Dear Black Girl

Women's organization in Jacksonville, FL

Address

25 N Market St #250, Jacksonville, FL, 32202

Phone

(904) 333-7420

Website

officialdearblackgirl.org

About Dear Black Girl

A healing-centered personal development program for Black women and women of color, run as the signature program of 1 Step Up, Inc., a Jacksonville-based 501(c)(3). Programming runs in cohorts and includes a personal development curriculum focused on self-awareness, emotional wellness and leadership, community workshops, and the Bridge Grant Initiative, which provides funding for students facing educational barriers. Since 2020 the program has graduated more than 90 women across nine cohorts in three cities, and it operates on a community-driven model sustained by individual giving, merchandise sales, grassroots fundraising, and grants.

Quiana Malone founded 1 Step Up, Inc. in Jacksonville in 2015 to help individuals and families in underserved and justice-impacted communities move beyond crisis toward stability. She launched Dear Black Girl in 2020 after seeing that Black women needed structure and community rather than motivation alone. A 2x published author, facilitator and speaker, Malone has been a teenage mother, a formerly incarcerated woman, and someone who experienced homelessness, and she built the program around the philosophy "Nothing about me without me." The program has since expanded to Atlanta and is launching in Los Angeles in August 2026.

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