Our 
Story

About BlacIntellec

 

BlacIntellec, The Black Atlanta Think Tank, is a 501(c)(3) organization committed to empowering the Black community by addressing its economic challenges. Our mission is to 'Harness and utilize the Intellectual Capital of the Black community to tackle pressing issues and capitalize on opportunities.' BlacIntellec empowers the community by overseeing the strategic utilization of this Intellectual Capital, crafting responses, evaluating proposals, designing actionable strategies, and articulating measures to chart the path of change.

In a landscape where such initiatives are sparse, BlacIntellec aims to fill this void by stewarding the Intellectual Capital of the Black community.

 

It will foster unified responses that leverage the community’s knowledge utilizing the community's:

• Collective capabilities (or enterprise) capital—the potential involvement of community residents and businesses, drawing on the implicit and explicit knowledge of those deeply acquainted with the community's culture, history, and potential.

• Mutual (or stakeholder) capital—formal and informal external relationships and knowledge partnerships developed by businesses or communities with clients, audiences, and partners to enhance services and drive community improvements.

• Formative (or community) capital—the combined capabilities of the community, encompassing governance, values, culture, management philosophy, business practices, local customs, intellectual property, performance metrics, information systems, and strategies for maximizing these assets.

 

BlacIntellec employs community-defined evidence (CDE) as its framework to utilize the Intellectual Capital of the Black community, which has been fermenting in its people but has never been used to address the unique needs and strengths of the Black business community. This approach values the Black community's knowledge, experience, and expertise. It acknowledges their historical and social context by utilizing collaborative efforts where community members share their insights and work together to define desired outcomes. This method allows focusing on the most effective solutions for the Black community. Through this method, BlacIntellec aims to describe and publicly present the community's perspectives on various issues and propose alternative solutions that are tailored to what the community identifies as most effective.  By utilizing CDE, BlacIntellec can:

• Oversee the strategic utilization of Intellectual Capital

• Craft responses, evaluate proposals, and design actionable strategies

• Safeguard the gains of Black economic development

• Champion fair treatment and equitable opportunities within the business ecosystem

 

 

Its primary function is to "Compile, Utilize, and Manage the Intellectual Capital of the Black Community to Foster its Advancement."

 

Compile:

• BlacIntellec will harness the intellectual capital of the Black community to address issues and seize opportunities. We do this by strategically eliciting participation from individuals and business owners across diverse backgrounds. This process involves targeted outreach, structured interviews, and collaborative brainstorming sessions. The aim is to gather various perspectives and insights and utilize them to inform our strategic initiatives and drive positive change within the community.

 

• BlacIntellec is establishing a Black Assembly Registry (BAR), a groundbreaking initiative to assemble and catalog the knowledge and wisdom within the Black community. The registry will contain the contact information and membership specialties. This initiative is a testament to our commitment to leveraging the experiences and insights of Black individuals from all walks of life to drive our mission forward. They become members of the BAR.

 

Utilize:

• BlacIntellec will use the wisdom, intellect, and experience of people throughout the Black community who, over their years of involvement, have gathered knowledge worthy of tapping into to gain insights and recommendations. These people will provide a platform for responding to any challenge. All responses will begin with a community response.

• Our approach includes extracting community value through diverse channels such as focus groups, opinion papers, collaborations, research, workshops, and actionable strategies to address business and community challenges.

• BlacIntellec enhances value dissemination through reports, workshops, blogs, public forums, and conferences.

 

Manage:

• BlacIntellec solicits members of the BAR who share their insights

• BlacIntellec catalogs the members' intellectual knowledge for easy utilization.

• BlacIntellec initiates each project by gathering evidence of the community's stance before shaping public responses.

• BlacIntellec creates value by developing methodologies to amplify community input.

• BlacIntellec manages the membership catalog for subscription service utilization.