The WE-Empower Family Ecosystem
The WE-Empower Family Ecosystem guides households and students on a connected journey of healing, growth, and leadership. Through culturally grounded transformative coaching, school-based support, and sustained alumni engagement, families build resilience, cultural identity, and the capacity to lead.
Powered by Culture-Based Transformative Coaching® (CBTC) and rooted in the Five Transformative Life Pillars, the ecosystem offers multiple entry points — from open-enrollment fee-based intensives to grant-funded family cohorts and short-form community workshops. Every pathway leads toward the same destination: transformation that lasts.
CBTC is a transformative coaching model — distinct from life coaching in that it works at the level of consciousness, cultural identity, and community, not just individual goals and behaviors. That distinction is what makes every program in this ecosystem different from anything else in the Bay Area.
1. The Sankofa Family Intensive
The Sankofa Family Intensive is a fee-based 10-week transformative coaching experience open to any family or individual ready to invest in transformation. Grounded in CBTC and guided by the Five Transformative Life Pillars, participants build self-awareness, strengthen family bonds, and develop a purposeful vision for their lives — in community with others on the same journey.
The Sankofa Family Intensive offers the full WE-Empower Family experience on an open-enrollment basis, with flexible scheduling to meet families where they are.
Register for the Sankofa Family Intensive
2. WE-Empower Family (Core Coaching Intensive)
WE-Empower Family (WEF) is Village-Connect's flagship grant-funded 10-week transformative coaching intensive, serving historically marginalized families across the Bay Area at no cost. Caregivers and children build resilience, cultural identity, and stronger family bonds together in a structured, nurturing community.
After graduation, children ages 5–10 continue in the SIMBA/NALA Playgroups — a culturally rooted enrichment space that builds literacy, self-expression, and peer relationships through rites-of-passage activities. Youth ages 11–15 are invited to develop as junior facilitators and future community leaders.
Learn More About WE-Empower Family
3. WE-Empower K-12
WE-Empower K-12 delivers academic coaching and cultural development for students across grade levels. The program strengthens cultural identity, improves academic performance, and supports social-emotional growth — creating a meaningful bridge between home and school.
Learn More About WE-Empower K-12
4. Alumni Infrastructure — WE-Empower Family Alumni Association (WEFAA)
All WE-Empower Family graduates enter the WE-Empower Family Alumni Association (WEFAA) — the backbone of the ecosystem. WEFAA keeps alumni continuously engaged through monthly transformative coaching, peer mentoring, leadership development, and access to licensed mental health support.
From this foundation, alumni carry their transformation into community contribution, intergenerational resilience, and lasting collective impact.
Learn More About WEFAA
5. Expansion Pathways
Expansion pathways deepen the alumni journey beyond the initial 10-week intensive. Through periodic retreats, alumni refresher sessions, and family conferences, WEFAA members continue to grow, reconnect, and celebrate their progress together.
These experiences create immersive spaces for deeper healing, cultural celebration, and collective movement-building — sustaining transformation across years, not just weeks.
Join a Monthly Refresher Session
6. The Harambee Workshop Series
The Harambee Workshop Series offers focused, accessible workshops — 30 to 90 minutes, virtual or in-person — open to individuals, families, and organizations across the Bay Area.
Each workshop draws from the Five Transformative Life Pillars and the CBTC methodology, offering a meaningful entry point into transformative work without requiring a full program commitment. No prior experience required.
View Upcoming workshops
7. The Ubuntu Scholarship Fund
No family should be turned away due to financial barriers. The Ubuntu Scholarship Fund — named for the pillar that reminds us: I am because we are — ensures that cost is never the reason a family misses their transformation.
The Fund supports access to the Sankofa Family Intensive for families who need financial assistance. We are actively fundraising to launch the Ubuntu Scholarship Fund and welcome your support.
Support the Ubuntu Scholarship Fund
