Meaningful Mothers Day

This month’s Book Club read is Eloquent Rage by Brittany Cooper. It’s an incredibly thought-provoking look at Cooper’s experience growing up as a Black women in the US. The book focuses on the intersectionality of being both Black and a woman.

Cooper describes the very specific “mundane magic” it takes to be a Black mother “making a way out of no way.”  She argues “the unfair part is that folks are far more concerned with policing how Black women carry the baggage than with reducing the load hoisted upon us in the first place.”

World Immunization Week

This week, April 24-30 we celebrate World Immunization Week.

In the past, this week has been used to get the message out about the importance of vaccines and immunization.

This year, there’s more to the story. We are in the middle of a vaccination effort that needs the whole world to participate. And that includes ensuring the whole world has access.

The worldwide pandemic is keeping us apart, and we cannot come together until we work together. This year’s theme is “Vaccines Bring us Closer”.

During this week, there is something very specific you can do to take action: Please find time to learn more about vaccines and immunizations.

To learn more about vaccinations and immunization, and the need for worldwide reach, visit https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-immunization-week/2021

A Guide to Being Gutsy

For March Services in Action’s Book Club learned about Gutsy Women. There are some stories that show an ordinary act having an extraordinary outcome. These are the most inspirational stories. Sure, in some occasions people had privilege, wealth, or position that ensured a seat at the table or access to someone who could catapult an idea, but in many cases, it was just one person’s decision to act, and ability to organize, and persistence. Here are a few examples:

Juliette Gordon Low heard about the Boy Scouts in the UK and started Girls Scouts in the US. This afterschool program turned into a generational life-long movement, with an alumni of 59 million US women.