Our Vision Statement says, “The Terry Buffington Foundation promotes the culture and contributions of African Americans an African American history, through community building events and collaborative efforts which makes our organization more inclusive.”
However, in order for us to do that the people need to see and meet us and while it is true that one way of doing that is by producing events to not only educate your audience, but to build it as well. Another way is to attend events that fall in line with our mission and vision and that is exactly what we did when we attended the 16th annual NW Teaching for Social Justice Conference https://nwtsj.org/wp/ in Portland, Oregon on October 21, 2023.
As part of our community based action the Terry Buffington Foundation partnered with WSU Pullman’s Women’s Center, Student Services Advisor Lorena Cruz to sponsor students who wanted to attend the conference. (Read more about Lorena Cruz here https://www.communities.wsu.edu/resources-for-all/meet-our-teams/lorena-cruz/) Two students signed up to go and had a life changing educational experience at the conference! I think we all did!
There were hundreds of people, educators, students and families and there were many booths set up as well as workshops from morning until afternoon with many being held simultaneously.
There was information being presented everywhere and the Terry Buffington Foundation is myself and Artistic Director/Founder Terry Buffington, my mother, so teamwork makes the dream work. During the conference she attended the workshops where she got to see and reconnect with longtime civil rights activist/SNCC member & friend, Charles Cobb while I set up and tended our table. By doing this we each covered more ground by reaching twice the amount of people and they were interested in our work and want to bring it to the Westside of the state!
It was a great experience and an awesome networking opportunity for our foundation and the work of Terry Buffington. The day event left us exhausted and exhilarated.
For booking or questions contact us here https://terrybuffingtonfoundation.org/contact/
Kwasi Buffington
Executive/Technical Director Terry Buffington Foundation
