Who we are
Our Turn is a collective of Black women unencumbered by the expectations of others, leading with joy, curiosity, and a lack of fear. We lift the voices and demands of everyday Black women, by creating an agenda that centers our heart's deepest desires.
A global organization for Black women.
Mission
Our Turn, Inc's mission is to enable a safe center of knowledge for Black women that nurtures leadership, wellness, and research through resources, educational experiences, events, and services.
Vision
Our Turn, Inc is a 21st-century global organization committed to cultivating, connecting, and celebrating Black women's lived experiences to help Black women create personal and community wellbeing.
Who we serve
Black women / Afro-Latina women
Working women / working class
Formerly incarcerated Black women / sex workers
Mothers / single parents
Black women with informal education / high school diploma and beyond
Organizational purposes
To assist Black women who are working class and financially low wealth
To enhance the growth, development, and leadership of said individuals
To foster the wellbeing, advancement, and support of them, their families, and communities
Our founder
Tamieka Atkins is a public intellectual, civic strategist, and executive leader whose work centers on how power is built, governed, and sustained in Black-led movements and democratic institutions. Over nearly two decades, she has helped build some of the most consequential civic infrastructure in the U.S. South, stewarding tens of millions in civic investment and growing a founding coalition into a permanent statewide network. She founded Our Turn as a global platform for the political voice and self-determination of Black women across the diaspora, women too often shut out of the rooms where decisions get made. A sought-after speaker and advisor, she pairs the discipline of institution-building with deep accountability to the grassroots movements she serves. Her leadership has been recognized with the Power Building Award from Grantmakers for Southern Progress, a place among Georgia Trend's 500 Most Influential Leaders, and Time Out's Woman of the Year. She lives in Atlanta with her two children.
What’s next
Our Turn began with a question asked in Georgia and is answering it across the diaspora. What started as a single study has grown into a movement that reaches from Georgia to the Caribbean, and it is still expanding. The work ahead is the same as the work that started it: making sure Black women hold real power in the rooms that shape their lives.