Creating safe spaces for black women to enter the cycling community

Black Women Bike DC

Riding a bicycle is a great way to get outdoors and get some exercise, but historically, the cycling community has not been a welcoming place for people of color, especially women of color. While there has been some improvement, the problem persists. As a result, many black women still feel excluded, and black girls rarely aspire to pursue cycling as a recreational or competitive activity. The challenge is two-fold: to create safe spaces that enable black women and girls to enter the cycling community, and to provide the same levels of access, infrastructure, and resources in underserved communities that more prosperous communities already enjoy so that everyone can take part in cycling.

SERVICES

recruiting
outreach
program management
strategic planning

THE CLIENT

Founded in May 2011, Black Women Bike DC (BWBDC) is a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Its mission is to build community and interest in biking among black women and girls through education, advocacy, and recreation. To that end, the organization has undertaken a wide range of initiatives over the years, including offering learn-to-ride and basic skills clinics, leading group rides on local trails and bike paths, and advancing policies and safety regulations for bike infrastructure. As BWBDC has continued to grow, it has helped strengthen the communities it serves while enabling hundreds of new riders to ride skillfully and confidently.

THE PROBLEM

In 2024, BWBDC wanted to continue expanding its reach and impact. However, as a small, volunteer-led program without a board of directors, the organization lacked the internal resources it needed to identify its goals for the year and to execute its programming.

In addition, due to a lack of planning and focused effort, the organization had been taking part in some initiatives that were not closely aligned with its mission. As a result, it had a strong desire to get back to the basics in 2024 so that its work would truly reflect the mission for which BWBDC was created, the people it was designed to serve, and the communities where it wanted to focus its impact.

THE SOLUTION

Our solution was to hire an experienced community outreach coordinator to take charge of BWBDC’s administrative functions. The main goals were to enable BWBDC to continue its activities in 2024 as well as to prepare for the potential transition of BWBDC’s programming to its partner organizations.

THE APPROACH

Our solution had two components: recruiting and outreach.

Recruiting

We set out to recruit a community outreach coordinator who would plan and manage all of BWBDC’s programming, including clinics, strategic partnerships, education, and social media.

Our first step was to find the right person for the position. With BWBDC’s limited budget and lack of capacity to manage an employee, we recognized that we would need to hire a candidate who was experienced in this type of outreach and who had a true passion for BWBDC’s mission and the knowledge of the resources required to execute it.

BWBDC’s previous searches had failed to produce viable candidates, so we tailored the job description, job parameters, and compensation to better reflect market conditions and BWBDC’s budget. This led to the right resume and the right hire. We also managed the onboarding, training, and oversight of the new community outreach coordinator, thus reducing the BWBDC leadership team’s involvement to participating in the organization’s programs.

Outreach

The community outreach coordinator was responsible for strategic planning, program management, and program implementation.

Strategic Planning

The community outreach coordinator worked closely with BWBDC’s leadership team to produce a strategic plan for 2024 that identified two main priorities—education and community—and three strategies to achieve them:

Expand BWBDC’s programming by developing two new strategic partnerships and maintaining existing partnerships
Increase BWBDC’s community engagement through consistent outreach and promotion for BWBDC-led events and activities
Increase BWBDC’s funding through grants and sales of merchandise

For each of these three strategies, we identified specific goals tied to specific, measurable key performance indicators that we tracked and evaluated throughout the year. Being able to quantify its impact was critically important for BWBDC, especially when reporting on existing grants and applying for new ones.

Program Management

The community outreach coordinator planned, managed, and executed all programming; applied for new grants and managed existing grants and created the required grant reports; hosted events; developed new partnerships and maintained existing ones; conducted educational programming in schools, acquired and distributed donated equipment, and managed program logistics.

Program Implementation

Key accomplishments in 2024 included the following:

Hosted BWBDC’s annual Breakfast, Maintenance, and Ride event that brought the community together, taught foundational biking skills, provided free breakfast and free bike repairs, included a group ride, and connected women riders for the cycling season
Hosted BWBDC’s third annual Family Learn to Ride and Basic Skills Clinic, where eleven young people and six adults learned to ride a bike and five adults completed basic skills that designed to help them ride more safely and confidently
Hosted a variety of other successful community events and group rides, including events in communities in Washington, D.C., and Prince George’s County, MD where BWBDC gave away bicycle helmets, high visibility gear, water bottles, and other gear and safety information
Launched a new partnership with the University of Maryland’s Department of Transportation Services Bicycle and Micromobility Program to teach students how to commute safely to campus on bikes
Launched the first in-school bike programming in Prince George’s County with 2nd and 3rd graders at New Hope Academy in Landover Hills, Maryland
Launched the first Earn-A-Bike program in Prince George’s County with 8th graders at Chesapeake Math and IT Academy South Middle School
Appeared at multiple cycling advocacy events across jurisdictions to educate government officials about the importance of implementing better bike and pedestrian infrastructure in marginalized communities

THE RESULTS

In 2024, BWBDC enjoyed its most successful year in its long history. Our work enabled the organization to focus its efforts effectively and to expand its reach and impact.

Although BWBDC’s leadership team ultimately decided to sunset the organization at the end of 2024, we succeeded in implementing legacy programming that transitioned selected BWBDC initiatives to BWBDC’s partner organizations so they could continue and expand those initiatives in the future. Those initiatives included:

Conducting the in-school bike education programs at New Hope Academy and South Middle School in Prince George’s County
Funding the Black Women Bike Women of Color League Cycling Instructors Scholarship at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association in order to diversify cycling education
Creating BWBDC’s popular Bike Buying Guide, which WABA and other organizations use to help new cyclists learn to purchase their first bicycle stress-free

BWBDC’s leadership reported that the hiring of the community outreach coordinator was especially beneficial.

“Thank you for taking the time to find the right person for the job. When the initial search didn’t yield candidates, you came back to us with options to improve the process. Those options were tailored to what you saw in the job market and in alignment with our budget and priorities. The changes quickly led to the perfect hire. We got someone who didn’t simply do the job, she embraced our mission. We couldn’t have accomplished all that we did this past year without the passion and dedication of your team. Your clear communications, adaptability, and ability to anticipate our needs were invaluable. Thank you again for everything.”

Anica Allen
President, Black Women Bike DC