Women Who Care
Women Who Care in support of the Emerging Leaders Mentor Program met on Saturday September 18, 2010 at 10 am at the uptown library. It was an awesome gathering of Women in the Charlotte community “Who Care” about the plight of African American male teens. Special thanks to Ms.Woods who brought the women together for sharing and networking and who encourages all women to come out to future meetings..
In attendance was Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell the Special Guest Speaker. Judge McKoy has been a District Court Judge since 1998. She presides primarily in juvenile court. She encouraged women to share a kind word when you see a teen. By simply saying “you look handsome …. today you may change their lives.” She said “you would be surprised that some of them may never have heard a kind word.” She was so grateful for the lives she has been blessed to touch. She spoke of mothers who came to her and said thank you, she said “that is when she knows that she has impacted the life of a teen.” She encouraged the women to encourage others to come to the meetings and she was grateful for the people who had touched her life.
Ms. Woods of the Emerging Leaders, also spoke of how grateful she was that her grandmother, who was blind had cared for her until she was 17 and how much it had impacted her life. She also said “it does not have to be a paternal grandparent but find someone to sit at their feet.” It personally touched me as a parent whose children no longer have paternal grandmothers. It was as if God was soothing my heart as I listened on Saturday morning.
It was apparent that the women were feeling so encouraged and excited about coming together to discuss not only the plight but discussing the solutions. Women want the opportuntiy to come together and share and it was awesome to see the women present and simply networking. They were not just talking about why the plight exists, they were doing something to change the statistics and that is what truly matters!
Last but not least Truliant Federal Credit Union gave a donation of $1,000.00 to the Emerging Leaders Mentorship Program!!! They advised they recognized the importance of this organization and advised they were 1 of 30 selected out of 104 applicants. Ms. Woods thanked them and encouraged us all to support organizations such as this that support our community.
The meeting ended with many women stepping forward and joining the group for $10.00 annually and those who could not join were given the option to commit 3 months of their time to the organization by making phone calls, presenting ideas and various other tasks. This is the second meeting held for the Women Who Care. The meeting will be held more in the near future. Look forward to meetings quarterly as the group is now ready to move forward. If you were not able to be present but would still like to join you may go to the website to join, volunteer or make donations at:
http://www.elmp2010.com/