COLUMN: Centering the Most Impacted

I am proud of all the projects Research in Action (RIA) has done over the years, but the Missing and Murdered African American Women’s Task Force (MMAAW) work is close to my heart because it deeply resonates with my own story.

When I came out as a queer Black teenage girl, my immediate family didn’t know what to do with me. I was fortunate that a loving Black woman with little means took me in, because I now know the statistics of what happens to so many houseless Black girls: they get trafficked, abused, murdered. Authorities are less likely to sound the Amber Alert when we go missing or find ourselves needing to choose more hospitable options for housing.

Though my situation put me behind in my classes initially, I was the first person from my high school to go to Macalester College. As an undergrad, I became keenly aware of the systemic nature of poverty and how my life experiences were shaped by policy decisions that, in many ways, constrained the range of choices I had based on my identity and my community.

That was the case for Brittany Clardy, an 18-year-old who loved working with children. She vanished one morning from her neighborhood in Saint Paul after telling her mother she was going to the corner store. When her family sought help from the police, they were met with dismissal rather than urgency or care. Days later, Brittany was found dead in the trunk of her car.

Refusing to let the tragic story fade, Brittany’s sister, Lakeisha Lee, spearheaded a movement. It was her tireless advocacy, with Brittany’s story serving as a painful catalyst, that led in 2021 to the creation of the Minnesota Missing and Murdered African American Women’s Task Force — the first of its kind in the nation.

RIA stands stand with and works for directly impacted communities — like Black women, girls, and femmes whose lives, safety, and dignity are too often treated as expendable among other communities. And we recognize that we need to build a new table; one that centers the most impacted and also includes other stakeholders with the power to champion change.

For years, Brittany and other community members demanded to be seen, heard, and protected. While it wasn’t a top-down decision from policymakers, it did take legislative champions — former representatives Jeff Hayden, Ruth Richardson, and current Senator Bobby Champion — to move a bill at the state capitol to create the task force and kickstart the catalyst for lasting change.

After the bill passed, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) contracted with RIA to lead the task force and author the legislative report. From the start, we demanded a different process: we insisted on creating an action council comprised solely of Black women, girls, and femme survivors to lead the work — including Lakeisha Lee.

This action council was pivotal in setting the project’s direction, meeting monthly. The task force, primarily made up of institutional leaders, met quarterly. The task force offered essential institutional expertise and support, and both groups convened collectively twice.

While it is crucial to include institutional stakeholders, who hold influence over relevant practices and policies, their role is to provide insight into existing systemic and policy barriers. Critically, those with traditional power must defer to the expertise of the impacted community, who guide the process.

This approach is founded on the principle that people should not have decisions made about them without their genuine leadership.

A crucial achievement of the action council was the development of a comprehensive definition of violence. This definition emphasized the equal importance of mental, emotional, and physical violence, providing a guiding framework for the project. This allowed the project to focus on root causes and identify systemic processes that create vulnerable situations for Black women and girls.

Together, the task force and action council collaborated on a final legislative report. This report provided concrete solutions, including recommendations for resource allocation, improved intra-agency coordination, training for support agencies, and guidelines for establishing a new supportive infrastructure. Key among these recommendations was the proposal for the creation of a new state office.

In 2022, we released the report. The following year, the legislature created the first Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls in the country. Continuing this momentum, the report helped catalyze the introduction of the Brittany Clardy Act in 2024 with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Bonnie Watson-Coleman — the first federal bill to address this crisis — which garnered support from every voting member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The fight remains ongoing.

A report doesn’t end violence. The task force laid the foundation for understanding the scope and scale of the problem, but it also called for more research, more evaluation, and deeper community engagement. Those resources were never fully funded or realized by the state — and so the work continues.

The change we seek is a long-term endeavor, dependent on our genuine and thoughtful commitment to centering community expertise. The process we use to support those most impacted is just as crucial as the ultimate impact of our work. If our process causes harm, the outcomes become irrelevant; even the best-intentioned policy will fail in its implementation and reception.

As the legislative session continues, I urge us to move beyond simply “incorporating” the voices of those most impacted. How do we continually reimagine traditional processes to center leadership so these voices are providing leadership, not simply input?

Related Stories