Meet Breanna Allen | Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Breanna Allen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Breanna, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
All-En Consulting LLC was born out of a decade-long commitment to anti-violence advocacy, realizing that oppression still permeates many anti-violence organizations, hindering the progress toward true inclusivity. The overall anti-violence movement was born out of the understanding that all survivors of crime should be seen, heard, and worthy of protection with the understanding that the practitioners of this field should be operating to support all and dismantle the prevalent oppression. However, oppression has stayed and seeped into every sector of this movement which is counterproductive to the mission of engaging marginalized communities who are exposed to crimes and experiencing harm at an alarming rate. Having witnessed this coupled with also seeing that the anti-violence movement purposefully pushed out black women specifically while also not creating a platform for black women to hold positions of power and leadership. There was an understanding that organizations were no longer “talking the talk and walking the walk” letting oppressive lenses exude into the organization’s DNA. Which has created space for entire demographics to go unseen, unheard, unvalued, and unprotected. All-En took these experiences and understanding and created an anti-oppressive consulting firm that believes in the 3 pillars dismantle, increase, and promote. All-En engages organizations to ensure that they are operating and increasing programming out of an anti-oppressive lens keeping survivors of crime and trauma at the forefront of programming. This has created a space for All-En to support organizations in dismantling programmatic barriers for the populations they serve. While concurrently using primitive measures to engage those who you don’t see but are exposed to crime at larger rates such as people of color, male survivors, LGBTQI, later in life and the neurodiverse.
This also looks like All-En supporting organizations’ mission to
increase their efforts around the professional advancement and promotion of people of color to leadership positions. Not out of a performative act but out of true belonging and understanding that representation matters in every sector of your organization.
With this mindset, All-En has been successful in using our years of experience to support organizations in rectifying their efforts in moving away from an oppressive lens by fostering inclusive environments. Ensuring that organizations’ blueprint embraces and embodies holistic leadership, client engagement, programming, and stakeholders while combating oppression and increasing diversity and highlighting the importance of “seeing all that seek services and all that they show up with”.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart is that I come from a family that isn’t unfamiliar with facing adversities including myself just like the survivors of violence that I help organizations support. I know what it feels like to have your intersectionalities speak for you before you can speak for yourself. Experiencing being othered created a platform for me to create a space for black survivors and survivors of underrepresented populations to be protected despite how society views them.
I hold a lot of titles I am a two-time college graduate, the youngest name Director of a large anti-violence organization, a founder and CEO of an anti-oppression consulting firm, a podcast host, a keynote speaker, a national trainer, a board member, I have worked alongside policyholders regarding the laws that affect survivors in the state of Ohio. I have working relationships with Judges, attorneys, law enforcement, and government officials. I have supported countless survivors of sexual violence, human trafficking, child abuse, and intimate partner violence through their criminal and civil court cases. With all of these accomplishments, I have walked into rooms and been othered, only being seen as a black woman or a black woman who is dyslexic. I used my othering to create a space to show stakeholders why it’s important to think outside of the box, reminding them of the power they hold, and that they must use said power to conduct real change, but they can not do that if they are using their oppressive and privileged lenses.
My otherness has given me the platform to express to practitioners the connection between physical, social, psychological, and economic status and the vulnerability of being a victim of crime which prompts the invisibleness of a person of color, or any marginalization. Creating this awareness within the anti-violence movement has awarded me the privilege to hold space at the state level around the importance of supporting all survivors and passing laws around sexual and domestic violence and community safety.

Doing this work is what I am most proud of because if I had followed the plan that I made for myself which was becoming a Dentist I would not have had as much fulfillment. Taking this journey has shown me that I have to be the practitioner that creates space for others who have been “othered”, show up for them, create space for them while also reminding those who have been charged with the mission of ending anti-oppression that there are people like me who have earned titled and experienced trauma that they did not ask for. I want to make sure that the generation that is coming behind me knows that there is always a seat for them which is what I am most excited about.

Was getting here easy absolutely not, it was filled with mountains and valleys but I know that I was placed here on this earth for those who don’t fit the box. Along this journey, I learned that grace is sufficient for me too, remembering to always tap into my inner Beyonce and rest if I must but never quit. If I could let the world know anything about Breanna Antoinette Allen, MPA, and All-En Consulting is that “I see everyone and all that they show up with and you are valued, seen, heard, and deserve protection”.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend were to come to Cleveland for a weekend. We are starting the day with breakfast at Dine Bar with mimosas. After that, we can sightsee, and tour the Christmas Story house, walk around the Solace Steps, or the contemporary art museum, and have lunch at Edison or, La Plaza Tacos
or Lakewood Food Truck Park after that maybe shop at Westside market and the local shops in Ohio City and grab ice cream from either Mitchels or Masons Creamery and end the day with dinner at Last Page.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Cecil Holston II [email protected] 419-279-0933 Cecil is doing amazing working with black men and youth who are navigating their trauma. He has created a therapeutic safe space for those who are engaging in his services to show up as their authentic self.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/breanna-allen-mpa-abaaa1169

Other: UncertainTEA Podcast:(Apple podcast) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncertaintea/id1740853388
UncertainTEA Podcast ( Spotify):https://open.spotify.com/show/0NEB3VGGl8gcSG3530HjoO?si=a56c57c761c24a04

Image Credits
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