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Article written By- RaChelle Nelson, Co-Lead- BUILDs History & Activities Subcommittee 
The History & Activities subcommittee for BUILD is ran by-Undra Simpson, Lead and RaChelle Nelson,Co-Lead (In picture).
This subcommittee puts on the Black History Month and Juneteenth Celebrations for government employees! On February 20, 2025, BUILD (Blacks United in Leadership and Diversity) celebrated Black History Month at The Evergreen State College – Tacoma Campus. BUILD is a business resource group for Black Washington State employees and our allies. The celebration's theme was “African Americans and Labor”, highlighting the significant contributions of Black people to the workforce across various sectors. This includes skilled and unskilled labor, free and unfree labor, and even community-based work, throughout history. At the event, we were delighted to have a message from Governor Ferguson, along with speakers including Professor Nathan Webster, Marketing Consultant; April Sims, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO; and Chana Lawson, Chair of the Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective Political Committee & President of the Black Women’s Caucus Tacoma Chapter. Attendees enjoyed an interactive Kahoot hosted by Dr. Shamyka Sutton, a 360-degree photo booth, a Black history exhibition, and the musical interludes of the BUILD choir. The BUILD mission is to: Improve the experiences of Black state employees, Increase representation in leadership positions, Give voice to the Black perspective, And BUILD each other up as we move forward. Learn More: www.BUILDwa.org 
 Since I got a traumatic brain injury of my own I’ve seen many references to the TBI community, but I’ve never really seen that community described or defined.
So, what is the TBI community? I know what community means but the idea of the word doesn’t really sum up the group of people of which I am now a part. The online dictionaries I’ve looked at have quite a few definitions, some of which apply to the TBI community, and others not so much. It can get quite involved, so I guess I’ll just lay out here my ideas about what the TBI community is about. But one thing is for sure: the TBI community has too many qualities to be summarized by a dictionary definition. The TBI community isn’t a place or a geographic location. We are everywhere. We live in every country in the world, in every region where there are people. We are from all walks of life, from every religion, faith, race, ethnicity, economic status. We are men and women, boys and girls. We are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and friends; you name it. We have no centralized authority, like in a government or a corporation. We are pretty much leaderless; we have spokespeople and advocates, one of which I am proud and privileged to be. There is no head of the TBI community or organization issuing marching orders and there is no hierarchy. Everyone with a TBI is an equal part of the community. Each of us can be leaders in our own way, depending on our own individual desires and capabilities, and we are all leaders and spokespeople at different times. We have many groups and subgroups, which are unfunded or underfunded. A while ago, I wrote about some of the things people say to me that make living with a traumatic brain injury even more of a challenge.
I didn’t yet realize it at the time, but what I listed were actually stigmas. Stigmas are the preconceived notions people without a traumatic brain injury (TBI) have about us; and at the very minimum, they can be very frustrating, and sometimes discouraging or even hurtful. Many people seem to think traumatic brain injury is the same as brain damage, and treat us accordingly. It can lead to people having unrealistic expectations of us; stigmas can even make them shun us or treat us as less than fully human. The misunderstanding is theirs, but when they act on those misconceptions, they can make their problem ours. And it happens more than some might realize. According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1.7 million people experience a traumatic brain injury annually. I’m not sure if that figure includes people who already had a TBI and suffered a new one. Some of those people get new injuries by falling and hitting their heads, being in car accidents, or any number of ways. The CDC also says that of those 1.7 million people, 275,000 people a year are hospitalized and 52, 000 die. There is obviously no way to know how many traumatic brain injuries go unreported. Some people may go a long time between the time of the brain injury and finding out they have one. That’s an awful lot of people in this country with injured brains, and an awful lot of people with the added burden of having to deal with hurtful stigmas. Like I said above, I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with some of those stigmas; I won’t rehash them here. I will however list a few other stigmas below and make some brief comments about them. To make it easier, they’re numbered. Stigma #1: You didn’t get hit that hard. You can’t have a brain injury. Oh yes, you can. It really doesn’t take that much force to cause your brain to move a bit inside your skull. My TBI–the legacy of a major stroke–is what’s called a closed skull TBI. Even I was surprised when I found out that was considered a TBI. The bleeding in my brain caused pressure in my skull and gave me a traumatic brain injury.  Resilience and unity have always been the driving forces behind progress, especially for African Americans in labor. As Co-Chair of BUILD, I often reflect on the strength and determination of those who came before us—individuals who broke barriers and carved out opportunities in environments that weren’t built for them to succeed. Their stories aren’t just history; they are a constant reminder of what’s possible when we persevere together.
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