Build Out Loud is making space for Black women to thrive
Build Out Loud supports Black women at every stage of their professional and personal journeys, whether you’re launching a business, growing a creative project, thinking about your career or simply exploring what’s next.
Our signature offerings (Co-Work and Chill, Deep Work Zone, Black Girl Play Dates, Creative Cafes, and Micro-Rest Retreats) are designed to make space for your focus, creativity, joy, and rest. Build with clarity, courage, and a community that has your back.
What is BUILD OUT LOUD about?
Connecting with Others
Sharing Resources
Learning while doing
Feedback and Accountability
Launched in late spring 2025, The Rest Reset was Build Out Loud’s pilot wellness program designed to help Black women reclaim rest as a radical, restorative, and joyful practice. Using Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s 7 Types of Rest framework, participants explore rest not as a luxury, but as a necessity for thriving in life, work, and community.
Building on the success and learnings from our pilot, The Rest Reset 2.0 will run across two cohorts in 2026–27, supporting Black women and gender non-conforming individuals in the Ottawa–Gatineau region through guided learning, practical rest practices, reflection, and collective care. Each week introduces a new rest concept through resources, interactive experiences, and community discussion, transforming rest from an individual act into a shared community practice.
Ready to make rest a practice this year? Register for our Summer or Winter cohort and join us for the next Rest Reset.
The Follow Through Season
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After a summer of slowing down, making space and exploring rest, we’re entering a new season together.
Follow Through Season is Build Out Loud’s 100-day soft productivity reset for those of us who have goals, ideas, projects and things we’ve been meaning to get to and are ready to actually move them forward.
This isn’t about hustling harder or filling every moment with productivity.
Over the next 100 days (Starting on Sept 22), we’ll focus on intentional action, sustainable momentum, accountability and following through on what matters to us, while still taking care of ourselves in the process.
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🍂 One in-person Launch event to kick off the 100 days together
💻 Five virtual Deep Work sessions (approximately one per month) where we’ll come together on Zoom, set intentions and dedicate focused time to moving our goals forward
🔥 Fireside Chats with conversations and insights to support your Follow Through Season, with recordings available in Heartbeat
🤝 Accountability Partners to help you stay connected, encouraged and moving forward
📚 Resources, prompts and tools shared throughout the 100 days to support reflection, planning and sustainable action
💛 Our Heartbeat community, where you’ll be able to access program resources, recordings, updates and connect with the Follow Through Season community
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📅 Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ 10:30 AM–12:30 PM
📍 Hub Market CaféComplete the form below to join us for Follow Through Season. Here’s to 100 days of making meaningful progress, supporting one another and following through, without burning ourselves out in the process.
Please note: there is no cost to attend any part of this programming. We are grateful for TD’s generous support in helping make Follow Through Season possible.
Check out our programming!
COWORK + CHILL
COWORK + CHILL is a 2 hour time slot to get STUFF DONE!
We spend the first 45 minutes talking about a subject/theme. The next 45 minutes we allow everyone to go into deep work - working on any project or tasks you bring with you! Once we are done, we will share takeaways and what we achieved while in deep work. This has been a fabulous way to connect and network!
DEEP WORK ZONE
Deep work (a concept popularized by author Cal Newport) is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time.
DEEP WORK ZONE is a dedicated space or getting important stuff done using deep work principles amongst other Black Women
BLACK GIRL PLAY DATE
BLACK GIRL PLAY DATE brings joy, self-care, community and creativity! We have designed some games to breathe some creativity, adventure and thoughtfulness into your day.
Why is Play important? Use play as an opportunity to unlock creativity, release stress, meet new people, laugh - you’ll forget it’s on Zoom!
Make a donation.
Keep our programs running by supporting us!
What People Are Saying
Vibes were on point from the visuals to the music and the instructions. I love the accountability of working with other people virtually. This gave me a specific schedule to carve out time for working outside of work.
— DEEP WORK ZONE attendee
Though virtual, get good energy from the other women who we are sharing space with. Nice to have dedicated time to look forward to.
— DEEP WORK ZONE attendee
The extended deep work time was incredibly useful and the scheduling during the week was also ideal. I often use these sessions to make progress on my side hustle or career growth focused work so having dedicated time outside of work hours where I am forced to be accountable and work (because I'm on camera with other amazing women) helps me make a lot of progress and avoid procrastination.
— DEEP WORK ZONE attendee
You created such a beautiful space to connect with other black women and get work done, thank you
— COWORK + CHILL attendee
The energy is always so good! It's a positive and judgement-free space for black women to come together, support and celebrate each other, learn and get things done
— COWORK + CHILL attendee
The content, connectivity and the flow of the session is worth waking up earlier on Saturday mornings. This session in particular helped me frame a lot of my intentions for this year.
— COWORK + CHILL attendee
Not only do we share inspiration, but we also learn about concrete tools and how to apply actionable strategies. This is such a gift!
— COWORK + CHILL attendee
It was energizing, motivating and encouraging. It was super helpful in allowing me to focus and give myself permission to get things done. But also to let go of what hasn't been working and strategize on the next thing.
— COWORK + CHILL attendee
I love the energy in the room. It's a nice, safe, productive bubble for me. Especially as I'm not working these days and have to purposefully find "useful" spaces.
— COWORK + CHILL attendee
Meet your Program Leads.
Meron Berhe
Raised in Ottawa, Meron is a Project Manager at Ontario Health, EIDA-R (Equity, Inclusion, Diversity and Anti-Racism). Meron studied at both Carleton University and uOttawa and holds a BSc in Health Science, a BSc in Psychology, Mental Health & Neuroscience and a certificate in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She obtained her PMP designation through the Project Management Institute in 2018. Additionally, she is the founder of Black Ottawa Connect! She is a passionate community leader that believes in connection as the starting point for education, engagement and empowerment.
Formerly, Meron was the co-founder of Bantu, an app that connected Black women with hair stylists who can style curly, kinky and coily hair. Meron was nominated for L’OREAL’s Women of Worth, RBC Women of Influence and BYA (Businesswoman of the Year) Awards.
Stacey-Ann Morris
Raised in Ottawa, Stacey-Ann is a Curriculum Consultant, who designs and assesses courses and programs related to work, life and learning. She holds a Master’s degree in Education & Technology from Harvard University and was awarded the Intellectual Contribution & Faculty Tribute Award in 2014. She has extensive curriculum and program development experience and has designed various courses at Harvard University, University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and Carleton University. Stacey-Ann is a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator.
Work with Meron & Stacey-Ann!
Do you want us to facilitate a session for your group? We can run a private session for your group, or create custom workshops for your needs. Fill out the contact form and we’ll be in touch.
Our Partners
The REST RESET 2.0 project is funded by the Foundation for Black Communities, with partial support from the Government of Canada. The Foundation for Black Communities was established in 2020 to support Black-led, mandated and serving charitable and nonprofit organizations across Canada. FFBC works to eliminate systemic barriers and advance the socio-economic outcomes of Black communities through sustainable funding sources and strategic partnerships.
We're pleased to announce that the Follow Through Season BUILD OUT LOUD programming is being supported by TD Bank Group. Through its Financial Security driver and Income Stability focus, TD supports initiatives that help people build skills, explore entrepreneurship and prepare for future opportunities.
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