In the summer of 2020, Leigh Higginbotham Butler needed a safe space to learn how to talk her Black boys about the country’s civil unrest. She couldn’t find a place, so she created one.
Akina, a CaaS (Community-as-a-Service) app and platform that leverages culturally-competent AI and machine learning technology, was her brainchild to help galvanize experts and organizations to help one another.
The first iteration started out as a social media platform for Black moms to help one another with their parenting journey, but it quickly evolved into something much more.
“The conversations we were having in there extended beyond just children,” Higginbotham Butler tells ESSENCE. “There were so many women who needed help with things across the board.”
“We have spent the last 18 months retooling, reconfiguring, and pivoting as a company to truly create a community for Black women, a Google specifically for them.”
Officially launching later this year, Akina will consist of three main pillars: (1) entrepreneurship and career development, (2) mental health and wellness as the other, (3) maternal health and health care as the third bucket. The platform will consist of expert and peer-supported advice vetted by the Akina team; there will also be pop-up events held across the country to help foster substantive relationships among Black women, because it’s “so needed,” says Higginbotham Butler.
“Oftentimes we think we are in it alone and that we have to put on a superwoman cape and figure things out on our own, but we all need help. We can lean on one another to get where we aim to go.”
Akina will operate as a freemium model, meaning its free membership tier will allow limited access to the platform’s articles. The next level up is the $20/month offering which allows full access to the app along, the website and discounted entry into its in-person events and experiential moments.
After more than three years of work, Higginbotham Butler says she is finally ready to reveal Akina to the world.
“This was put on my heart some years ago and I couldn’t keep running from it. I had to do it,” Higginbotham Butler says. “Like many others, I struggle with impostor syndrome,” she shares, holding back tears. “It was a lot for me to get out of that. So to have a space that encourages, provides for women and celebrates all in one space is incredible.”