Walking to Empowerment

The founders of GirlTrek, T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, give an important speech on health that relates the disproportionately high mortality rates of Black women to social and institutional problems they face, and how this issue can be mitigated.

In the TED talk, the speakers relay the stats on Black women's health – 82% are over a healthy weight, 53% are obese, and half of Black girls in America are at risk of getting diabetes if their diets and lifestyles do not change. The founders of GirlTrek wanted to start an initiative where this issue is resolved – one that focuses on the systemic reasons why Black women have higher mortality rates from preventable diseases than any other group in America – in a way that is high-impact, incorporates cultural heritage, and that functions as a means of not only self-care, but empowerment and local and national change.

GirlTrek seeks to be this solution, offering Black women and their allies a space in which they can take care of themselves and each other, and help one another find solutions to problems – whether those are personal, political, or social.