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Unita Blackwell Young Women's Leadership Institute
 

SRBWI Announces it's 8th Annual Unita Blackwell Young Women’s Leadership Institute

The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI) is currently accepting applications for scholarships to attend the eighthannual Unita Blackwell Young Women’s Leadership Institute, to be held June 20-25, 2012. (Applications are available online; click on the "Application" tab on the left-hand sidebar.) The Institute is open to young women currently in grades 8-12 who live in one of the SRBWI target counties.

The deadline for applications is April 16, 2012.

Applicants do not need to be honor roll students or have perfect conduct. SRBWI is looking for a variety of participants: those who have natural, proven leadership abilities and those whose leadership potential hasn't been tapped yet. 

SRBWI works to advance the first Human Rights Agenda in the United States designed to put an end to historical and systemic barriers based on race, class, culture, religion and gender experienced by, in particular, southern rural black women. The program operates in 77 counties in the Black Belt of Alabama and southwest Georgia and the Mississippi Delta.

The goal of all SRBWI's youth development programs is to provide a safe, caring environment where young women can participate in activities designed to enhance their respective paths to adulthood as productive, creative individuals that are committed to economic and social justice. Arts, culture and spirituality are integrated into all program areas and help promote the preservation and evolution of black culture and reinforce history.

The Institute gives young women an opportunity to

• Learn more about themselves
• Develop leadership skills
• Learn the contributions of their families and others in their communities, states and regions to the southern civil rights movement
• Discover the power of using a human rights frame to work for economic and social justice
• Participate in health and wellness, photography, dance, fashion and jewelry design, among other workshops

To promote this goal, SRBWI will hold its eighth annual Unita Blackwell Young Women’s Leadership Institute June 20 – June 25, 2012.  The Institute, as in years past, will be held at Tougaloo College, a private, historically black liberal arts college, which was founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association. The school is located just north of Jackson, Mississippi. 

There are no out-of-pocket expenses for participants to attend the Institute.  The scholarship provides transportation, room, food and all other costs associated with the Institute. However, if accepted as a member of the 2012 YWLI class, participants are expected to pay a $25 registration fee. 

Young women at the Institute will be supervised both day and night.  

If you have questions please contact Natalie A. Collier at 601.321.1966 or email at ncollier@childrensdefense.org.  

Unita Blackwell Young Women’s Leadership Institute Background

Each year, some 100 young women from Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi participate in the Unita Blackwell Young Women’s Leadership Institute.

The Honorable Unita Blackwell from Mayersville, Mississippi, was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader who was elected mayor of her hometown and was the first black woman in the state to do so. She was a colleague of Fannie Lou Hamer’s and participated in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s 1964 challenge to unseat the all-white Democratic Party delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Her legacy continues through the work of SRBWI.

A supplementary track of YWLI, New Visions, involves 15 young women and a mentor from each state who engage in digital filmmaking intensives at the Institute, followed by training and guidance across the year in their local communities. New Visions is committed to engaging and involving these young women in the work of SRBWI and to teaching them a marketable skill.            

Since its inception in 2005, more than 700 young women and their mentors have actively participated in the YWLI. This year, we might see you!

 For more information contact:
Natalie A. Collier, Regional Youth Director
601.321.1966
ncollier@childrensdefense.org