About
The Melanin Village is addressing the growing demand by Black and Brown moms to educate their children at home. WIth a membership model that is on course to become sustainable, they provide parents with resources, classes, curriculum, professional development and community support they need to provide an outstanding education for their children at home. Founder Brenaea Fairchild is motivated by the recognition that traditional schools systems were failing minority children long before Covid and began to mobilize and support local home-schooling villages to provide high quality culturally-affirming academic programming for their kids. The village has given more than 600 mothers the confidence to take control of their children’s education.
Their Story
A national model of support for a growing population of non-traditional parents who want to customize what their child’s academic experience looks like.
Brenaea Fairchild
Founder & Executive Director
“The Melanin Village gives Black and Brown families a world class education at home. For us, school choice is a necessity.”
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Why they stand out
With the homeschool movement is on the rise, and the Melanin Village is building a movement to mobilize and back Black and Brown moms who choose homeschooling as a path for their child’s education and give them the tools and support they need to ensure their children have a personalized and flexible education that allows them to excel.
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How they STOP for education
Moms become innovators and co-creators who spearhead initiatives and shape the strategic vision of education for their children.
Having a Black teacher increases Black children’s likelihood of enrolling in college by 13% and Melanin Village is revolutionizing education by shifting power from traditional systems to Black families.
Providing a permissionless option unbound by traditional system constraints gives parents the freedom they need to educate their children in an individualized home setting.
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Winning their award
With its award, The Melanin Village will launch homeschooling Villages across the U.S., especially in states like Arizona and North Carolina that provide education choice to parents, while simultaneously creating a certification program to train parents to be both effective educators and education freedom advocates.
