Beloved Future Collective 2026, Advocacy and Student Mental Health at Highline College

The Beloved Future Collective 2026 is a free, five-week series on advocacy and student mental health hosted by the Black Education Strategy Roundtable with Highline College and its Counseling Center. The remaining sessions are Thursday, November 12, Thursday, November 19 and Thursday, December 3, each from 1:00 to 2:00 PM in Building 3, Room 102 on the Highline campus in Des Moines. Highline students and community members are welcome.

Healing and Advocacy Rooted in the Black Freedom Tradition

The Beloved Future Collective is grounded in the Black freedom tradition and explores how mental health, advocacy, history and collective power connect. Through reflection, storytelling and shared learning, participants build practical tools for self-advocacy, peer advocacy and community action. The series is culturally responsive and designed for students and community members who want to care for themselves while working for change.

The Black Education Strategy Roundtable, known as BESR, works for the systemic success of Black students across Washington. As of November 1, 2026, BESR has moved into a new home at Tabor 100 in Tukwila, closer to community partners whose missions align with its own.

Why Student Mental Health Is an Equity Issue

Students carry a lot into the classroom, from family responsibilities and money worries to the weight of racism in school and in the news. When those pressures go unspoken, they can show up as missed classes, lower grades or students leaving school altogether. Spaces where Black students can name what they are carrying, and learn how to ask for what they need, help keep them in school and on track.

The Beloved Future Collective 2026 treats mental health as part of advocacy, not separate from it. Learning to speak up for yourself with a professor, a counselor or a school board is a skill, and so is helping a friend find support. The series gives participants room to practice both.

What to Expect at the Beloved Future Collective 2026

1. Reflection and storytellingGuided conversations that connect personal experience to shared history.
2. Self-advocacy toolsPractical ways to speak up for your needs at school and beyond.
3. Peer advocacyHow to support classmates and friends who are struggling.
4. Community actionWays to turn shared concerns into collective power.
5. Counseling partnersSessions built with the Highline College Counseling Center.

BESR’s Policy Work This Season

The series is part of a busy season for BESR. The organization served as a community liaison and task force member for the State Board of Education’s FutureReady Initiative, which would modernize Washington’s high school graduation requirements and goes to the Legislature in 2027. BESR also served on the K-12 Funding Equity Workgroup, whose 2026 report calls for fully funding basic education and directing more resources to economically disadvantaged communities.

That policy work and the Beloved Future Collective 2026 share one goal: schools where Black students are supported as whole people. The series is sponsored by 4Culture with general support from the Inatai Foundation.

About the Hosts

The Beloved Future Collective is hosted by the Black Education Strategy Roundtable in partnership with Highline College and its Counseling Center. NAACP AOWSAC shares this event so students and families across Washington can take part. Find more events on the NAACP AOWSAC events calendar.

Additional Resources

• Black Education Strategy Roundtable
• Highline College Counseling Center
• State Board of Education FutureReady Initiative
• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

Hosted by the Black Education Strategy Roundtable with Highline College, and shared by the NAACP AOWSAC State Area Conference