About The Foundation
About Black
Minds Matter
Foundation.
Black Minds Matter Foundation is a Chicago-rooted, Black-centered wellness and community organization preparing for its official launch in January 2027. It was created to respond to a truth too many people know personally: many are praised for surviving while quietly carrying stress, grief, trauma, burnout, pressure, and emotional exhaustion.
BMMF is being built for Black individuals, families, and communities across generations — intergenerational by mission, with a strong young-adult emphasis as the organization enters its first launch phase.
"This is not about hosting random events. This is about building a pathway of support."
Why We Exist
BUILDING STRONGER
COMMUNITIES BY
INVESTING IN PEOPLE.
Our communities are not problems to be fixed. They are full of people, institutions, families, leaders, creativity, history, and resilience that deserve sustained investment.
The question isn't whether our communities are resilient. They have already proven that. The deeper question is: how much longer should resilience be the requirement?
Building stronger communities by investing in the people already holding them together.
The Model
LOVE YOU.
LOVE YOURS.
Before people can fully love their lives, relationships, families, communities, purpose, work, creativity, finances, or futures — they must first learn how to love themselves.
When you learn to love yourself, you begin to handle your life differently.
You love your mind differently.
You love your body differently.
You love your family differently.
You love your purpose differently.
You love your future differently.
What is preventing you from loving you?
First: Love You. Then: Love Yours. That is the work.
Meet the Co-Founders
TWO CHICAGO
LEADERS.
ONE SHARED MISSION.
Black Minds Matter Foundation was co-founded by Cozene Williams and Michael Hawthorne — equal partners building this work together out of a shared commitment to mental wellness, youth development, mentorship, sports, creative expression, and community care.
Cozene Williams
Co-Founder
Chicago educator, nonprofit and community leader, creative, and mental wellness advocate. Experience in education, behavioral health, youth programming, creative programming, worship leadership, community organizing, and youth development.
Michael Hawthorne
Co-Founder
Chicago educator, football coach, and mentor. Experience in sports-based leadership, coaching, discipline, teamwork, mentorship, emotional regulation, and student development with Chicago Public Schools.
"Black Minds Matter Foundation was created from a truth we both understand deeply: too many people are praised for surviving while quietly carrying stress, pressure, trauma, grief, burnout, and emotional exhaustion."
Cozene Williams & Michael Hawthorne
Co-Founders, Black Minds Matter Foundation
Chicago Roots
Rooted in the Neighborhoods
That Raised the Work.
Black Minds Matter Foundation is being built from the lived reality of Chicago neighborhoods, not from generic nonprofit language. Our early community lens includes Greater Grand Crossing, South Shore, Englewood, and Bronzeville: neighborhoods with deep history, cultural strength, community leadership, and real needs around wellness, mentorship, creativity, safety, opportunity, and support.
Greater Grand Crossing
A South Side community shaped by movement, crossing points, and connection.
BMMF sees Greater Grand Crossing as a place where wellness, mentorship, and creative expression can help people move from survival into support.
South Shore
A lakefront community with cultural depth, gathering spaces, and strong neighborhood identity.
BMMF connects South Shore to restoration, creative expression, wellness, and spaces where people can breathe and reconnect.
Englewood
A community with deep history, real challenges, and powerful rebuilding energy.
BMMF connects Englewood to mentorship, wellness, youth support, and spaces where people are seen beyond what they survive.
Bronzeville
A historic center of Black culture, creativity, leadership, and legacy.
BMMF connects Bronzeville to storytelling, identity, legacy, and the power of turning lived experience into purpose.
Transparency Builds Trust
BUILT WITH
TRANSPARENCY.
Transparency builds trust.
Trust builds relationships.
Relationships build communities.
Communities create opportunity.
Opportunity changes lives.
BMMF received 501(c)(3) recognition in 2026. We are committed to responsible stewardship, clear communication, transparent use of funds, measurable progress, ongoing updates, and meaningful partner relationships.