|
2002
will mark the seventeenth year of Black Women United for Action
[BWUFA]. Little did I know that when we came together at the First
Baptist Church, Vienna Va. late September 1985, that we as
professional volunteers would make such a positive difference in the
relatively short time. But then again, I should have known that those
incredible founding visionary women, later joined by other dynamic,
dedicated, and committed ladies would combine their excellent talents
and skills to make a profound impact within our community.
Nine of the
twelve founding adults, a young student, and helper members remain actively involved today. As you read
further you will see that we have developed and implemented
comprehensive community programs designed to benefit our total
community with great enthusiasm to fulfill our mission statement as
we accept daily challenges and struggles in reaching our goals.
During BWUFA’s
last eight years, growth in every area of our development occurred
mostly through the generosity of dedicated volunteers, contributions
of office space through Unified Industries and other supportive
measures provided by Christian Relief Services. BWUFA was
awarded a small federal HUD grant for our adoption of an
"at-risk" neighborhood that has been a marked achievement
of our success. Our goal to strengthen our male resource volunteer
pool has been extremely successful with the: Lites,
Ahart, Hawkins, Blanchard, Fairfax, Bagnerise, Coates, Mott, Jones, Sims, Henri’,
Williams, Perry, Wise, Sweat, Hager, Wilson, Hunter, Adams, Fields,
Fortson, Browne, Daniels, Coleman, Cabral, and Warner
families leading the charge.
Our short-term
goals are to increase leverage with other BWUFA grants so that we can
expand our offices' staff and become more innovative in our community
outreach to be greater forces in the lives of "vulnerable"
families.
Our logo,
"Children’s – Youth Collage," includes young people who
have participated in various BWUFA projects, during the last three
years. Some youth are from our Mews project, our historical Canadian
trip, our office student interns, our Nikki Giovanni project, and our
Slave Memorial project.
One of our major
goals is to improve and enrich the lives of our youth. According to
the photos on the cover, we are making some progress.
Sheila
B. Coates
President/Founder
|
