-free, having artistic freedom, self-determination in gender-autonomous ways, access to land, good food, open space, and the skills to maintain them.
Our three primary programs, including the Guaranteed Income Program, Housing and Land Trust Network, and the Homestead Skill Development, have all been derived from the dreams of our constituents.