Startling data released by Research in Action (RIA) found that more than 60,000 Black women and girls went missing or were murdered in the US last year. Furthermore, Black women are more than twice as likely to be victims of homicide compared to their White counterparts.
The numbers have called the Minnesota Legislature to create the Missing Murdered African America Women (MMAAW) Task Force with a mission to conduct rigorous research and reports on violence against Black women and provide them with the necessary resources to protect themselves and their families.
IN 2023, RIA and MMAAW are set to conduct high-level meetings with stakeholders to discuss strategies to better serve Black women and girls and will attempt to reduce – if not eliminate – the number of them who have gone missing or were murdered.
The MMAAW Task Force was charged to examine and report on “systematic causes of violence against African American women and girls; appropriate methods of tracking and collecting data; recommend policies, practices, and institutions that assist in perpetuating violence against African American women and girls and create measures necessary to address and reduce violence against African American women and girls.”
In addition to these meetings, the MMAAW Task Force has contracted key informants that include 20 members of government and local officials.
Some of these key informants include Co-Chair: Lakeisha Lee, Rep. Ruth Richardson; Biiftuu Ibrahim Adam (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension); Beatriz Menanteau (Minnesota Department of Health); and Lisa Clemons (A Mother’s Love). Expert Consultants included Kamisha Johnson from Amani Healing Services and Dr. Lauren Martin from the University of Minnesota.
“Having these Advisory Council members with lived experiences, was a requirement of RIA when accepting the contract to do the research work,” reads the report. “The RIA wanted to get real world, lived experienced, information that was useful, to find and suggest better solutions for care in the future.”
The report continues: “The first goals of the research are to define the issues; making sense of the data; and make recommendations for actionable outcomes that lead to tangible, real-world changes.”
If you would like to learn more about RIA and MMAAW’s initiatives, please visit here.
