January 1, 2024
The Benefits of Certified Scrum Master Online Course for Women of Color
August 3, 2021
Black Women's Equal Pay Day
July 20, 2021
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Certification
- Entrepreneurship
- Recognizing and evaluating opportunities
- Planning, starting, and operating a business
- Marketing and sales
- Business financials and funding
July 15, 2021
Don't Shoot The Messenger
June 24, 2021
Getting Unstuck
Post-DOS days, the technical instructor realized these questions apply to our everyday lives, and we believe these questions can help individuals get unstuck in their careers, relationships, or finances. If you feel stuck, click here and download our guide that can help you get unstuck.
April 4, 2019
Choose Yourself
March 13, 2019
Character Assassination
- The Controlled
- The Caring
- The Conniving
- The Careless
November 10, 2014
Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID)
A group of AVID middle school students completed their assignments fifteen minutes early and wanted to watch YouTube videos which were unrelated to AVID. When asked to turn off their videos, a student responded with: "My mom watches YouTube videos all the time at work, so why can't we watch them at school?"
What legacy are we leaving our children in reference to work, finances, or service? Students need role models to coincide with their lessons to advance academically, socially, or economically. And their parents should be their first point of reference.
The industrialized workforce is depleting and individuals that choose to watch YouTube videos instead of seeking opportunities to serve will be challenged to advance via individual determination.
March 12, 2014
Hate your job, what are you doing about it?
Staying at a job you hate may seem logical with the high percentage of unemployed and underemployed people. But if you choose to stay, why hate it? Why waste your time and your employer's? It’s challenging to have a servant attitude through hatred. If you’re not willing to serve, you’re not willing to work at your best capacity.
Work isn’t solely about us! It’s about service. If we’re filled with hatred about our work, does it mean we’re too full of ourselves? Sure, people can be difficult and challenging, but their actions should not contribute to our hatred. Every day we show up for work, we should know our purpose and the contribution we will make on our employer's bottom line and their clients.
Don’t allow finances and fear hold you hostage to a job you hate. You have the power to transform your job into a career you enjoy and love. If you're ready, you can start here.
September 5, 2013
Self-Servants Not Wanted
August 21, 2012
The Least Factor
At least I have a man – even though he’s married with children.
At least I know dynamic, elitist people - but don’t have authentic connections.
At least I go to church – but don’t have a spiritual connection to God.
At least I’m liked – but you yearn for unconditional love and encouragement.
At least I have a GED – but was born with potential beyond a general education. Energy exhausted striving for the least is a fast race to the bottom. If you’re going to run, strive for the top (i.e., your best). No one spends time practicing to enter a race with the intention to lose or end at the bottom.
September 30, 2011
Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
- Get Real With Yourself - Identify and deal with the source of negative emotions because nothing positive derives from them. Suppressing or camouflaging these emotions with shopping, smoking, or eating are temporary coping mechanisms that can lead to other challenges.
- Know Your Role – Be clear on your purpose for working; the benefits and impact your contributions have on your employer’s bottom-line, and how your role coincides with their mission and core values.
- Don’t React, Get the Facts – There are many women reacting to events based on their emotions instead of facts. Feelings should never be used as a deciding factor in the workplace because they aren’t tangible and cannot be validated.
- Define Your Outcome – For every task you perform, you should have a desired outcome that links to your personal mission and your employer's. Working without a personal mission is like accomplishing empty victories because there isn't a connection to your uniqueness.
- Begin with the End in Mind – Start your day with a clear vision of its direction and destination. What you envision in your mind (direction) will lead to your destination. This is achievable when your emotions are under control.
Want more help to chart your course to emotional intelligence, visit SOFEI Online.
September 23, 2011
The Number Nine Can Have Power
September 15, 2011
What's the Secret to Success?
September 14, 2011
Need to Redirect Your Career?
Evaluate the underlying cause of being stuck in your career.
Do you believe this is the only work you're qualified to do?
Get in the driver seat; take your career off ‘auto cruise’ and determine where you want to take it
- Resolve negative emotions associated with unemployment
- Assess your skills and determine who can benefit from them.
- List your contributions and the impacts.
- Create a career plan (inclusive of a personal mission statement and goals) to make it all happen.
Breathe life to your plan everyday
- Work on an activity everyday to achieve your career goals
- Envision yourself making a contribution in your place of work and the outcome.
- Share your vision with a person that will hold you accountable.
Your career is your responsibility and only you can decide where you want to take it! Don't let the woes of the economy or fear to stop you from making a contribution with your skills and your life.
March 9, 2011
What Do Employers Want?
What about you? Are you selling your skills to get a job to pay the bills? Or, are you selling your skills to make a business contribution? If your job search strategy is simply to get a job to pay bills, you need to change your job search approach. Here’s how:
- Find your niche (everyone is great at something)
- Change your self- talk (there aren’t any jobs, nobody’s hiring)
- Change your Circle of Influence (surround yourself around problem-solvers)
- Conduct research to learn about your prospective employer's business trend(s) and industry (e.g., find out how they make money, the dynamics and demographics of their customers)
- Discover and decide your contributions and benefits you want to make for your prospective employer and create a “Contribution Statement”
- Update your resume and change your career objective to your “Contribution Statement” and change your tasks to impact statements (i.e., the end result of your performed tasks)
- Secure references that can effectively speak about the impact of your contributions
- When you land an interview, share how you can contribute to the business more so, than selling your skills to simply get a job
October 22, 2010
Change Your Fashion or Lose Your Job?
“Who you talking to” was the response of an employee who was requested to remove her large earrings and neon colored nail polish prior to returning to work from her break. Her manager responded with a threat to fire her if she didn’t respect his request and the company's dress code.
Fashion is a great way to express our identity, but it should not cause us to lose our job. Here are some suggestions to keep your fashion and your job:
- Learn and stick to your employer’s dress code - Fashion should coincide with your employer’s business image. If your employer is conservative, then your attire (i.e., hair, nails, and clothes) should follow suit.
- Don’t let your fashion overshadow your skills – First impression is a lasting impression. What’s the first impression your attire gives? Does it scream at prospective or recurring customers? If so, tone it down.
- Go Neutral - Trim your nails and wear neutral nail colors. And, limit nail art in a conservative work environment.
- Save your fashion sense for the weekend or your day(s) off – This is a great time to express yourself through fashion without feeling confined. But don’t go too far because you never know when you may run into one of your employer’s customers.
- Change jobs or become an entrepreneur - Find a company that will embrace your fashion or start your own company to express yourself freely.
May 12, 2010
Ask, Seek, and Knock - Luke 9:10 - 11 NKJV
As a result of today's economy, many people are not seeking a career; they’re looking for a JOB - (JUST OVER BROKE). A JOB can help you get by, a career will help you live! Here are a few suggestions to jump start your career.
- Pray and Ask for Divine Guidance – Everything we do should bring glory and honor to God. And, this also applies to our career choices. God does not want us to work to simply meet our financial needs and wants. Ultimately, our vocation should be our ministry (i.e., what we’ve been gifted to do).
- Redefine Your Identity – Many people have defined their self-worth based on what they do and not who they really are. Take time to learn your true self and take this authenticity to your new career. Self-assessments are a great tool to learn more about your inner being. Please visit Assessment.com to find your true motivations and value for work.
- Divorce Your Old Career Mentality – If you’re passing by opportunities because you’re looking for a job with security, it’s time to kick this mentality to the curb. Today’s labor force is primarily comprised of a contingent workforce. Visit Sologig.com to land your new 'contingent' gig.
- Assess Your Resources – Do you have the resources to land your new career? For example, a positive attitude, references that can solidify your work ethics and habits, reliable transportation, the right skills, a support system if you’re a working mother or a lap top computer.
- Volunteer – Volunteering is a creative way to network and to create employment pipelines. Many career opportunities are opened due to individuals giving their time and energy to help others in spite of their circumstances. Try Volunteer Match to explore virtual and tangible volunteer opportunities.
- Get out of the House – You will not find a job sitting behind a computer. Most jobs are found through relationships. Check out www.meetup.com and join a group that’s suitable to your career desires.
- Live Each Day Intentionally – Decide the night before, what you want to accomplish the next day to lead you to the career of your dreams. For example, I want to make ten cold calls to conduct informational interviews to learn about the products and/or services of a company to determine my eligibility to join this team.
January 15, 2010
I Deserve a Peace of Mind
Several studies show, African-American and Latino women experience a higher rate of depressive symptoms and psychological distress compared to white women due to a convergence of societal, biological, and socioeconomical factors. Some of the risk factors are: stress due to racial discrimination; health problems (e.g., hypertension and cardiovascular disease); educational attainment, single marital status, and being a working mother.
Depression screening and prevention programs must take into account these and additional factors in order to be successful, according to Annelle Primm, M.D., M.P.H., who spoke at the APA Institute on Psychiatric Services in San Diego in October.
Primm pointed out that development of depression is affected by chronic stress and the “subsequent immuno-regulatory effects associated with living as a member of a marginalized racial and gender group.”
Social forces such as racism and sexism “impose continuous psychological stress and increase the likelihood of developing physical and mental illnesses,” she noted.
Obesity may also contribute to an increased risk for developing depression in African-American women, Primm pointed out. “There is a negative association between obesity and mental well-being,” she said.
African-American women have a greater prevalence of obesity (37.7 percent) when compared with white women (23.5 percent), she said, and overeating may begin as a strategy to cope with sexual abuse, racism, classism, and poverty in African-American women.
Primm cited the 2001 report of former Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, which brought to light the problems many minority groups have in accessing mental health services.
“On top of that,” she said, “we know that people of color who are able to access services are less likely to receive quality mental health care,” which can be partially attributed to a lack of culturally and linguistically competent mental health care clinicians.
On a broad level, policies that target poverty reduction would“ greatly benefit mental health outcomes” for African-American women.
More specifically, successful depression-prevention campaigns should incorporate “resiliency factors” employed by many African-American women, such as spirituality, which may help some to cope with depressive symptoms.
Preventive strategies should also incorporate nutrition and exercise, Primm noted.
She also recommended that depression screening be implemented to a greater extent at prenatal clinics located in public health facilities, welfare programs, and vocational-assistance programs.
In addition, it is crucial that screening programs link women who show depression symptoms to culturally competent treatment services in their community.
“What is good for African-American women in terms of preventing depression is good for all women in general and for the whole country,” Primm declared.
VEINC provides spiritual, personal, and career enrichment services to help our clients 'holistically'; however, when our clients cannot afford medical treatment, we cannot not prepare them for gainful and successful employment.
It's quite challenging for women to live in peace and harmony when faced with choosing to pay rent, feed their children, or purchase medicine. But, if women begin to focus on what they have and want, instead of their lack, this could possibly be an antidote to their financial and/or mental woes.
There's a saying, What you put your attention on, grows stronger in your life. When we place our attention on fear and lack, this will manifest in our lives and create anxiety which will immobilize us to create a life of harmony and balance. If you're a woman that's experiencing depression seek help from God and lay your concerns at His feet because He cares for you (I Peter 5:7).
Try New Life Ministries for resources and guidance to help you deal with depression. And, try God by accepting Him into your life, reading, studying, and mediating on His Word daily to gain the peace He has promised when your mind is on stayed on Him!
November 30, 2009
What's the Big Deal About Single Mothers?
There are many successful leaders and great people that were raised by single parents. VEINC is not presenting single mothers as damsels in distress or victims of society. However, due to the increased percentage of households being led by single mothers not only in Prince George's County, Maryland, but within our Nation, it's a big deal when single women-headed households have in some regard become the normal family structure.
According to Sociology for Families, single-parent families are normally female-headed and single women typically do not earn the same income as a single man; thus, there is a consequent economic struggle and burden not experienced in a single-father household. Single mothers often must work overtime shifts to compensate for the low salaries, thus taking time away from their children and other domestic chores. This results in a child that is home alone, without adult supervision, or placed in a daycare service for up to 8-10 hours per day. Government subsidized daycare is not yet a realized dream, and many single mothers pay large fees for this service.
The big deal about single parenting especially for Prince George's County, Maryland is, it has the highest concentration of low-income families headed by women in the Washington metro region. And, low-income families headed by women are vulnerable to the cycle of poverty. The impact of poverty puts a strain on the local, state, and the government by investing money in reactive services and programs to support low-income families (e.g., emergency housing, food stamp assistance, or crime and gang prevention) instead of proactive services and programs (e.g., workforce training and development, entrepreneurship programs; affordable housing, childcare, and health care, and accessible transportation).
There's an old saying, If you keep doing what you've always done, you will keep getting what you've always gotten. And, we can no longer afford to allow politics as usual if we want to experience a significant change in Prince George's County.
The Status of Women and Girls of Prince George's County needs to be a top priority on the platform for all politicians running for local and state government. Make your vote count to ensure Prince George's County, Maryland will live up to it's motto, A Livable Community for all Prince Georgians, especially for low-income women-led families where the weight of economic instability rides on their shoulders.
Following is VEINC's wish list to strengthen the economic status of women and girls of Prince George's County:
- Bring more livable wage careers to Prince George's County that offer benefits in health and work-life balance. Prince George's County main career industries are retail and hospitality
- Work harder to ensure funding for Individual Training Accounts under the Workforce Investment Act is adequately funneled from the State to Prince George's County to increase participation in local education and training programs
- Change childcare voucher systems to ensure vouchers are honored in a timely manner
- Make public transportation more accessible to transit around all localities of Prince George's County, Maryland
- Add more women politicians that will advocate on behalf of the issues relating to women and girls
- Increase local funding to proactively address barriers that prevent women and girls from achieving economic independence and stability.
Ladies, make your vote count! Don't sit on the sideline and assume your challenges will automatically be taken care of, or your vote won't count. All votes count and you have the power to make a change for yourself and other women like you in your community. Make your voice known. Make your voice heard. And, hold your local and state representatives accountable to making positive changes and impacts on behalf of underserved women and girls of Prince George's County, Maryland.