OUR STORY

Nine Years in the Making.

A MOVEMENT

BCW is a national platform connecting leaders, creators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers to build more equitable futures. For nine years, we've fostered opportunities where education, economic growth, wellness, and community action come together.

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150+

POLICY LEADERS + NATIONAL SPEAKERS

2018

FOUNDED

64K+

COMMUNITY MEMBERS ENGAGED

What We Build

  • Three people sitting on a stage at a panel discussion, with a man in the middle speaking into a microphone, and an audience in the foreground. The event is indoors with beige patterned curtains in the background.

    Policy + Advocacy

    Creating space for leadership conversations, civic engagement, restorative justice, and systems change.

  • A woman with short blonde hair and glasses interacting with a shopper at a market stall selling various products. The scene is indoors with other shoppers and market displays visible in the background.

    Entrepreneurship

    Supporting pathways toward ownership, sustainability, visibility, and long-term economic mobility.

  • A woman with orange-colored hair is speaking into a microphone at a conference or event, surrounded by a group of diverse attendees who are listening and taking photos. The setting appears to be indoors in a spacious, modern venue with large glass windows and high ceilings.

    Workforce Development

    Connecting communities to education, mentorship, resources, and career exploration opportunities.

  • People participating in a yoga or meditation class indoors, with some in a prayer or bowing position on yoga mats, candles and plants in the background, and a brick wall.

    Wellness + Culture

    Centering healing, storytelling, creativity, collective care, and cultural experiences.

  • A woman in glasses and white shirt holding a microphone speaking at an indoor event with attendees seated at tables. There is a large potted plant in the center of the scene and a black curtain backdrop.

    Community Access

    Expanding public education, restorative support, visibility, and community-centered resources.

THE
ORIGIN

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BCW was founded to address the growing gap between emerging opportunities and the communities most impacted by criminalization. What began as conversations among advocates, educators, entrepreneurs, and community leaders evolved into a movement for collective advancement.

Since 2018, BCW has grown into a national platform rooted in Philadelphia. We bring together policymakers, entrepreneurs, students, artists, wellness practitioners, and changemakers. Through education, entrepreneurship, advocacy, wellness, and culture, we create spaces for meaningful collaboration. Our mission is to build pathways for equity, opportunity, leadership, and lasting community impact.

How it all started.

Why This Matters?

  • As new opportunities emerged, equitable access to ownership, education, investment, and leadership often lagged.

    BCW works to bridge that gap by amplifying Black leadership and creating pathways for lasting economic and community impact.

  • BCW is built on an unconference-style model that prioritizes accessibility, collaboration, and participation over traditional gatekeeping, creating space for shared leadership and lived experience.

    This ecosystem brings together entrepreneurship, policy, wellness, culture, education, and civic engagement into one interconnected experience where diverse forms of knowledge and leadership can exist in dialogue.

BCW was created to address the inequities that left Black communities excluded from opportunities, leadership, and economic growth despite being most impacted by criminalization.
Today, it serves as a platform that educates, connects, and empowers communities through collaboration, advocacy, and collective advancement.

Why BCW exists?

64K+

COMMUNITY MEMBERS ENGAGED

9 Years

BUILDING

500+

MEDICAL ACCESS REGISTRATIONS

115+

COMMUNITY-ROOTED EXPERTS

6

WORKFORCE + JOB FAIR ACTIVATIONS

510+

EXPUNGEMENTS + RECORD SUPPORT

A group of diverse people, including adults and children, posing for a photo indoors in front of a backdrop with outdoor and cannabis-related logos. The group is smiling, with some making peace signs and others raising their hands or thumbs up.
Close-up of hands showing colorful nail art, rings, and bracelets, with a patterned skirt in the background.

Built Ecosystems

BCW was intentionally designed to bring multiple parts of the ecosystem into one shared space, creating opportunities for collaboration across industries, lived experiences, leadership spaces, and community voices.

Daily Dose Tour

A multi-city activation series across the East Coast bringing education, wellness, entrepreneurship, and public dialogue directly into communities through accessible, restorative, and community-centered engagement.

Cannabis Opportunities Conference

The flagship convening brings together entrepreneurs, policymakers, educators, creatives, wellness leaders, students, and community members to shape the future of the ecosystem through BCW’s unconference model that fosters shared space across industries, generations, and lived experiences.

Impact + Highlights

For nearly a decade, BCW has built spaces where advocacy, education, entrepreneurship, wellness, culture, storytelling, and community organizing come together to drive collective advancement.


Evolving from a community-driven response to exclusion, it has grown into a national platform rooted in access, collaboration, and unconference-style experiences that connect policy, workforce, wellness, and cultural engagement.

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OUR PARTNERS

Building Together.

Over the last nine years, conversations surrounding restorative justice, entrepreneurship, wellness, policy, culture, and economic opportunity have increasingly entered national dialogue.

BCW continues contributing to those conversations through storytelling, organizing, education, advocacy, partnerships, and community-centered programming designed to create impact beyond a single moment or event.

The platform’s continued growth has been supported through collaborations with organizers, educators, entrepreneurs, public leaders, wellness practitioners, advocates, creatives, and mission-aligned partners committed to collective advancement.

A collage of numerous logos of cannabis-related organizations, businesses, and advocacy groups. The logos vary in design, color, and style, showcasing the diversity within the cannabis community.
A collage of numerous logos of cannabis-related organizations, businesses, and advocacy groups. The logos feature various designs, symbols, and text representing different cannabis companies and initiatives.

NOW YOU KNOW

The next chapter starts here.

Nine years in, the work continues evolving.

What started as a community-driven response to exclusion has grown into a national platform connecting leadership, education, wellness, entrepreneurship, culture, advocacy, and collective action across the country.

What happens next will require all of us.

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