ASCENSION SUPPORTS BWA’S
“BECAUSE WE CARE” INITIATIVE
One of the highlights of The Black Women’s Agenda, Inc.’s 40th Annual Symposium Workshop & Awards Luncheon was the announcement of a $50,000 donation to BWA made by Patricia A. Maryland, Dr.PH, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ascension Healthcare, Vice President, Ascension, and BWA’s 2017 Health Award recipient.
Ascension, the nation’s largest non-profit health system, is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. The company’s donation will support Because We Care – BWA’s healthcare initiative – which Dr. Maryland praised for the valuable service it provides to the African-American community. “It has been my life’s work to ensure that health care is seen as a universal and fundamental right for all,” she said. “One of my greatest wishes is to achieve a just and inclusive policy of healthcare that leaves no one behind – in our country, and, do we dare dream it – our world.”
The Because We Care initiative was established by BWA in 2014 as a series of free forums that provided Black women across the country with resources and tools to take better care of their loved ones and themselves. Last year, the organization expanded the initiative, introducing “Love Letters,” a critical information template that helps families begin the often-difficult conversation about providing and receiving care. During BWA’s 40th Annual Symposium Workshop, participants were encouraged to explore strategies that would enable them to live their best lives at every age.
“As women, providing care, compassion, and support to our families and loved ones is something that we do almost instinctively,” explained BWA President Gwainevere Catchings Hess. Because We Care reminds us that we must take care of our own physical, mental and emotional health with the same passion and sense of purpose.”
OTHER NEWS
Black Women’s Agenda Supreme Court Alert Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action
On Tuesday, April 22, 2014, in a 6-2 decision, the United States Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved change to the Michigan Constitution prohibiting the use of affirmative action in its state public college admissions. This decision upholds a 2006 Michigan ballot initiative where voters approved a prohibition on race-based admissions at state schools. This decision does not change the ability of schools in states that do not have such bans to consider race as one of the factors in their admissions process. Dealing a blow to affirmative action, the Court upheld the ballot initiative as one method of challenging race-conscious admissions policies.
SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH LEARN THE SIGNS, RECOGNIZE THE SYMPTOMS, GET HELP
A noted author once wrote, “People assume you aren’t sick unless they see the sickness on your skin.” This month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and The Black Women’s Agenda, Inc. (BWA) invite you to join the “I’m Into Mental Health” campaign supporting Mental Health Awareness Month by becoming Inspired, Informed, and Involved.
A HEART TO HEART ABOUT CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to our health. Take heart disease, for example. What you don’t know can prove fatal. Problems affecting the heart and its blood vessels are the number one killer of women in the United States.
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