The BEE Collective /
Tricounty Play Collaborative
2025 Early Stage Venture Award Recipient
About the BEE Collective /Tricounty Play Collaborative
The Beloved Early Education and Care Collective (BEE Collective) /Tricounty Play Collaborative operates three interconnected programs serving Black families and communities in South Carolina. Their flagship program provides free, culturally responsive doula care and maternal support services to over 60 families annually, while the Nurturing Freedom Abolitionist Saturday School offers joyful, Afrocentric education for Black children ages 3-8. The Southern BEE Alliance Cooperative creates a worker-owned support network for BIPOC doulas and early educators, providing professional development and fair compensation pathways. Together, these programs create a comprehensive ecosystem of mutual aid, education, and community empowerment rooted in shared care and cooperative economics.
In South Carolina and across the South, Black and Brown children and families face systemic inequities from before birth through early childhood, with South Carolina ranking 8th nationally for Black maternal health disparities and leading in preschool expulsions due to educational bias, and lack of culturally responsive care. BEE Collective's work directly interrupts the cradle-to-prison pipeline by nurturing joy, cultural pride, and self-determination while shifting power to those most impacted—mothers, caregivers, birthworkers, and educators—through a cooperative ecosystem of care.
The BEE Collective / Tricounty Play Collaborative team consists of visionary educators, birthworkers, organizers, and healers rooted in the communities they serve, bringing lived experience and professional expertise through a shared leadership model. Co-Founder Adrienne Troy-Frazier oversees program strategy with over 35 years of experience as an early childhood educator and movement strategist, while Dr. Kim Archung leads curriculum development and the Nurturing Freedom Abolitionist Saturday School with expertise in African-centered education. Co-Founder Simone Lee directs reproductive justice initiatives as a Full Spectrum Doula, leading community-based doula services with a trauma-informed, culturally grounded approach. This intergenerational team serves as culture keepers, caregivers, educators, and freedom dreamers committed to building a just future for Black and Brown families in South Carolina and beyond.
Plans for the Program Year
This funding will allow the BEE Collective / Tricounty Play Collaborative to:
Deepen and formalize the Southern BEE Alliance—their childcare and birthworker cooperative that evolved from the organizing, advocacy, and healing work of the BEE Collective.
Support their vision to build a sustainable economic model for Black and Brown women in South Carolina through cooperative ownership and culturally grounded care.
Grow Nurturing Freedom Abolitionist Saturday School into a year-round early learning model that affirms Black children's cultural identity and self-esteem.
Fill a critical gap by enabling them to fund cooperative development roles and offer meaningful compensation for the four core cooperative leaders, who currently volunteer 20-30 hours monthly.
In addition, the the BEE Collective / Tricounty Play Collaborative team is also eager to learn how to:
Scale cooperative education and ownership models that sustain both people and place—especially in their region where early care infrastructure remains deeply under-resourced and inequitable.
Deepen their understanding of fund development, cooperative structures, and capacity-building strategies that empower worker-owners to lead with clarity, confidence, and collective accountability.
Develop diverse revenue streams, strengthen internal systems, and prepare their early childhood and birth justice programs for replication across the South will be key to advancing their vision.
Equip and propel their worker-owners toward a new level of sustainability, leadership, and impact.
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