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Why Work with Women and Girls?

 "As women, we have been taught to always compete with each other and compare ourselves on the basis of the way we look and act. Working with each other closely kills that way of thinking, empowers us and helps us create together in an environment that we feel safe in."

Therefore, working with women and girls not helps me to empower them to feel good about themselves, but to heal themselves from trauma and other experiences that they may encountered. Organizations such as Esther Productions, Inc and the African American Women's Resource Center allowed me to work with a diverse set of women and girls from different backgrounds and sexual orientation beliefs. 

In 2004, I began to work with Esther Productions, Inc and from 2017 - 2018, I provided services for the African American Women's Resource Center. 

Esther Productions, Inc. is dedicated to using a variety of vehiclesā€”traditional and nontraditionalā€”to develop communities throughout the United States and Europe. It was created in 2004 by Jonetta Rose Barras,  award-winning journalist and author of Whatever Happened to Daddyā€™s Little Girl?Some of its programs include:

THE FATHERLESS DAUGHTER  EMPOWERMENT PROJECT 
The Fatherless Daughter Empowerment Project is a constellation of programs that include The Fatherless Daughters Speak Out, Discovering Meā€¦Without You: An Annual Personal Essay Contest,  and The Daughters Circle.

ā€‹Specifically designed for teen girls ages 13 through 17, The Fatherless Daughters Speak Out guide participants to the path of self-actualization using fun arts-based interactive and intervention techniques. These sessions include PaintSpiration; MoveOn, and the Summer Writing Institute.

ā€‹Discovering Me...Without You: An Annual Personal Essay Contest is for Teen girls 14-17 who live in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Region. It is designed to aid in the healing of fatherless girls by using the personal essay to help them discover their strengths and resilience. Cash prizes are presented to the winners and the writings of all finalists are published in a chapbook that is released in the spring of each year.

ā€‹THE NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK was created around the belief that family is the institutional foundation for everythingā€”the individual and society. If it is weak or unstable, then the individual, without interventions, also will not possess the necessary strength of character and purpose to achieve in life. A community without cohesive, strong and loving families will be marked by various socio-economic and debilitating challenges. The program is held each June and features an array of experts, practitioners and creative healers whose focus is to assist individuals, families and communities in becoming their best selves through a reconciliation system as developed by jonetta rose barras.  

For more information about Esther Productions, Inc, please visit http://www.estherproductionsinc.com.

https://www.facebook.com/estherproductionsinc/
 
The African American Women's Resource Center, under the direction of Ms. Cassandra Burton, is an educational and cultural service center. Our mission is to develop, support, and maintain policies, programs, projects, and activities that inform, educate, empower and celebrate women and girls of the African Diaspora and their communities.

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