Love First is led by St. Paul School Board Director and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities leader Chauntyll Allen (pictured above left), an African Descendant of Slaves (ADOS) and longtime front-line community organizer, educator and youth activist. Her approach is both holistic and healing, recognizing the resiliency and ingenuity required of Black families who are navigating and surviving systems designed for them to fail every single day.
Over the course of two decades of direct youth engagement and mentorship, Allen and partners have supported hundreds of young people and their families. In contrast to bringing individual youth into a one-size-fits-all program, the approach of Love First is centered on recognizing the logic of the choices youth are forced to make and meeting them where they are with dignity.
Pandemic response
From the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew our communities were on the frontlines of this public-health risk. Because of generations of structural racism and economic exclusion, we also understood that our Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities were the least likely to have access to health information and life-saving supplies like cloth masks and hand sanitizer. Chauntyll Allen initiated the Sanitize the Cities effort to protect the health of our BIPOC communities by building community infrastructure, mobilizing volunteers to make and contribute masks, and coordinating distribution at strategic sites where there is community need. In a matter of weeks, the effort distributed more than 2,000 free masks and bottles of hand sanitizer.
George Floyd uprisings
During the George Floyd uprisings, Love First played a key role in convening on-the-ground leaders and organizations, like Indigenous Roots Cultural Center and 30,000 Feet Arts, to mobilize and coordinate hundreds of volunteers, thousands in financial contributions and what would amount to $4 million in material donations. Within 24 hours, dozens of BIPOC-owned small businesses were protected with plywood. Over a single week, more than 25,000 families were fed at pop-up food distribution sites and through volunteer direct-delivery and mutual aid. We spread the word, not just through social media and email, but with Slow Rolls through our most-impacted neighborhoods to ignite hope with music and distribute printed flyers with information about resources.
Black Joy
Especially during the giving season, support to Black families is charity-oriented, defining our communities as victims and seeking to meet only basic human needs. Love First recognizes the resiliency and ingenuity required of Black families who are navigating and surviving systems designed for them to fail every single day. Our Black Joy initiative is culturally centered and aims to provide both physical and emotional sustenance by showing our families that they are deserving, not only of a roof over their heads and food on their tables, but opportunities to rest, restore and celebrate their inherent brilliance and worth. In 2020 alone, Love First distributed Black Joy baskets to 50 families in St. Paul that included resources for joy and resiliency, like music playlists from a local beloved DJ and comedy snippets from Black comedians across the Twin Cities, in addition to material resources like food gift cards.