The Green Book: A Safe Space Strategy (Guiding The Journey We're Still On)

A Signature Story by Alexis J. Smith, Founder of Safe Space Strategies, LLC​

The Green Book is a Safe Space Strategy like no other.

Here in October 2025, as we join Creative Suitland in a moment of pause, reflection, and celebration, the truth of the Green Book (both then and now) has deeply permeated the Safe Space Strategies ecosystem. We welcome the steeping.

The Green Book, as far as I can recall, was first introduced to me by Mrs. Diana Daniels, Board Member of the National Coalition on Education Equity; an advocate, educator, and historian whom I not only respect but deeply appreciate. Her unapologetic approach to advocacy has shown me what it looks like to protect the spaces our village must claim if we are to survive, let alone thrive.

At the time, I didn’t fully understand its weight. But over the years, its story began to take root in me; quietly at first, then deeply, stirring something that would later become the heartbeat of my work.

The Seed and the Soil

The Green Book was not born in comfort. It was planted in resistance; a seed sown in hard soil by people who refused to stop moving. It was printed quietly, distributed hand to hand, and it became the unseen infrastructure that allowed Black families to travel, gather, and dream freely under Jim Crow. It connected barbershops, beauty salons, gas stations, and homes that promised simple human dignity. It taught our people how to navigate danger without losing direction.  ​That’s what Safe Space Strategies is here to continue. We don’t print maps for highways; we help people find safe passage through seasons. Our work is spiritual and structural: building strategies that protect people, operations that sustain purpose, and ecosystems that keep legacy alive. Because the truth is, safety is still sacred work. ​When I imagine our ancestors opening that Green Book, searching for a safe place to rest; I’m reminded that the human need for safety hasn’t changed. We still want safe places to rest our heads. Safe places to nourish our bodies. Safe places to plan, to recover, and to dream beyond survival. 

Safe Space Strategies exists to help people build those places. We don’t construct every wall with our own hands, but we help strengthen the ecosystem: the families, nonprofits, and community leaders already doing the work; so that the ecosystem itself becomes sustainable. ​We call that the S.O.W. Method™ Strategy, Operations, and Wellbeing. It’s how we help people plant ideas that can grow without exhaustion, without confusion, and without losing the heart of why they started. Our goal isn’t simply success; it’s sustainability. Not just provision, but protection. Not only impact, but inheritance.