Preds, Black Leadership Collective Impacting Nashville Through Positive Collaborations

Jess Williams refers to her crowd as the “cool kids of organizing.” 

After learning about the work she does as Director of Growth and Engagement of The Equity Alliance, it’s easy to understand why. 

Her organization, as well as a slew of others who call Middle Tennessee home, help to make up the Black Leadership Collective (BLC) formed by the Nashville Predators to further empower, educate and collaborate with key leaders and organizations in the Black community in the Music City. 

“The Preds are actually and intentionally walking the walk and talking the talk,” Williams said at the most recent Black Leadership Collective meeting. 

A recipient of a Helper Grant from the Nashville Predators Foundation, The Equity Alliance is Tennessee’s largest Black-led social justice organization with a mission of building independent Black political, cultural and economic power through education, empowerment and organizing. 

“No matter where you are on the spectrum, we love you and there is a space for you in democracy,” Williams said. “It’s not just being the cool kids, but it’s giving people something to aspire to, giving people a community to want to be involved with. Think of it as a community of cool kids that are building not just political power, but building cultural power and building economic power for us.”

The relationship with the Preds began when the team sponsored the Alliance’s Black Women’s Empowerment Weekend, and it’s grown from there. Front office staffers routinely volunteer at events, and the grant from the Preds Foundation has only reaffirmed the partnership and where it can go in the future. 

“It is not only important, but it is valuable to have partners that not only see the work but also invest in the work,” Williams said. “They have the same vision for not just democracy, but the same vision for Tennessee that we have.”

The Nashville Black Wellness Collective, led by Claude and Dr. Kimberly Walker, has also felt the positive impact from the Predators. With a goal of bringing Nashville together for connection, movement and Black joy, the Collective can count on the Preds to be invested in making Nashville a healthier place.

“What we like about this Leadership Collective is how the Predators are helping to introduce us to other organizations, because one of our goals really is to create these spaces for all the dimensions of wellness,” Kimberly said. “Like civic engagement, that is a part of wellness. And you have The Equity Alliance that's a part of this…just different areas of wellness, and we want to see that at our events. The Predators and this Leadership Collective is putting us in a position to develop more relationships, so we really count on partnerships to do all the things that we are doing.”

“It shows that the Predators have actual interest in the community,” Claude said. “When they're actually reaching out to community partners and people who are doing stuff in the community, it shows that they have a better interest in that community, and it shows that they want to see the community lift up and rise and be able to be successful and in health wellness - but also bring them in as far as the audience as well, because diversity always wins.”

The need for work to be done in neighborhoods around town will always exist, but the progress being made among those in the BLC not only allows for greater collaboration across Nashville and beyond, but emphasizes the fact hockey is for everyone - and the Predators continue to lead that charge. 

Those at the helm of The Equity Alliance and Nashville Black Wellness Collective are witnessing it firsthand, and there’s no limit to what the future might bring. 

“To see organizations stand behind other groups that especially want to work in culturally relevant ways, to me, is very important,” Kimberly said. “It’s very noticeable, and even all the summer activities that the Preds are going out and getting in the streets [for Juneteenth celebrations] and doing the work and investing in the relationships…it's very noticeable. I appreciate that as an organization.”

“The Preds are literally like a part of my family - personal family and work family at this point,” Williams said. “There are Preds staffers that go to church with me, there are Preds staffers that I’ve completed professional development programs with, and so I feel like The Equity Alliance and the Preds are just kind of one big family that is reflective of what Tennessee is and can be.”

The Nashville Predators are proud to partner with Nissan USA to celebrate Juneteenth. Click here for more details on Black community celebrations.