About Us

The Human Solidarity Project is a leadership development & consulting company for organizations that want to build stronger connections and create lasting solutions.

Our Story

After over a quarter of a century of being fully engaged in the social justice movement, we found ourselves feeling defeated. Despite years of marching, protesting, fighting the systems and often each other for the cause, we kept seeing the same headlines, and hitting the same roadblocks, again and again. We were trying to dismantle power, but we weren’t coming from a place of power in ourselves. Our social and political disempowerment became personal, as well. From depression to addictions to financial problems to toxic relationships, we all found ourselves drifting further from our potential. We realized that we had to search out the cause. We found there to be a conflict in our consciousness. Psychologists refer to this as cognitive dissonance. In other words, our self awareness was not merging with our social awareness. We decided to change that. Over time, we began to see our social consciousness and self awareness as one. As a result, we became physically healthier, began healing relationships with ourselves and others, found new love, outgrew addictions and became better and more present parents to our children. We also began to breach divides with people we never thought we would understand, and found common ground in a vision of human solidarity. In essence, we began to live fully in our power.

Meet The Team

Berwick Mahdi Davenport

CEO, Co-Founder

Berwick Mahdi Davenport, a.k.a. “M,” is a social justice, anti-racist facilitator with more than 30 years of experience. Mahdi is a pioneer in the field of Life Coaching. He is a coach who coaches coaches, facilitating and mentoring thousands of leaders from all over the globe. M is the prodigy behind the Ego Reduction Formula, which makes possible the integration of social and political consciousness with spiritual consciousness. M is a celebrated author and loving father of three very beautiful daughters.

Dustin Washington

COO, Co-Founder

Dustin is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of The Soul Focused Group. Dustin has over 25 years of powerful experience as a Racial Equity educator and social change leader. His work is grounded in the integration of social justice consciousness and spiritual consciousness. With unparalleled passion and dedication, Dustin serves his community as a brilliant and creative teacher, facilitator, spiritual life coach, and friend. He models relationship-first psychology, and his trademark charisma and heart-centered facilitation style inspires joy and transformational growth as he facilitates genuine connection between people. Dustin has facilitated Racial Equity and Leadership Development workshops all across the world including at The National School of Anthropology in Mexico City, The Nobel Laurette Summit in Warsaw, Poland and at The World Social Forum in Brazil. Dustin is a deeply spiritual and intuitive leader who strongly believes in the infinite transformational possibility and the inherent beauty and genius in every human being. Through a journey of courageous self-healing, he has recovered from a narrative of disempowerment to become the transformational leader he was always meant to be. He vulnerably shares his own experiences of recovery to inspire others to heal their toxic groundwater, move beyond their assigned Egos, and step into their authentic Light and Love. Dustin is also the Co-Director of The Human Solidarity Project, a sponsor for Adult Children of Alcoholics, basketball coach, martial artist, writer and poet. He is the father of three incredible boys – Calin, Dominick, and Elijah – and parents from his soul as he models for them what it means live and love from a place power.

Dr. Stephanie Jupiter

Senior Consultant

Dr. Jupiter is the founder of the Science of Life (SOL) University, where the curriculum is centered around purpose discovery, self-cooperation, self-unification, and “heal-thy self.” Dr. Jupiter applies her purpose to every aspect of her life, including working as a podiatrist, where she is intentional about bridging the gap between spirituality and medicine. Stephanie resides in Houston, Texas, and is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. The one thing that puts the biggest smile on her face is spending quality time with her two daughters.

Martina Tam

Facilitator

Martina Tam is a resident in family medicine at Kaiser Permanente of Washington in Seattle. In her work as a physician, she focuses on self-empowerment and increasing self-awareness of our body and mind to improve our health. She is especially interested in addressing the role of systemic racism in healthcare and raising providers' self-awareness of our biases and how they affect the care we provide. At Kaiser Permanente of Washington, she has helped initiate and lead anti-racism work in the residency. She brings a health-focused perspective to her trainings, but is also able to relate more broadly about making systemic change in a large corporation from her experiences at Kaiser Permanente.

Martin Friedman

Strategic Projects Coordinator, Senior Consultant

For the past 25 years, Martin has told the story of systemic, institutional, and structural racism with multiple anti-racist training organizations. Martin has co-founded several anti-racist organizations in Seattle, Washington, including the Coalition of Anti-racist Whites (CARW) and Seattle European Dissent. Martin is deeply committed to assisting people in their journey toward Ego reduction and discovering their full power. Martin organizes with anti-racist, white Jewish people to further understand the relationship between Jewishness and whiteness in America. He is a martial artist, filmmaker, writer, performer, and Yogi in training. Proudly from Cleveland, Ohio, he is newly married and currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has three beloved grandsons from a previous relationship.

Bonnie Cushing

Senior Consultant

Bonnie is a licensed clinical social worker, anti-racist organizer and educator, and a Lifecycle Celebrant. She has worked 30 years as a family-systems therapist and group facilitator. She has devoted 20 years to the movement for racial and social justice. She received her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from Adelphi University, her training as a family therapist from the Multicultural Family Institute of New Jersey, her anti-racist training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and her training as a Cleric Without Borders from the Celebrant Foundation and Institute of North America.

Stephany Ashley

Senior Consultant

Stephany Ashley is a writer, organizer and advocate working to reduce the immediate harms of poverty, stigma, and criminalization, while transforming the conditions that create them. Currently a trainer with the Soul Focused Group and Board Chair for the TGI Justice Project, she believes it is possible to solve homelessness, end racism, and radically reimagine the world we live in.

Tirza Barnes

Facilitator

Tirza is the CEO of Tirza Motivates, LLC., a professional training, personal development, and coaching company. With nearly two decades of experience, Tirza has trained, consulted, and coached thousands of non-profit professionals. She facilitates organizational change initiatives and develops strategies to strengthen program design and services. She also develops and conducts workshops on a wide range of topics that improve employee performance and increase engagement, including group dynamics, wellness in the workplace, DEI, unconscious racial bias, and its effects. Her methodology is founded on the belief that when well-being, harmony, kindness, and self-expression are encouraged at work, individual and team performance are optimized, and help build a successful organization that achieves goals and outcomes.

Anuar Velazquez

Facilitator

Anuar Velazquez has close to 10 years of police experience. During his time as a police officer, Anuar advocated for change in the Criminal Justice system to reduce the inequities. He has experience in community organizing and Social Justice advocacy. Anuar is now a School Counselor at the High School level where he continues to work on solving for inequities. Throughout his personal and work experience, Anuar has come to truly see the benefits of trauma/racial trauma healing for the purpose of creating a healthier version of oneself. Anuar enjoys being outdoors, he is an adventure seeker and is a loving father to Tali.

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