Program Planning & Development
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Social Action (Political Awareness & Involvement)
Committees
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.’s Five-Point Programmatic Thrust was established under the leadership of Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, 10th National President. The Five-Point Thrust ensures uniformity programming among the more than 1,000 chapters.
Our focus is to develop and implement programming to address and improve the education, physical and mental health, and economic well-being of African Americans and, hence, all Americans. International awareness was included in the Thrust out of concern of the inadequate prenatal and maternity care of women in Africa.
National initiatives include Financial Fortitude, Dr. Betty Shabzz Academy, Delta GEMS: Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully, Empowering Males to Build Opportunities for Developing Independence (EMBODI), American Heart Association “Go Red for Women” Campaign, Mary Help of the Sick Mission Hospital (Kenya) and World AIDS Day.
Economic Development
Valerie Franklin, Co-Chair
Elizabeth Wilson, Co-Chair
FINANCIAL FORTITUDE National economic trends, such as unstable employment, the threat to Social Security as we know it, and the widening gap between wealth and poverty are the basis for the development of Financial Fortitude, the current Economic Development Program Initiative of Delta Sigma Theta.
Financial Fortitude is a process that will help program participants set and define goals, develop a plan to achieve them, and put the plan into action. The process serves as a blueprint to address all aspects of personal finances.
The Sorority has made available chapter tools for the process, including a Money Smart Adult Education Program and a Money Smart computer-based instruction tool from the FDIC to complement the Financial Fortitude Program.
Educational Development
Marlette Johnson, Co-Chair
Uroni Macon, Co-Chair
Amanda Patterson, Ph.D., Co-Chair
Delta Academy, Delta Gems, and EMBODI are all programming centered under Economic Development.
DELTA ACADEMY Catching the Dreams of Tomorrow, Preparing Young Women For the 21st Century The Delta Academy was created out of an urgent sense that bold action was needed to save our young females (ages 11-14) from the perils of academic failure, low self-esteem, and crippled futures. Delta Academy provides an opportunity for local Delta chapters to enrich and enhance the education that our young teens receive in public schools across the nation. Specifically, we augment their scholarship in math, science, and technology, their opportunities to provide service in the form of leadership through service learning, and their sisterhood, defined as the cultivation service learning, and their sisterhood, defined as the cultivation and maintenance of relationships. A primary goal of the program is to prepare young girls for full participation as leaders in the 21st Century.
DELTA GEMS A natural outgrowth and expansion for the continuation of the highly successful Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy: Catching the Dreams of Tomorrow, Delta Gems was created to catch the dreams of African American at-risk, adolescent girls aged 14-18. Delta GEMS provides the framework to actualize those dreams through the performance of specific tasks that develop a CAN DO attitude. The goals for Delta GEMS are: To instill the need to excel academically; To provide tools that enable girls to sharpen and enhance their skills to achieve high levels of academic success; To assist girls in proper goal setting and planning for their futures high school and beyond; and To create compassionate, caring, and community-minded young women by actively involving them in service-learning and community service opportunities. The Delta GEMS framework is composed of five major components (Scholarship, Sisterhood, Show Me the Money, Service, and Infinitely Complete), forming a road map for college and career planning. Topics within the five major components are designed to provide interactive lessons and activities that provide opportunities for self-reflection and individual growth.
EMBODI The EMBODI (Empowering Males to Build Opportunities for Developing Independence) program is designed to refocus the efforts of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., with the support and action of other major organizations, on the plight of African-American males. Both informal and empirical data suggest that the vast majority of African-American males continue to be in crisis and are not reaching their fullest potential educationally, socially, and emotionally. EMBODI is designed to address these issues through dialogue, and recommendations for change and action. EMBODI will include a program format and information template. The delivery options may include a town hall meeting, workshops, and/or teen leadership summits.
International Awareness & Involvement
Beverly Gullatt, Ed.D., Co-Chair
April Long Banks Wyatt, Ph.D., Co-Chair
Not only do the members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. work diligently in our local cities, we also reach across the seas as well. Realizing a critical health issue, in 1955, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority began making plans and laying the groundwork to establish a maternity hospital in the East African country of Kenya.
It provides affordable prenatal and postnatal care, nutritional education, child immunization, and family planning. The hospital gives prenatal care, including lab work, blood tests, and examinations to more than 200 women daily. The facility also has a special care nursery for babies after delivery. The hospital also serves as an educational institution for nurses and midwives. Over 66 students are trained each year for Books For Africa. A simple name for an organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship, and distribute books to students of all ages in Africa.
Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa. Books For Africa remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, shipping over 31 million books to 49 different countries since 1988. Over the past 12 months, we have shipped 2.6 million books, valued at $35 million to 27 African countries, with an additional 223 computers and 11 brand new law and human rights libraries. It costs about $10,300 to send a 40-foot sea container of books, computers, and school supplies to most major African seaports. Your donation will enable Books For Africa to send even more books to children in Africa who are hungry to read, hungry to learn.
Physical & Mental Health
Ashanti Booker, Co-Chair
Elaine Archie Booker, Co-Chair
TOTAL WOMAN: MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT As an organization of predominately African American women, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is uniquely positioned to impact not only the well-being of its members but also the well-being of families and communities at large.
The mission of the Health Task Force is to educate and facilitate lifestyle change for the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of sorors and the communities that we serve. The Health Task Force objectives are to raise awareness about the importance and benefits of lifestyle changes that affect longevity, morbidity, and mortality; Identify organizational alliances for the sorority that will work to address pertinent health issues, and Develop and implement health-focused programs within the sorority and the communities we serve.
Through the Lifestyle Change Initiative, Delta Sigma Theta will work to combat the high incidence of obesity among women. The first priority of our Lifestyle Change Initiative is the Total Woman Healthy Weight Program which challenges chapters to a commitment to achieve healthier weights. Delta has embraced the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign. Heart disease is women’s #1 killer, a fact that most women don’t know. The program raises awareness of the risks and causes of heart disease and focuses women on healthier lifestyles.
Social Action
Fran Calhoun, Co-Chair
Mary Patricia Hector, Co-Chair
Political Awareness and Involvement, a five-point programmatic thrust, is actualized through Social Action within Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. has a long history of Social Action activities.
- Sponsoring Voter Registration and voter education programs
- Combating Voter Suppression
- The full restoration of voting rights for individuals who have paid their debt to society (ex-offenders)
- Affordable Health Care and access to quality health care
- Financial Literacy and Economic Empowerment
- Support for HBCU’s
- Political Awareness and Involvement
- Gender Equality
- Racial Profiling.
Arts & Letters
Alicia Benson, Co-Chair
Asha Rashad, Co-Chair
The goal of the Arts and Letters Committee is to promote and support cultural arts in the community and to develop programs in accordance with the National Commission on Arts and Letters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.