- Access to education and skill-building programs that equip women with knowledge and skills that can expand their employment opportunities and income potential.
Financial literacy and entrepreneurship training to enable women to start their businesses, pursue economic ventures, and make informed financial decisions.
Facilitate women's access to credit and capital through community-based grants and lending initiatives to allow women to invest in their ideas, ventures, and income-generating activities.
Provide mentorship, networking opportunities, and career, professional, and workforce development services to help women build skills and gain confidence to build, transition, or advance in their careers.
Foster networks and community support systems that connect women with mentors, peers, and resources for guidance, encouragement, and access to new opportunities.
Encourage companies to promote and create supportive working environments that value and prioritize gender and wage equality, flexible work arrangements, family-friendly policies, and opportunities for career progression.
Advocate for policies and legal reforms to protect women's rights, including laws against discrimination and harassment in the workplace, maternity leave policies, and access to social safety nets.
June 5, 2023
Strategies to Empower Women to Emerge from Economic Instability
June 1, 2023
Situational Poverty
June 23, 2017
The Truth Shall Make You Free
June 12, 2017
How We Get Here?
- How We Get Here? – Why black women and their issues are ignored in politics? - Source: Status of Black Women in Politics
- How We Get Here? – Black women 16 years and over has experienced the highest unemployment rate among all other ethnic groups since 2007. - Source: The African American Labor Force in Recovery
- How We Get Here? – Black women are more likely to have children outside of marriage than other racial or ethnic groups. - Source: Congressional Research Service
- How We Get Here? – Women and Violence – 1 out of 5 women is sexually assaulted in college. Source: insidehighered.com
- How We Get Here? - Women Living with HIV and AIDS - Source: CDC.gov
- How We Get Here? - Women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished in retirement. - Source: National Institute on Retirement
- How We Get Here? - Women of Color are more likely to suffer with depression. - Source: Huffingtonpost.com
July 12, 2016
Equal, But Different
Should women who live subjectively to men expect equal treatment?
According to Genesis 1:26, God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and to let them have dominion over every living thing that creeps on the earth. And, according to Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
These verses share how God equally created men and women in His image to have dominion over the earth in our own distinctive roles. If women grasp hold of this knowledge, maybe women will seek equality through the Image of God instead of man.
November 3, 2015
Do you want to get well?
The mother praised her son for his efforts to protect her when she spoke outside Potomac High School – where her son attended. She described her relationship with her live-in boyfriend as a friendship and stated, “I think sometimes you never think that helping someone will end up in this matter.” Our paraphrase, she never thought her efforts to help someone would result in her son’s death.
John Chapter 5 talks about a pool called Bethesda where sick people laid in wait for an angel to stir the pool water and whoever stepped in first would get healed from whatever disease they had. A man lying by the pool with an infirmity for thirty-eight years caught Jesus’ attention because He knew the infirmed man suffered with this condition for a long time. Jesus asked the infirmed man, “Do you want to be made well?” The infirmed man’s response, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
The debilitating health of many people lingers too long because of their beliefs and emotional strongholds. Unfortunately, many women fall prey to men who play victim of their inability to be fully engaged in society as a result of unhealed wounds or their choice to hold onto behaviors that contribute to violence. For thirty-eight years, the infirmed man waited for assistance to get in the pool of Bethesda. Jesus could have laid him in the pool, but instead, He told the man to, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Immediately, the man was made well, he took up his bed, and he walked.
Too many women are dying by the hands of men who haven’t recognized their need to get healed. So, women please stop jeopardizing the safety and sanity of yourself and family in the name of love and salvation. You do not have the power to heal or save, but God does. And, his healing and salvation is available to anyone who needs and wants it.
October 23, 2014
We Plunged
We’ve supported Zumbathon® events to benefit heart disease and ovarian cancer. And one-year later we’re hosting our own to benefit women experiencing poverty in the Washington region.
The Zumba® Corporate Office approved our Zumbathon® Charity Event within two-hours of submission - a process that normally takes two-business days, and within four-weeks, only 10% of our desired participants have registered.
Lesson learned, we’re doing something we’ve never done before and its success can’t be measured solely on who showed up; but, on our commitment to work and move the weight of poverty off the shoulders of women who live with it daily right in our backyard.
Not achieving the desired results from this plunge will not stop us from doing it again. Poverty is growing, and we do not have time to be stagnated by fear, skepticism, or resistance.
If you want to experience growth and enthusiasm click here - this can result from trying something new.
September 30, 2014
A World without Women
- Discover their purpose and not allow people or external circumstances deter them from their destined path.
- Live according to their uniqueness and convictions; not societal norms.
- Know their rights as a citizen and in the workplace and hold people accountable who inflict harm to them.
- Increase and stabilize their self- and net-worth to create personal and financial stability.
- Stop defining their value based on their sexuality or possessions.
- Connect with people who exalt others and not themselves.
- Be decisive and fearless about their beliefs and choices.
September 26, 2014
I’m Not One of Them
My parents told me, "Make sure you can take care of yourself," and I do.
These women need to stop lying on their backs, making babies they can’t take care of.
I’m not giving my money to support lazy women that don’t want to work.
These statements are from single mothers who were approached by The SOFEI Group to help us achieve our mission of empowering women to economic independence. The single mothers were divorced, widowed, and a sole parent with a strong support system.
What’s interesting is how proud they were to share their distinction without knowledge of our current and prospective clients. It will be impossible for women to thrive as a cohesive unit when we’re moved so swiftly to divide. Why talk about the wage gap between men and women or any other gaps that supposedly prevent women from progressing, when women allow social, political, financial, or ethnical differences create wedges? Many women who have experienced or are experiencing poverty, did not choose it! They do not enjoy relying on the government or others to feed their children or meet their basic living needs. And, it's unfortunate these women experience a different type of judgment when they need assistance to regain their momentum after a divorce, death of a spouse, spousal abandonment, decline in health, or job loss.Today's society is heading towards a downward spiral because women who carry the weight of poverty aren't participating at their best capacity. Madeleine Albright, (former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and US Secretary of State) states, "There's a special place in hell for women that don't help each other."
Women have the power to transform our society to be more inclusive and not divisive. It's a matter of choice. Which will you choose?
March 26, 2014
Jewel in The Hands of an Inexperienced Jeweler
Dinah was a Jewel taken by force, but there are many women (Jewels) who voluntarily place themselves in the hands of Inexperienced Jewelers due to:
Soft Spoken Words
According to Genesis 34:3, Shechem spake kindly unto the damsel. Women can become prey to soft spoken words if they were raised in negative environments, were victims of verbal, emotional, or physical abuse and never heard or experienced unconditional love.
Low Self-Esteem
Some women with low self-esteem try to validate their self-worth by clinging to the arms of wrong men.
The Biological Clock
Some women rush into marriage based on their biological clock instead of God's. Their friends have gotten married, and started families, and they feel like timing is running out for Mr. Right.
Inexperienced Jeweler Doesn't Know Her Value
This can happen for women with a history of broken and abusive relationships, as well as other issues they haven't allowed God to cleanse and heal.
Fornication
Many women are in the hands of Inexperienced Jewelers for the sake of Eros (lustful) love and have convinced themselves that if the sex is good, everything else in the relationship will fall into place. However, sex was designed to be good under the Union of Holy Matrimony.
Hungry for Love and Affection
If an employee partakes of an unhealthy snack to satisfy their hunger, this can prevent them from enjoying a healthy, nutritious meal because they have become full from the snack. When we're hungry for love and affection we too indulge in unhealthy snacking (i.e., relationships) which blocks us from receiving the main entrée - a man designed especially for us.
So, are You a Jewel In The Hands of An Inexperienced Jeweler?