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AN UPDATE REGARDING OUR ORGANIZATIONAL STATUS

as of April 3, 2024

Dear BABA Family and Friends:

In alignment with our Town Hall, we would like to share some important information regarding what has transpired over the past several months, as well as our exciting path forward. 

There were two unfortunate situations that occurred at our 2023 conference in Detroit: a physical and verbal attack initiated by someone who was closely connected to a former high-ranking leader of this organization, as well as homophobic statements made from one of our members to another. BABA would like to extend its most humble and sincere apology for these incidents and offer our promise that they do not reflect the organization’s founding beliefs, values, or principles. 

Among other things, these incidents exposed how far BABA had drifted from its founding purpose: the uplift of the entire Black community in the behavior analytic space. After the conference, we attempted unsuccessfully to move forward without addressing the harm caused or the organization’s lack of direction. Now, with a new, restructured board of directors and advisors in place and a renewed sense of purpose and passion for our mission, we are correcting past mistakes. 

BABA is more than just a conference space; our organization embodies a learning space where growth, support and mutual empowerment intersect. As a non-profit, our commitment to public service requires making difficult decisions and taking accountability for our past missteps. To that end, all former leaders of this organization who misrepresented or mismanaged BABA in any way have been permanently removed from leadership positions. 

Organizational transformation takes time, work and commitment. BABA has been somewhat inactive in recent months as our new board and 6 month Operational Pause plan were being developed, and for that we are truly sorry. As we are rebuilding BABA to meet the vision of our founder, Kat Jackson, BABA operations will remain paused until July 2024. That means we will remain non-operational so that critical steps are achieved to establish our organization’s solid foundation. We know intimately that trying to establish stability on an unstable foundation is akin to trying to build a tower on sinking ground—it’s bound to topple eventually. Therefore, we stand firm on our decision to pause and fully rebuild a new foundation as opposed to attempting to continue to patch a previously unstable one.

Though we are publicly paused, we have not stopped working and will not stop working to build the legacy dreamt in 2019.

Thank you for grace, support and understanding as we navigate through the often-unspoken complexities of community building in a world that has not historically paved the way for us to show up for our community in such an impactful way. We look forward to connecting with you all soon!

If you would like to leave us feedback during the extent of our pause please use this form. We will be addressing your comments during our July Townhall!