Engage Her: Activating Women and MultiCultural Communities

Elena Kagan has become our new Supreme Court Justice. Women justices now comprise one third of our nation’s highest court. She is also the first justice in 40 years to be sworn in who has never been a judge. She is a great example of how people and women in particular can aspire and reach the highest echelons of their careers based on their merits, work production and strong leadership. She joins the court as they face critical social justice issues such as Immigration, Health Care reform and Same sex marriages. It is a great accomplishment and will provide another great role model for multicultural women and communities.

Today the U.S. Government announced that our country has more than 70 million or 26.7% of population’s adults are obese. It is considered to be a major public health threat by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control. Over 400,000 people were surveyed and the results and numbers are huge. In 9 states, over 30% of their population is considered obese. There is increasing concern and effort to address this situation as obesity is directly related to increased heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancers.

The survey also reported that multicultural communities were especially hard hit. African Americans were most likely to be obese with 36.8% of African American men and 41% of African American women were considered to be obese. Hispanics were reporting 30% obesity in their populations. With women providing most of the health care support, food preparation and education to our families, it is important that we begin to educate and change the way we eat and exercise within our families. Many multicultural families continue to prepare traditional cultural foods that use high fats, sodium, carbohydrates that can lead to increased obesity and related diseases. We need to explore utilizing substitute ingredients that are healthier and begin to address this obesity situation.

This further supports the work that First Lady Michelle Obama is undertaking with her national “Let’s Move” campaign aimed at seriously reducing Childhood Obesity in a generation. Let’s take a look at what our children, parents and families are eating and determine how we can begin to modify our eating and exercise habits in order to increase our families’ longevity and health.

The hearing to determine if Elena Kagan nominated by President Obama to be the next Supreme Court Justice opens this week. As she endures questions and inspection into her qualifications, records and opinions people will get to learn more about her positions on key issues that affect us all. If she is confirmed, she could have 25 years or more on the Supreme Court that would clearly have strong impact on issues facing our country. It is a crucial appointment for all of us that we need to watch closely and understand how her decisions and opinions will affect all of us for multiple decades. If she is confirmed, Elena Kagan would be the 112th Supreme Court justice and the fourth woman to sit on the nation’s highest court.

In yesterday’s mid term elections, women ran for major high profile positions and in many cases won. Women like Blance Lincoln in Arkansas, Meg Whitman in California and others across the country. There were winners in the Democratic, Republican and independents that demonstrated women coming out and getting success in high profile campaigns. While there is a strong anti-incumbent feeling among voters, there were incumbents and newcomers alike that won a spot moving forward. Voters will be watching these women carefully to see what issues they represent and solutions they suggest other than just being “anti-establishment” alternatives. Our economy is faced with many challenges including high unemployment, rising costs, and job creation issues. It will be important to see if these women can gain the trust of voters and come up with real solutions and resolve to put our country and states back on track.

The Engage Her Multicultural Middle School Girls Leadership Conference was an extraordinary success! The way I had envisioned the conference was nothing like the actual experience. I can recall standing in the courtyard during Saturday morning’s registration, captivated by the diversity of young girls. It was a very surreal moment for me – I was overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety at the same time.

Saturday morning we kicked off the conference with our first speaker, Loretta Walker, Vice President of External Affairs for AT&T, who spoke about her journey to leadership. We also had Dawn Valadez, director of the film, Going on 13 www.goingon13.com, which the girls really enjoyed watching. The students had a blast participating in interactive activities with About Face http://www.about-face.org/, focusing on the messaging of main stream media.

Sunday was our Youth for Youth day, where we had young leaders speak about how they’re impacting the world! Chanel Aleta Johnson just completed her internship at the White House, working in the West Wing with President Barack Obama’s  key officials. Amazing! We also had Apoorva Rangan, a 15 year old amazing young lady, who co-founded Eco-Company and is the co-mastermind of Project Jatropha http://projectjatropha.com/, which turns Jatropha seeds into bio-fuel to conserve India’s environment. I’m absolutely proud to say, we provided incredibly inspiring speakers.

It was wonderful to witness the students, so eager to learn and identify their leadership roles. Congratulations to Engage Her for bringing together multicultural women and girls committed to becoming our future leaders!

We did it again Engage Her team!

To help promote participation in the Census, we’re announcing our new Text Message campaign: Text FreeCensus to 53137 and register your name in a drawing to win a FREE iPod Touch! Starting today, we’re announcing it to all our partners and the public.

The Census forms have arrived and millions of people have been sending them in. However, early return rates indicate that there are many areas across the country where the participation rate is 50% or less. So what are you waiting for? You need to mail them back by April 19 to avoid having your home placed on a list to receive visits from Census representatives starting later this month.

Remember: Text FreeCensus to 53137 to register to win a FREE iPod Touch and receive periodic messages.