OUR HISTORY
Vision: We envision a community that values diversity and maintains high standards in a safe and nurturing environment, that builds independence and economic self-sufficiency while educating our community in the knowledge of the self and promoting a healthy quality of life for throughout the life cycle.
Mission: Project Ujima is a grassroots community engagement organization that teaches and facilitates a Circle Process to enable diverse citizens to come together, discuss issues of shared concern, develop relationships of trust, and go from talk to action.
Our Name: Project Ujima: We are named after the 3rd Principle of Kwanzaa, Ujima, Collective Work and Responsibility. We mean to help build and maintain our community, make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and work to solve them together.
A MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDERS
Our vision for Project Ujima is that it would serve as a public utility to the community by providing a safe and structured process for citizens to discuss often painful, sensitive issues of shared concern, such as race and racism, police-community relations, etc., that would lead to finding common ground on action(s) to address the issue. The framework of this discussion process would begin by sharing personal stories related to the issue, helping to lay a foundation of building trust as the discussion progressed into weighing pros and cons and trade-offs of actions, with the goal of finding common ground.
Part of our vision included providing moderator training to community members (citizens, service providers, community leaders, students and the like) in the discussion process to enable them to facilitate this approach when the need arose. It continues to be our hope that this dialogue process will become common practice throughout our community when issues of shared concern arise.
We think our greatest accomplishment is not ours, but our community’s. We are so thankful and grateful that under the leadership of the current Executive Director, with the support of the philanthropic community, the city and our citizens, Project Ujima is continuing to serve as a public utility, providing this important dialogue to action process and hopefully helping to build relationships of trust within our community. Ashe’
Co-Founders: Crystal L. Jones and Susan Vogelsang
OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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Lakesh Duke
I am a believer in the power of people coming together — in the circles we create, the stories we share, and the healing that happens when we listen with love. My journey, shaped by kinship and foster care, taught me early on about the strength that grows from community and the hope that blossoms when someone chooses to show up for you. Those experiences fuel my purpose and the work I lead today.
As Executive Director of Project Ujima, I am honored to guide a process that brings people together to build trust, find common ground, and turn dialogue into action. Through Peace Circles, I witness daily how connection can mend what division has broken — how empathy and understanding can spark collective change.
This same belief guides my passion for maternal and infant vitality. I understand that healthy communities begin with healthy families, and that mothers deserve spaces of support, dignity, and belonging as they bring life into the world. By centering relationships, listening to lived experiences, and uplifting community wisdom, I work to help create environments where mothers, babies, and families can thrive — not just survive.
I lead from a place of gratitude and grace, meeting people where they are and walking beside them as they discover their own power. For me, this work is not just a profession — it’s a calling. It’s about creating spaces rooted in love, honesty, and the belief that when we come together, we can heal and reimagine what’s possible for our communities — beginning with our mothers, our children, and our future.