I am because we are.

That's Ubuntu. It's the idea that none of us becomes whole alone, and that a child's brilliance is something the whole village is responsible for protecting.

We started Ubuntu Village because we've spent years in rooms with young Black brothers and sisters who are brilliant and are rarely treated that way. Their curiosity gets managed instead of fed. Their culture gets left at the door. So we set out to bring the village back into the room.

Today we stand behind the people in those rooms. Ubuntu Village trains and advises educators, builds culturally grounded curricula and learning tools, and supports the schools, programs and families who serve Black and historically underserved youth. Oakland is home base. The village reaches wherever that work is happening.

We believe in radical transparency, so here is ours. We first built Ubuntu Villages in 2014. We ran it alongside full-time careers, the careers won, and that organization is now defunct. The work never stopped. The structure under it did. In 2026 we started again, as Ubuntu Village, and we are building it to outlast our calendars.

This is our founding year, and we're asking for 100 founding families.

We're raising $10,000 by December 31 from 100 founding donors. It pays for what keeps an organization standing: insurance, state and federal filings and bookkeeping, and the systems that carry our training and tools. Every gift counts, and so does every name. When foundations see a hundred neighbors backing us, doors open for everything that comes next.

Dr. Hodari Touré spent years training master's students in teacher education at UC Berkeley in research methodology. Shylah Hamilton-Touré chaired Critical Ethnic Studies at California College of the Arts for eight years and led an educational consulting engagement with Otis College of Art and Design in 2025.

Give what moves you. Then send this to one person who believes in our children too.

With gratitude,
Hodari & Shylah Touré
Co-founders, Ubuntu Village

Ubuntu Village is a 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 42-4285210, and holds Candid's 2026 Silver Seal of Transparency. Gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

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