Our Approach

At the African American Leadership Forum, we build with our people—not for them.

We take what we hear in real conversations—what our communities are living, learning, and imagining—and turn it into action. That means bold ideas backed by strategy. Research grounded in lived experience. Solutions designed with culture and care.

We focus where it counts: generational wealth, health, education, public safety, and the environment. And we lead with love, vision, and deep accountability to our communities.

Think-AND-Do Tank

We operate as a think-and-do tank for our state.
A think-and-do tank combines the functions of a think tank (like providing research and analysis of social and political issues) with the action-oriented role of an activist organization or advocacy group.

OUR lens

Everything we do is filtered through the lens of Black-Centered Design and Afrofuturism because we believe we hold the key to our own liberation.

BLACK-CENTERED DESIGN

Who is designing the systems that shape our lives, and why isn’t it us?

Black-Centered Design is a visionary framework that places Black experiences, culture, and knowledge at the heart of systems and innovation. It draws from a rich tapestry of wisdom—ancestral insight, lived experience, community expertise, and creative brilliance—to shape futures that reflect and celebrate Black life in all its complexity and beauty.

This approach moves with intention, guided by the voices of educators, artists, policy thinkers, technologists, and everyday visionaries and guided by The Forum’s internal team of design strategists, and policy experts. It is a design philosophy that prioritizes resonance over replication, depth over tokenism, and imagination over limitation. Like the griot, it gathers and weaves stories, data, and insight into powerful, responsive systems that reflect who we are and who we are becoming.
AFROFUTURISM

At the African American Leadership Forum, Afrofuturism is how we do the work. It’s not just a way of thinking—it’s how we build, plan, and imagine with our people at the center.

It shows up when we design policy rooted in Black wisdom. When we use Black-led data to shape real solutions. When we treat joy, rest, and healing as essential parts of strategy. It lives in our Radical Black Futures convenings, in our Action Center, in the way we bring community together to dream, and then do.

We’re inspired by visionaries like Sun Ra and Octavia Butler—but we’re just as inspired by the everyday brilliance of our communities. Afrofuturism helps us ask better questions, listen more deeply, and build systems that reflect who we truly are.

OUR STRATEGY PILLARS

We want to end racial injustice in all its forms in Minnesota. To do that, we support the Black community and ecosystem in a range of ways.

DATA SCIENCE
Research

Create Black-centered public policy and opinion research products to inform systems change efforts and inﬂuence policy shifts.
DISCOURSE
Convening

Build and sustain relationships with allies and policymakers to strengthen cross-sector collaboration and advance a Black Agenda for Change.
DEVELOPMENT
Capacity Building

Cultivate a pipeline of committed Black leaders ready to architect and mobilize social movements in Black communities across Minnesota.
DESIGN
Innovation

Equip partners in established and emerging sectors with the information necessary to design and test innovatively sustainable solutions to systemic inequities.
DISSEMINATION
Advocacy and Communication

Accelerate community action by sharing actionable information, insights, and resources to educate and empower communities to engage in advocacy efforts.