Since slavery, several concepts have escaped our communities – specifically the individuals, families and would-be institutions that make up our communities. Aside from family, the most important of these concepts to escape us is that of wealth; building it, managing it, maintaining it and transferring it to the generations that follow. In Dr. Claude Anderson’s book, “Powernomics” and Amos Wilson’s book, “Blueprint for Black Power”, both outline strategies to empower individuals, families and our communities.

We will explore these concepts, strategies and ideologies more indepth during 2009. We have developed a very comprehensive wealth building program for the Black community to begin exploring wealth building opportunities.  The Wealth Building Initiative created by our organization is actually designed to benefit every income level.

To date, we have established a collaboration with the California African American Political and Economic Institute Think Tank housed at California State University Dominguez Hills. This will allow for the research, documentation and implementation at a level we could never achieve. This also reinforces the concept of collective engagement and the ability to combine resources to develop a program that will actually benefit the participants.

The other significant turning point made during the restructuring of this program is that we have forged a relationship with the Black Family Re-union Institute at Temple University under the leadership of Dr. Ione D. Vargus. She has developed a planning guide for family re-unions and we are working to develop a platform for wealth building discussions at these gatherings.

We will be updating the calendar of events and program schedules over the next few months. If you have any questions or would like to share other information with us, please let us here from you.

For more information about CAAPEI, please visit their website at: www.caapei.org