Now hold that pose for me…..Catch The Beat has become the newest ballroom craze at the AMAAD Institute, with a running 5 seasons Catch The Beat is the place to be every last Friday of the month. Catch The Beat is a social house and ballroom function, that provides its participants with a safe space, acceptance, and sex education. Catch The Beat is growing in numbers reaching over 50 participants and counting. Catch The Beat provides participants a chance to win money for each category they enter, With spicy commentary by Legendary Father Torie Balmain, and beats bumping by DJ Jizzle. It is our mission that all CTB participants have a space where they can let their hair down, but also get vital information to navigate everyday life. So move your feet and Catch The Beat!

Jet Finley

(He/Him/His)

Prevention Specialist

The AMAAD Institute provides free groceries once a month every last Wednesday of the month. Groceries are available on a first-come first served basis. We have great items to give away, such as canned goods, beans, condiments, fish, chicken, milk, juice, chips, and more. This past week we had ice cream and eggs included in our delivery for distribution into the community. Thanks to Bettye Randle at Champions of Caring Connections, Inc. and the U. S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for our monthly food deliveries. It is vital that we all do our part in providing as many resources as possible to those community members in need. We pride ourselves on providing top-quality items and services to our community as well as a partner.

Currently, we’re providing more than 150 bags of groceries per month to more than 60 families of various sizes. This month we provided more than 125 bags of groceries and distributed items to more than 60 families. We look forward to increasing our food distribution in the upcoming months as well as our volunteer base. If you are interested and available to assist in this process, please contact Tracie Alexander at Tracie@amaad.org. Thank you, we look forward to working with you as well as seeing you all.

Ronald Jackson

Manager of Navigation Support Service

AMAAD’s monthly community connection. Get the “tea” on what’s happening in our world from the AMAAD Squad. Current events, pop culture, community updates, and vital program information are presented in a virtual and in-person discussion. Wellness Wednesday happens every second Wednesday of the month. For the month of April and May the Youth Health and Wellness team will dedicate this Wednesday to connecting community members to HIV testing and our incentivized needs assessments. Stay tuned to our Instagram page for more updates on topics.

Darnell Green

(He/Him/His)

Youth Health & Wellness Manager

Set Boundaries

As we embark on the Spring season, it is an essential time to reflect and recognize the need to set boundaries with people, places, things we do, and things we accept or do not accept; set those boundaries for you to be respected and treated with respect. Setting boundaries allows your yes to mean “Yes” and your no to mean “No”. Just as our daily routines and activities change with the seasons, it is helpful and important to establish and set boundaries in every season.

Lea Collins

(She/Her/Hers)

Behavioral Health Counselor Therapist

The Black Family Unity Project, affectionately known as BFUP, was born out of the need to unite Black families in South LA and grew quickly to encompass families from Texas and South Carolina. Initially funded by a capacity-building grant from the Department of Mental Health, BFUP is a collaboration between The AMAAD Institute, Grow Ur Potential, and Project Q, all organizations working for the betterment of Black and Brown LGBTQ+ communities. The focus: creating healthy LGBTQ+ identified youth by supporting their families and the ones who love them. 

Historically, the Black community, in particular, has been hesitant to embrace their Queer identified or same-gender-loving youth. The mindset has been that queerness is a part of whiteness and entertaining any part of a “gay lifestyle” weakened the cultural fabric of the Black community, making us more susceptible to the ways of the oppressor. The truth is that same-gender-loving and gender-diverse or expansive individuals have existed in all communities since the beginning of time and in communities of color, these individuals traditionally have taken on the roles of shamans, healers, and medicine people, griots, and soothsayers. 

When BFUB began, the initial focus was education and dialogue. Our communities have often been spoon-fed what we should believe about who we are with pivotal bits of information conveniently left out or misconstrued. Even now, we are experiencing a wave of racism in the United States fueled by the idea that our history, Black history, is of “no educational value.” The truth is that people are more malleable or apt to bend to the will of others when they don’t have access to their own stories.

Our BFUP dialogues were rich and robust as we delved into a Black LGBTQ History Lesson that showed us that pre-colonial Africa had many examples of same-gender-loving couplings, looked at Black Queerness in contemporary mainstream media and explored statistical evidence that informed us of how much more susceptible to suicidal ideation and risky sexual behaviors Black LGBTQ+ identified youth are when they don’t have familial support. Lightbulbs went on, heartstrings were pulled, tears flowed, and the laughter was real. In the end, everyone asked for more because, quite frankly, our community needs us. 



While BFUB is currently on hiatus, we hope to get back in the swing of things before the summer.



Stay tuned, fam because we love you. 

Cynthia Ruffin,

(She/Her/Queen)

Chief Programs Officer