So thank you all good afternoon again my name is Antoine cook I’m with AARP California um and um thank you all for for taking time out of your day to join us for this conversation about the legacy of black fraternities and sororities in the state of California
Um and so I am going to just do a quick introduction for our moderator and then I will be stepping out of the way so our moderator this afternoon is a Woman by the name of Rhonda Smith she is the executive director of the California black Health Network
Um a really strong partner that we started working with last year around black Health Equity in California and um and we really look forward to doing a lot more with them so I am going to pass the Reigns over to Rhonda and get out of the way so Rhonda thank you Antoine as
Antoine mentioned I’m Rhonda Smith the executive director of the California black Health Network we work to Advance Health Equity for all black Californians and we are so proud of our partnership with AARP and especially because we’re into our second year of that relationship so looking forward to
Continuing the work with you Antoine and do a lot of great things this year um so I want to welcome you to an important discussion today on the legacy of the divine nine in California obviously organized by AARP California and this year aarp’s Black History Month theme is really focused on WE Thrive
Together and so bringing greater attention and awareness to the efforts of black fraternities and sororities here in California and how their work and communities across the state impact individuals and communities such as yourselves and especially where people live work play and I like to say often slay um and so although they’re very
Organizations that are present here today what everyone brings to the table in the discussion is that working together for the benefit of residents in those communities and definitely for black Californians so we encourage you to type your questions in the chat as we move along uh during our discussion
Today if you see somebody that you know give them a shout out if you want to like comment on anything that one of the panelists may say feel free to do that we want this to be an interactive conversation for today um so before we launch into the panel
Um we’d like to do a quick poll so Antoine can you um set things up so first question is do you know what the term divine nine means yes no or maybe so we want to see who is well versed in the Greek uh scene in in California or in general
And then the second question is are you a member of a black fraternity or a sorority that’s pretty much straight yes or no wait a couple minutes here okay I think we have everybody so so yes most people on the call today uh are familiar with the term the divine nine
Um I think I know what that means but we can find out for sure from our Catalyst today so that we all are on the same page about that and then in terms of being a member of the sorority or fraternity it looks like uh the majority
Of the people are not but we can talk about um if you’re interested in learning more or becoming a member of uh Greek fraternity of sorority then um you’ll have information on how you can follow up and connect to learn more about how that process works now let’s
Get started with our panelists and joining us today for this important discussion is Trina Lee knight from the National panhellenic Council Los Angeles chapter where she is the President we also have Wilma wilda Tillman from the Delta Sigma Theta sorority Jonathan Green from Alpha Phi Alpha and
Rome Mubarak from Omega sci-fi so sure all Greek names that you are familiar with so as we get into this conversation for today please again use the chat to drop in any questions comments you can use the reaction um buttons If you want to clap or just give a smile or whatever emotional
Reaction you feel is warranted and so each panelist will have about five minutes to share the work that you’re doing in your community and the impact that you’ve been having um uh during your tenure as part of the organization so I want to start with Trina Lee Knight so Madam president
Um can you tell us a bit about the National panhellenic Council how you’ve worked with and continue to work with black communities and fraternities and sororities here in California uh yes so I certainly Rhonda hello good afternoon everyone so the National panhellenic Council is incorporated and is composed of nine
International Greek letter sorority and fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated which was founded in 1906 at Cornell University Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated founded 1908 at Howard University Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated founded 1911 in Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated founded 1911 at Howard University Delta Sigma Theta helped to simulated sorority
Incorporated found in 1913 at Howard University Phi Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated founded 1914 at Howard University Zeta by Beta sorority Incorporated founded 1920 Howard University Sigma gamero sorority Incorporated founded in 1922 at Butler University and we also have Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Incorporated founded 1963 at Morgan State University
Now the Napa panhellenic Council also known as nphc was founded on May 10 1930 at Howard University in Washington DC in a chartering organization at that time were Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated Delta Sigma Theta sorority Incorporated Zeta Phi Beta sorority Incorporated Kappa Alpha Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated in Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity Incorporated in 1931 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated Phi Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated joined the council followed by Sigma gamma rho sorority in 1937. and the npac Incorporated in 1937 under the laws of the state of Illinois Iota Phi Theta of Fraternity Incorporated joined the mphc as its ninth affiliate member in 1997.
The purpose of the mphc shall be to Foster Cooperative actions of its members in dealing with matters of mutual concern to this end the mphc promotes the well-being of its affiliate fraternities and sororities facilitates The Establishment and development of the local councils of the mphc and provides leadership training for its constituents
Now that’s a little bit about the national panhand Hellenic Council the National Council I am a member of the excuse me of the local chapter known as the National panhellenic Council Los Angeles or in phdla the mpscla is composed of the divine nine organization that I listed earlier
That are located in Los Angeles County our purpose is to consider questions problems and programs of mutual interest to its members to facilitate and coordinate intra-councils educational Civic cultural and social activities and um in some of the activities that we’ve done as a as a council we’ve partnered
With our members provide voter awareness and registration participated in a social action form hosted by Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated during their 93rd Far West Regional Conference and the discussion centered around the Black Agenda with a focus on voting rights we’ve participated in the Long Beach Juneteenth celebration where we have the
Opportunity to educate the community on who we are and what we do as the mphc as well as showcase the individual organizations that comprise the mph CLA and many of whom were able to speak with parents and youth about their youth programs as well as other programs that they sponsor
We’ve worked as a partner at the Gridiron celebrity Hoops fundraiser benefiting Julie’s kids which is a charity whose mission is to protect Empower and enrich the lives of vulnerable youth place in foster care and Child Protective Services we’ve also represented at the first ever Alabama State University HBCU Community Day by educating the
Community I want who we are and the wonderful work that our organizations do and giving and we give scholarships to our membership that they in turn disseminate in their community in the communities that they serve most importantly um the mph CLA supports the activities at the end of the individual organizations
As more can be accomplished when we join together for a common goal than a loan that’s just a little bit about nphc as well as our local chapter here in the Los Angeles area with regards to who we are our purpose and what we do great thank you so much president Lee
Knight um you said one thing that I was actually really surprised um to learn and I assume maybe like some others on the call today that all of the Divine nines were founded at a historically black University and you mentioned Cornell and I think Indiana I was I
Wasn’t aware of that so thank you for dropping a little bit of knowledge today I don’t know if you want to comment on that but I did I guess back in 1906 I didn’t expect Cornell would be integrated or would have black students there well actually um I’ll let brother Jonathan Green talk
A little bit more about that because that’s his fraternity and I know that um he’s going to talk more about that but um although um our fraternities and sororities are historically black organizations founded at historically black um University and colleges we comprise a variety of ethnicities
Um if we’re not just only comprised of of black people African-American individuals and I believe that came up in last week’s um Zoom as well but what’s what’s great is that what I find is the fact that we all work together for a common goal and that’s basically serving the community
We may wear different colors so I represent Delta Sigma Theta sorority Incorporated the best sorority ever but we may wear a different colors and and may perhaps we may go about things a little differently but when it comes right down to it we all do the same thing we all help the community
And we’re all there for one another so um we may spend time spend time with other organizations so I I make the time with the akas or the Zetas or what have you and we’re still sisters we’re still working together towards the economy and I think that’s amazing
Thank goodness right uh wilda Tillman is also your star war otherwise I’m sure she would debate you on that about being the best right and so on that note I would um like to uh welcome Wilma Tillman um to share her perspective on what Delta Sigma Theta sorority specifically
Is doing in the community here in the LA area so will the uh take the stage all right thank you and thank you for having me so I’ll just give you a little background um or a quick background of myself and my uh my beautiful sorority and the
Impact that we’ve had so I’ve been a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority for 22 years and on April uh 22nd I’ll be celebrating 23 years in this illustrious sorority I am active and financial member of the Los Angeles alumni chapter where I serve as the first vice
President my chapter president is none other than sir Kimba and Miles She is a president of our Dynamic and dedicated chapter which has been a fixture in the fabulous Far West in LA county since our historic chartering on June 16 1929 by 10 trailblazing charter members one of which includes our beloved
Founder wordy Blackwell Weaver Delta Sigma Theta sorority was founded on the campus of Howard University on January 13 1913 by 22 tenacious and four thinking Collegiate women on January 13th we celebrated 110 years of Sisterhood scholarship service social and social action we have over 300 thousand initiated members and
Over 1 000 chapters worldwide we have chapters and of course in the United States but Canada Japan Germany the Virgin Islands Bermuda Bahamas Jamaica West Africa southern Africa and the public of Korea our national president and saw Elsie cook Holmes we are an organization of college educated primarily African-American
Women committed to the development of members and to public service with our primary focus on the black community the foundation of Delta’s program rests on our five programmatic thrust the Los Angeles alumni chat uh Los Angeles platform are for this biennium is torch bears for Delta fortitude engagement empowerment and evaluations
Which is right in line with the platform of our national uh headquarters which is forward with fortitude engaging our Sisterhood and empowering our communities evaluating the impact and so our fire programmatic thrust is educational development Economic Development our Economic Development we have three um primarily Focus that we have one is
Called the Dr Betty Shabazz Delta Academy and that Academy focuses on girls facing academic failure uh dealing with low self-esteem and our primary goal for that program is to prepare young girls for full participation as leaders in the 21st century we also have the Delta gems program the focus is growing and
Empowering myself successfully the Delta gems program offers a road map for College and Career planning through activities that our local chapters provide we provide opportunities of self-reflection and individual growth and the age group for the Delta gems is age 14 to 18 and 18 if the young person
Is a current high school student we also have the embody program and the embody program stands for empowering males to build opportunities for development and Independence embodying dresses issues related to Stem education cultural efficiency cultural and self-efficiency Leadership physical and mental health healthy lifestyle choices character building relationships college readiness fiscal management
The age for embody for our uh youth is 11 to 18 and 18 of course if that uh student is currently in high school another part of our five programmatic thrust is our International awareness and involvement and that program strives to promote activities and participation to support issues affecting women and children worldwide
We also have our physical and mental health that’s a part of our far programmatic thrust and that promotes our health education programs health fairs and Provisions for health care services and lastly we have our political awareness and involvement programs and the focus is to enhance political awareness and eradicate uh injustices
That uh definitely targets African-American people so this just captures a little snapshot of the impact that um the Los Angeles alumni chapter has on the communities that we service great thank you very much Wilder um I was also surprised to hear that there are actually programs that Focus not
Just on females but also males in the community so I applaud you for that work and um curious to hear a little bit more about um some things you might additional things you might want to share about the impact of that on some of our young males in the community
Yeah definitely so uh the young males that we currently have in our community um we are partnering with other community other services our fraternities and also 100 black men to also you know to bring a good balance to the boys uh we were just on the college
Uh Campus of USC where we had a stems program there this past weekend and it was um well received by the the young person and fam and their family and so we have a lot of great programming that Target our boys but we do walk a alongside of the men because that that
Does show that um you know a good balance in between the the two and also there’s a lot of single female households who raise young boys to be active productive citizens but then we do walk alongside the families who need a little bit more mentoring for those boys
Great thank you for all the great work that you do in the community um and for programs like that that help uplift our young men which is so much needed thank you yeah okay and Jonathan Green um from alpha alpha fraternity maybe can tell us a little bit more about when you
Get to through your introduction about the whole um starting point for the organization or the fraternity at Cornell so I’ll hand it over to you hello corporate a lot of Roundup first good afternoon everyone uh Alpha opportunity we get started in 1906 on the campus of Cornell University uh up
There in New York the reason the fraternity was founded was because our seven Jewels our Founders they tried to join the fraternities that were there on the campus of Cornell and I do the segregation and other things they weren’t allowed to be participants and then they also noticed that you know
Due to the bonding that uh you know the Caucasians students at that were in fraternities that you know they provided steady groups and allowed the students to join so they decided that our people needed this and that’s why it started with seven and now the 1906 and of course it uh
Spread our our number one chapter the first chapter which is Alpha chapter is that Carnel and then of course beta chapter the second chapter that Howard University which is our link to the hbcus but that was the reason the whole fraternity was started but because like I said it was just a need
And uh like I said it had to be filled some of our programs are go to high school go to college so we have a number of stem programs uh that we help we’re linked with Dominguez High School because my chapter is Iota say the Lambda we’re located in Compton California
So we try to service wherever our chapters are the same with other organizations we try to make an impact in our immediate area uh my chapter has been the chapter of the year four times and the reason why it could be uh like did we go out to our
Our utmost to try to help the students so we’ve helped the Dominguez High School uh there’s a program we run over it’s called Project Excel this is Los Angeles Council of a black Professional Engineers at us over Cal State Dominguez Hills and that’s where we work with students male and female
From uh second grade all the way up to high school and uh so we have classes preparement mathematics science chemistry with whatever else they have enough so we have a SAT preparation course because even though we hear in the news that they’re going to get rid of these
Tests we still see that they use them as a metric so that way the students need to be prepared our next main program is a voteless people is hopeless people we’ve worked with uh the mphc that’s our own group with all these organizations uh to make
Sure we register votes and then the show that uh we’re not just trying to just register people uh we have the current mayor Rex Richardson of Las Vegas of Long Beach this is the first black mayor ever of the City of Long Beach California he’s a member of our chapter
Also uh Al Austin uh he just left the Long Beach city council he’s a member of uh our chapter and even though uh he’s a member of another organization uh the man I lived in the city of Carson and uh Juwan Hilton he’s the uh a member of Kappa
Alpha Psi he’s the uh mayor of uh well he’s a bear Pro Temp and also uh the delt the mayor of the city of Carson uh Louis Davis home she’s a member of uh Del she’s a Delta also so the thing is is that as you find as
You go through which is interesting about Greek life is that the more you see the people that they’re usually in charge and organizations somewhere you’re gonna find and especially if they’re African-American you know see they they came through the divine nine and that’s just part of the kind of unity
Uh because I know even myself the last couple of jobs I’ve had you know I’ve known you know Brothers of the fraternity and I mean even though I have a master’s degree I didn’t even have to fill out applications so I just got a job just because
They know me so I think that’s the thing is the networking and that’s what people don’t understand I mean they just see the other things but the beauty of all our organizations is the networking and how it uh establishes and then it’s the last thing I just want to mention we uh
We’re also making sure that we’re helping the community as far as feeding every third uh Friday over at the Center of Hope in Inglewood uh we feed the community so uh they’re able to pull their cars up about each week we feel about late month I should say about 150
Cars I don’t know how many families that feed but I guess you multiply that by five that’s what like 750 families a month we uh try to feed to make sure that they’re uh food’s efficient and I didn’t want to take up uh all the time but that’s just a little about uh
Alpha file Fraternity Incorporated great thank you Jonathan and so just curious about um you talked about an amazing program that you all have at Dominguez Hills right and I think it’s great that you go back to I think you said second or third grade um like I said I’m a substitute teacher and
A tutor and you’d be amazed that uh the prison rates are built on uh I know here in California from what I hear from politicians on third grade level so it’s a man it’s amazing that a third degrader decides whether and actually when you’re eight years old you’re waiting in the
Third grade that you’re deciding whether you’re going to like school and choosing what your future is going to be I’m glad to hear that I was actually just having a conversation with someone the other day about instead of you know uh projecting the number of Prisons needed based on the pipeline the prison
Program why not have an intervention to expose kids at that age to Career options and you’re doing exactly that so happy happy to hear that and congratulations I love to connect with you maybe outside about that um and some other things one last thing I don’t want to think at
The time I think the other thing we need to do more of it we have to help the parents because many of the parents you know the child just does what the parent says and if the parents says hey this didn’t do me any good then why should I
Continue so I think I know our programs help the children I think we also need to make sure we include the parent because I think if they have their help then they can understand their you know they’re wounded so we can help heal their wounds then they can help the
Child also yeah well it does take a village to as a child right um so thank you very much for that and just a reminder to drop your questions in the chat if you have any and we’ll get to them uh shortly and so last but certainly certainly not least is Rome Mubarak
Um Rome is from Omega Sci-Fi fraternity and Rome can you talk a little bit about the legacy of the Omega Sci-Fi fraternity and how you all are active in the community absolutely thank you so much for having me uh as well um Rhonda uh so Omega sci-fi maternity
Was founded uh Friday November 17 1911. uh at Howard University uh and founded by four four men um Oscar James Cooper Ernest they were just Frank Coleman and Edgar Amos love uh Ernest ever just was the actual uh uh faculty member uh who took the three
Students under his wing uh to help uh organize and uh establish the fraternity in 1911. um and ever since then you know service has been our key for the community in assisting uh our our community members particularly children uh from uh from as early as I would say uh five to six
Years old in kindergarten all the way up through college uh the the organization it has at least here in California I would like to sort of highlight uh one of the flagship chapters uh that has really really taken the major Giant Steps uh and quite similar to brother
Green and and the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity regarding the the stem program uh the science technology engineering and Mathematics uh Zeta wrote so they were founded in 1962 here in Los Angeles they have actually Four programs that are really just amazing programs and and I think um they were initiated essentially
Because of the the decrease in what what we saw as I I grew up in EOP program the uh equal opportunity program at the Cal State system uh so they wanted to put together a a few programs that would help funnel and channel a lot of our
Children in in the last few strongholds here in Los Angeles of of African-American kids uh to be funneled and channeled right into college uh so they have the earnings that were just Saturday uh summer Marine Science Program that’s for grades 4 through 12. they have a um a thriving male mentoring program that’s
For grades 6 through 12. uh and they also have a scholarship program for college and Beyond now the College uh the scholarship program uh they give away 46 scholarships a year at 5 500 a piece uh that’s uh almost a quarter of a million dollars in scholarship funds
Going to our children here in the city of Los Angeles uh there’s also a youth in college at Ambassadors High School to college program where we ask that a lot of our high school students be aids to our elementary school children we also provide distance learning uh we we do
Zoom for elementary school children tutoring and we also have face-to-face tutoring for high school students as well uh the Saturday Science Academy consists of a Saturday the third the third Saturday of the month uh is typically classroom instruction uh and it’s typically held on the campus the same campus uh Cal State University
Dominguez Hills uh where the students receive education on designated stem topics and on the fourth Saturday there’s a field trip and That Could That Could range from anywhere from going to the Aerospace Center uh going to museums anything that kind of we can kind of relate to children that are that are uh
Into into that that particular science or mathematics or engineering we try to get them to be Hands-On uh in learning those those particular mediums we also have um oh gosh we’ve got so many other programs here we’ve got at least at least 1200 students are impacted by these programs
Per year and that number is growing we spend over 95 000 total student exposure hours uh to date since the Inception of these programs uh and I’d also like to highlight uh Lambda Omicron and that’s my my chapter that I belong to uh it was established in 1946 uh here in the city
Of Los Angeles we do and also a number of things working directly with EOP uh because as you some of you may know that are that are listeners here on the program uh back in the 80s uh we had a lot of uh Summer Bridge type programs to basically uh funnel in African-American
Children and Latino children to the Cal State system well that number has diminished considerably as it has been uh the underfunded and or defunded uh and so we’re trying to take it upon ourselves to reach out to various schools uh Target those students that
Are on the cusp of uh of being good to Great uh showing initiative uh and getting them uh on that on that that uh trajectory early on uh so we’ve got again we’ve got a myriad of programs uh we have a scholarship award ceremony
That we do once a year some of you may remember the Starlight ball that started in 1948 uh we’re actually bringing and there’s a Resurgence so we’re actually bringing that back as well this year really looking forward to it and there is a scholarship component for many of
The students here in the LA Basin that we’re also targeting um so there’s just a lot of various programs that we really want to highlight and we want to try and especially for white institutions we don’t have the luxury of hbcus here on the West Coast so we really are trying
Our best to Target and and capture as many of our students as possible and away from the um the uh what do you call it the uh prison prison to pipeline School of prison pipeline sort of sort of thing that’s been going on over the course of
The last 25 years uh so that that’s in a nutshell and and to sort of summarize that that’s sort of what we’ve been doing uh is to curtail that those numbers uh and make sure that our kids are well taken care of I’ll yield my time and for any questions thank you
Thank you very much um for all that wonderful information and you know I think um I grew up in a household with two Greek parents my dad was a queue and my mom was a Delta and um I know just in their circle of friends and the community that I grew up
In education was important and especially for their generation it was a way up and out and it sounds like that’s the work that you’re doing and the impact that you’re having for all the youth that you’re working with so I think that’s a great thing and for
Someone who was I got my undergraduate degree in civil engineering so glad to hear the focus on stem and and providing opportunities for maybe kids in the community who otherwise wouldn’t know about those opportunities or careers uh to get exposed to that and so just curious about whether or not
We talked a lot about metrics which I think is great to evaluate and assess the impact of your program just curious about whether you do any comparison with the kids who go through the program versus those who’s not like what the graduation rate is or going on to
College you track that kind of information as well we do we do track graduation rates we track recidivism rates as well um those children that we we are able to track uh and we have relationships with both elementary schools throughout the Lac Basin and high schools uh we do try
And do follow-ups uh during before during and after graduation and attract those students um because at the end of the day you know and this this may or may not be a topic but you know prior to covet our numbers as as the D9 were already sort of going downward
Um and that’s due to everything from prop 209 back in the 90s uh and a myriad of other things that have been basically uh sort of uh choking out the the ability for African-American students to be able to attend uh whites white institutions here on the West Coast uh
So we’re we’re definitely really trying to keep keep those numbers abreast and um and and Target all all those students through our metric system absolutely great so I want to thank you to all the panelists for sharing some very enlightening and great information about how you all work to have an impact on
The community even though you have you know part of different organizations but I think um in the beginning we talked about we all work towards one common goal and it’s great but we can do that together from having a thoughts and just in listening to what everybody does like
Where would our communities be without fraternities and sororities who do this work to help uplift communities and provide opportunities for those who otherwise wouldn’t have access and so now I’m going to ask Antoine cook to help me with with the questions that are in the chat and I think we have at least
One question in the chat Antoine yes yes Rhonda we do and and I’m gonna um get to the question but there’s also a comment that someone gave as well and we want to give the panel an opportunity to respond but uh Linda asks a question um about the
Um I guess seriousness amount of activity at the Collegiate level so current chapters fraternities and sororities and how involved they are in communities versus alumni um chapters or fraternities and sororities and chapters um Claudius who is a Kappa Alpha Psi member mentioned that um all of the Divine all of the divine
Nine members are active in the community on the Collegiate level as well as later in life on the alumni level you may have different colors though going back to something that a president said but we all are very similar in helping the community so that was that was uh uh his
Response and just wanted to offer it uh uh to the panel as well if anybody else wanted to add anything to it uh yeah I just want to speak to Linda a question I know she said that it seems with uh you know paternities and sororities
There’s a lot of partying but I mean as far as our organizations go because I like to I’m a graduate of Cal State Long Beach and uh but the part of the entire fraternity just to even become a membership you have to have a 2.5 your
GPA and just to tell my story I had to join later because of my first attempts I was on academic probation and I wasn’t accepted and then you gotta remember the difference with our organizations as opposed to the others is that part of the being a member of
The paternity especially even on the Collegiate level is forming study groups and working together our goal is like I said I mean you know we like to have fun we do party but our main goal our number one goal is to graduate and that’s what we constantly preach and then after
Graduating within the four or five year time frame you know we don’t want anybody seven eight 10 years or something like that so uh yeah no career students right yeah yeah that’s right um yeah and then also to add to also to add to that in addition to the academic
Requirements the undergraduates are also required to perform Community Service as well as a matter of fact in order to be initiated into an organization you had to have performed community service and so that continues while at the Collegiate level and so they may do different types of activities
The thing about it is when you join one of our organizations and you go through the initiation process because it is a process um it is a lifetime commitment and so because it is a lifetime commitment that commitment begins as soon as possible so um the Collegiates they also do
Activities so we’ve talked about various activities that the alumni do and provide in the community as well but the collegiate they do a variety of different Services whether it’s um I’ve seen where they’ve given scholarships where they have done fundraisers to um for the homeless and things of that
Nature so I see brother brother green pan is up I’ll let him I’ll turn it over to him oh I just wanted to add one last thing so Linda understands is as our president expressed about the series essence of our organization uh you’re even screened for even if you’re behind on child
Support because one of the things we constantly teach whether uh because we have college Brothers you know they have many children or they’re not current on their child support you can’t even be a member of our organization so it’s a serious thing and like you said we want
The best of Brothers the best of men because we’re here to help the community right I think we have another question in the chat in Antoine yes yes someone asked Sherry asked uh can someone who has not gone through college sorority fraternity system align themselves with some local organization efforts and
Activities I think this gets to you know someone may not be a member currently um is there an Avenue for them to be able to get involved as a volunteer or with the chapters absolutely if I may sort of address that uh there’s a number of other uh organizations uh Bridge Builders a
Hundred black men um uh gosh there’s the Masons Prince call me uh there’s a variety of other organizations that um a person who maybe hasn’t gone to college uh would like to still volunteer and be a make an impact and be a part of the community uh that they can join absolutely
Great thank you and Antonio are there any other questions in the chat before we move on to try to wrap up no other questions in the chat there is a hand ombres Trudy um hello my name is Trudy Alton I’m a member of 65b disorder Incorporated I
Just want to speak to uh the question for those who may um not have a college degree or not have attended college or a four-year University I should say okay we do have a organization called Zeta amikai which means friends of Zeta and those are for women
Um High School level or up or actually college level that they could be at a two-year college or not any um not have any education um I should say not no education I’m sorry I’m at work I’m trying to sneak out do this um we um have women who work alongside us
And they’re of all walks of life they just may not have a four-year Universe University degree and they do their Community Service as well they feed the Homeless they collect clothing they do all sorts of things they give out scholarships um to high school and college students so there is an entity called
Disorder Incorporated you can also go to our website and look them up and join thank you thank you Trudy and Antoine was there another question yeah there were there was another question but there was a hand up uh I know she put her hand down but I didn’t know if Jacqueline Pittman Bryce
Um she had her hand up there for a second and then also um wilda has her hand um okay yeah I’m Jacqueline Pittman Bryce and um I was a chapter member a charter at USC in 1980 and I was initially wanted to espouse on what Linda was asking
Um and I’m uh out of the chart I have all the chapters I’ve been a part of because I’m now like a 41 um year member of Sigma gamma row and um every chapter I’ve ever been involved with after being at USC with that chapter and then uh other chapters in my
Uh my age of getting to 61 years old right now um there’s Community Services Paramount um so you’ll find it all of the all of the um the ideas and the experiences shared by everyone is it’s mirrored and it is mirrored across the Divine nines doesn’t matter what color we have on
Um but it’s all married through everyone so great experience thank you great thank you Jacqueline and uh are we good with the questions Antoine or do we um those are all the questions in the chat okay great is there a way I can just comment before we go on uh sure okay so
I just want to uh touch base on because I reread Linda’s I think she did a point of clarification regarding her statement that she did go to college but um also for Delta Sigma Theta sorority Incorporated Los Angeles alumni’s chapter in particular if you would like to volunteer
Um we do a lot of things on and we post them on social media that allow uh the general public who are not members to participate with us and come alongside also for volunteerism then um we start our volunteer we have a training program that you would have to go through as a
Volunteer which would then allow us a background screening and things of that nature which would allow you to volunteer here especially alongside of our youth programs if that is your your wish and then after that screening and training then you can definitely volunteer with chapters uh if
That’s your wish and then I know that we talked about uh earlier before coming on that we will put something in the chat to um for the guests to go ahead and contact panhellenix so that you know whatever organization organization they’re trying to volunteer with they get that information so
Yeah great Antoine I think you’re going to put that email address or information in the chat so yes yes I’m gonna put it back up put it in there earlier but I’ll put it right now and then later on too so I think this decision I was going to
Say I think brother Jonathan had his hand up okay go ahead yeah there’s one last thing I wanted to say uh like uh Miss Linda you just don’t have to go to the sorority the the paternity because like I said we have our stem program and
Uh a lot of the brothers aren’t good with algebra you might be good with algebra we need you to uh because we have a lot of volunteers that aren’t a member of the fraternity you know male and female because like I just said our
Goal is to help these kids so I mean I don’t care what you know we don’t care what you you know I mean with the organization you’re with I mean if that’s your desire come along and we’ll be glad to have you great thank you Jonathan um so the discussion today has been
Incredibly enlightening enlightening but uh unfortunately time has flown by and we’ve come to the end of our event for this afternoon so we want to thank the panelists during the late night well the Tillman Jonathan green and Rome Mubarak for spending your time with us this afternoon and sharing about all the
Amazing work that your paternities are what sororities are building in the community with us this afternoon um we want to also thank the audience for taking time out of Europe what I’m sure is a busy day to participate and ask some good questions um of course AARP has many activities
Across different areas in the state and they would love for you all to get involved and so if you want to know more about volunteer opportunities with AARP you can visit their website at www.aarp.org forward slash California um and to also learn about not just volunteer opportunities but also upcoming
Um this and other conversations about black history well not end for AARP in February um there’s more on their website and we will be doing uh a series with AARP this year on caregiving in the black community so it will be a five part series starting in about April of May or
This year that information will also be on the AARP website so we encourage you to stay in touch and get on the mailing list and become a member if you’re not um we would also before we end today like to take another quick poll and so Antoine if you can
Um put up the poll okay and so the first question is are you interested in getting involved with the black fraternity or sorority we talked about how that could happen so if it could answer yes no or maybe if you’re on the fence about it and the
Second question is are you interested in learning more or getting involved with AARP as a volunteer still getting a few responses here so it looks like overwhelmingly uh we’re going back and forth but most of the people are interested in volunteering or learning more about the sororities and
Fraternities that we talked about today so again Antoine put information in the chat about how you can get involved or volunteer and then yes again go to the AARP website that’s www.aarp.org forward slash California to learn more about what’s happening here in California and how you can get involved
Um and so also for our organization of California black Health Network if you’re interested in learning more about what we do and how you can get involved as a member as a volunteer as a board member as a donor you can visit our website at www.ca as in California abbreviated
Blackhealthnetwork.org where you can follow us on social all of our social media sites are very easy to remember it’s your cvhn on Twitter Facebook and also um Instagram and we’re on LinkedIn as a California black Health Network so on behalf of AARP California I’m Rhonda Smith again the executive director of
The California black Health Network um this concludes our event for today and thank you so much for being here today and taking to a lot of your afternoon to participate uh Happy black history month thank you very much
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