World Read Aloud Day

Hello Family,

I hope all is well in the new year for everyone….

During last summer while attending the SOS Conference and March, I had the pleasure of meeting Ruby Veridiano; Lit Corps and Social Media Ambassador for an organization called Lit World.  She was a featured speaker at a conference session I attended on education and it’s role in world literacy. I felt an instant connection with Ruby. Her warm and personable demeanor made it very easy for me to engage in conversations going on during our conference session. I admired her passion and drive as she discussed her role in Girls LitClubs in NYC. I was just really impressed with her and the organization she represents. (oh, and not to mention; too, she told me she is a native of one of my favorite cities on the west coast (shout out to Oakland, CA) (smile)  Anyway, Ruby and I became instant friends….

 

Connecting the Dots..Community Violence, Chronic Health, Student Achievement

Hello Family,

Lately, I’ve been doing some consulting work with a DC based non-profit organization involved in chronic health care in the DC metropolitan area. While attending a meeting of many high level health care professionals, a discussion about community violence came up.

At first, I thought why would community violence be brought up in a meeting of health care professionals, then, I realized (duh…) of course community violence would be considered a chronic health care concern in the city, and in fact, Ray Michael Bridgewater, CEO of The Petworth Assembly recently stated, “discussions around community violence have a very real place in chronic health care in the District of Columbia and the nation.” Ray continues, “I noticed that the data coming out of HHS and CDC each year, injury and violence is consistently listed on the top ten list of chronic health care concerns