2017 brings about a new administration with a new agenda.

Community activists and advocates, journalists, organizers, STEM professionals are all experiencing a call to work even harder to make life better for those in need. Women of color, especially, face unique challenges in education, employment, healthcare access, housing, and more.

How can we harness our talents, skills, strengths, and power to work together for change? 

How can we make an impact in both our communities and our government?

What are the next steps in "The Resistance" and what role will women of color play in the fight against poverty, hunger, and violence?

Join us for this important conversation and learn more about how YOU can make a difference.

The EAT Cafe

3820 Lancaster Avenue

March 4, 2017

2:00p.m.

Refreshments will be served

About the Panelists:

Jumoke K. Dada is a technology and strategy consultant with a passion for education and community service. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer and Information Sciences and real estate license certificate from Temple University. With over 10 years of professional experience in corporate I.T., real estate, and marketing, Jumoke is a renaissance woman. Additionally, she has always been a woman of action as evidenced through her work on nonprofit boards and through the execution of programs like Project ALOE, a beauty drive and sendoff event for college bound girls. She has been featured in several media outlets including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Tribune, Black Enterprise Magazine, CW Philly 57,Clear Channel radio, and more, as a result of her work. In March 2017, Jumoke is set to launch her first online platform for women in tech. To learn more about her work, see her full portfolio at DADAverse.org

Laniece Williams is an award winning public relations professional with a background in nonprofit communications. Laniece has overseen rebranding projects, implemented comprehensive integrated marketing communications plans and led organizations as they worked to set their policy and communications agendas. She's been featured on NPR, quoted in the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer as well as written a a column for USA Today. As a founding member and organizer with Black Lives Matter-Philadelphia, Laniece manages the chapters operations and communications needs. Laniece is the Senior Communications Coordinator for a global design, engineering and consulting firm where she leads all US public relations and communications activities.

Previously, Laniece was the Communications Manager for Truth in Reality a nonprofit whose mission is to change the imbalanced media depictions of women of color, especially on violent reality television. Through education, research, public awareness campaigns, social media engagement, strategic partnerships, and public commentary they aim to change society's acceptance of gender-based violence and ultimately reduce its incidence in the Black Community.

Laniece has a BA in Public Relations from Hampton University and a MS in Strategic Public Relations from Virginia Commonwealth University. She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her four-year-old son Eli and fiancee Josiah.

 
Sofiya Ballin is a features reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and blogger for Huffington Post.  She began her writing career at 17, crafting personal stories about growing up natural for natural hair website, The Coil Review, which ended after 7 years.
An award-winning journalist at Temple University, she also reported and edited for JUMP Philly music magazine, contributed pieces to Ebony.com, became a blogger for Huffington Post, interned at the Philadelphia Daily News, and freelanced for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ballin joined the Inquirer’s features staff in 2014 after graduation. During her short tenure, she has interviewed mainstream artists and introduced readers to up-and-coming talents, written about trends such as cuffing season and the emergence of Black Twitter, covered major news events such as local Ferguson and Baltimore protests, photographed and produced digital fashion features, launched interview series with RECPhilly called "Free Thinkers, " created the Black History Untold series and contributed opinion pieces that speak to the millennial soul. Ballin aims to humanize all walks of life through mentorship and her work.
 Angela Nike Sutton is a member of Witnesses to Hunger from Philadelphia and the mother of two boys. She receives SSI-disability because she was shot in the abdomen when she was a teenager. She supports her family with her SSI check and a SNAP benefit. Angela has survived many challenges in her life—she has experienced many kinds of violence, and she was homeless as a teenager. She is working towards a bachelor degree so that she can start a career and be able to support her family without worrying about how to stretch out her SSI check for the month. Despite all her struggles, Angela has become a leader for change with Witnesses to Hunger.  

About Witnesses to Hunger:

Witnesses to Hunger is a project about the participation and action of those who know firsthand the experience of raising a child on a limited income. The photographers ("Witnesses") of the project are mothers and caregivers of young children who used digital cameras to frame the issues most important to them and to their children. Exhibiting their photographs to the public is only the first step in this dialogue. They are using these photographs and their life experiences to inform policymakers and make changes in their own communities. They are living testimony of the need for legislation to put an end to hunger and poverty.

All too often, policies and programs are created without the participation of the people who are most affected. These moms, the true experts, focus their lenses on their children, on their neighborhoods, on their daily grinds at work and on welfare. They are teachers with valuable lessons to impart. Each of us is invited to look and listen for their guidance.