Voqal knows that taking risks with innovative, progressive ideas is necessary to advance social change. The Voqal Fellowship is an investment in people as individuals and budding entrepreneurs; a talent accelerator aimed at giving those often overlooked by traditional funders a chance to enact their visions at center stage. In our first Voqal Fellowship spotlight of 2020, we take a look at one of those changemakers, Johnaé Strong and her project Razing to Restore.
Razing to Restore is an online organizing training platform connecting emerging social actors to political education, organizing, and restorative practices, through on-demand learning modules developed by national organizers and healers.
Strong is an educator, organizer, and writer who has been working at the intersection of social movements, healing, and education for over a decade. Strong is a founding member and leader of BYP100, a political organization for Black people 18 to 35 working for liberation for all Black people.
Her work has spanned across community and labor with a focus on campaigns against state violence and school privatization and the amplification of community-led strategies for creating a more just and safe society.
Strong holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Chicago. When she isn’t writing, Strong can be found making music, dancing with her children Akeim and Jari, or fulfilling her promise to visit every country in Africa.
Learn more about the Voqal Fellowship and this year’s cohort on our fellowships’ page.