MESSAGE MEDIA ED & BLACK WOMEN FOR WELLNESS PARTNER TO PRODUCE MORE DIGITAL ELDERS

Message Media Ed – Innovators Uncovered

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Digital Elder Project

Contact Shani Byard at Message Media Ed

shani@messagemediaed.org

323 708 2526

MESSAGE MEDIA ED PARTNERS WITH BLACK WOMEN FOR WELLNESS TO PRODUCE MORE DIGITAL ELDERS

(LOS ANGELES – February 2010) -- A two-day interactive, leadership workshop, The Digital Elder Project™, has been offered to current and potential leaders (ages 14-100) in the Black community of Los Angeles since the beginning of 2009, by a new organization, Message Media Ed. Working within an African-centered framework, The Digital Elder Project, combines instruction in basic to advanced computer operation, media literacy and a crash course on social media and internet navigation, identifying technology’s relationship to challenges and solutions in the Black community. Together with a team of culturally conscious, tech savvy facilitators and guest artists, The Digital Elder Project provides a unique opportunity for youth, adults and seniors to learn together in an interactive, engaging environment, and begin closing digital, cultural, intergenerational divides.

Black Women for Wellness began Internet Quilt in 2000, weaving together a diverse array of technology tools to increase African American women and girls’ ability to utilize technology while enhancing health and well being. Tea N Technology began as an afternoon conversation to build skills, highlight trends, dissect and problem-solve technology challenges troubling the African American community in a non-threatening environment. As a result of the partnership between Message Media Ed and Black Women for Wellness, participants in The Digital Elders Project will continue utilizing and learning new skills with Tea N Technology. Black Women for Wellness is funded through California Consumer Protection Foundation to provide Tea N Technology.

The two-day intensive workshop, “The Digital Elder Project – EmPOWER Online and in the African American Community,” takes place on Saturday and Sunday, March 20^th and 21^st in the Los Angeles Urban League’s West Adams/Baldwin Hills WorkSource Center, 5681 W. Jefferson Blvd. Free follow-up trainings, “Tea N Technology”, will include instruction in texting, email, social media, online advocacy and more. They will be hosted at the offices of Black Women for Wellness on Friday afternoons, beginning March 26, 2010 from 2:00 – 4:00pm. Black Women for Wellness is located at 3450 W 43^rd Street, Suite 104 Los Angeles CA 90008, in Leimert Park, the very heart of Black Los Angeles.

This collaboration between Message Media Ed and Black Women for Wellness creates an opportunity to raise the voice of African American women, girls, men, boys, elders and community using technology from an African centered perspective. It is a collaboration joining expertise, resources, creative energy for social justice, health and media advocacy that is inclusive and daring. Message Media Ed and Black Women for Wellness are joining forces with full awareness of the adage ‘when you educate a woman, you educate a nation’ toward not only educating the women and girls of our community but calling to action across the generations a tech savvy cadre addressing African Americans and Black life.

For complete details, including registration and sponsorship information for The Digital Elder Project and Tea N Technology, contact Message Media Ed at 323.708.2526 or visit the website at www.MessageMediaEd.org. For more information on Black Women for Wellness, visit www.BWWLA.com or call 323-290-5955.

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QUOTES FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

Shani Byard-Ngunjiri, Founder/Executive Director, Message Media Ed

“The mission of Message Media Ed is to produce Black leadership for the Digital Age. Using the role of the traditional African elder as a guide, a Digital Elder is role model who utilizes modern tools of 21^st Century communication to nurture, share wisdom, acknowledge and affirm,” explained Ngunjiri. “Therefore, we seek to equip participants, especially our elders, with the tools and skill-sets needed to thrive in the cyber and traditional, 21^st Century community, classroom and workplace. Our contribution to diversity in these arenas today must be substantive and participation in The Digital Elder Project is an effective launching pad for this. We are excited about our partnership with Black Women for Wellness because thinking critically about media messages and becoming more of a media producer rather than consumer, are integral in achieving health, wellness and advocacy, especially in the Black community.”

Janette Robinson-Flint, Founder/Executive Director, Black Women for Wellness

“Technology has infiltrated our lives at every point, we have all types of personal data boxes, texts, phones, internet capacity, but with all that technology, many of us are not optimizing it for advocacy on the issues that matter most to us. To communicate with our elected and appointed officials, to seek options that promote health and well being and to share our perspective and solution to the problems our society is facing, I am so looking forward to this collaboration with Digital Elders and Tea and Technology. The potential is amazing…”

ABOUT MESSAGE MEDIA ED

The mission of Message Media Ed is to produce Black leadership for the Digital Age. Utilizing the tools of digital media, technology and traditional methods of creative expression, Message Media Ed enables youth and families of African descent to become multi-media literate, knowledgeable of their heritage and contemporary contributions, in order to play a leadership role academically, socially and economically. Through culturally relevant, interdisciplinary educational workshops and participatory professional development trainings, Message Media Ed aims to engage and empower African American communities to skillfully diversify the 21^st Century.

ABOUT BLACK WOMEN FOR WELLNESS

Black Women for Wellness is on a mission to enhance the health and well being of women, girls and our community. BWW objectives with technology include creating a comfort zone for African American women and girls with technology toward increasing the ability of grassroots and non-profit leadership utilization of technology as a tool for social justice, advocacy, personal and community health.

My Mandela Experience...

In 1990, my mother took me to see Nelson Mandela, South African activist and humanitarian, speak at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Sitting amongst a sea people from all ethnic backgrounds, I was entranced by this legendary leader. He had an uncanny ability to connect with each and every individual and create an environment that empowered everyone there to take action for his cause. I felt as if he was speaking only to me! He shared his personal and professional experiences as an active participant in the freedom struggle, graphically defined the term, Apartheid, and discussed his role in dismantling it. I was overwhelmed, humbled and deeply disheartened by the story of his reality, and the reality of South African people, my global brothers and sisters. He then announced he would begin fasting until there was equal voting rights declared by the South African government and requested the public join him in taking action toward the same goal. In the car ride home, I told my mother I would fast, by removing beef and pork from my diet, until South African citizens were able to vote. I maintained this commitment until 1994, when equal voting rights in South Africa was declared. It was not until I became a doctoral student that I was able to label that experience.

My mother, a Black female educator, inserted me into African centered (Murrell, 2002), non-traditional (informal) educational space, and what Mezirow (1997) and Bailey and Alfred (2006) would describe as, a culturally rooted, transformative learning environment. Through autonomous thinking, transformative learning is the process of effecting change within an established social structure (Mezirow, 1997) and is organic in nature amongst Black women educators cognizant of their role and impact on cultural empowerment (Bailey & Alfred, 2006). At the age of 16, the Mandela experience challenged me to think critically about the world and directed my understanding of racism as a social structure. Utilizing the cultural medium of oration, I was influenced and educated about the implications of European colonialism and it fostered the ability to identify my individual role in countering and transforming racism and power, for the betterment of the global African Diaspora. It was within many of these non-traditional, transformative educational environments, that I began modeling transformative thought and action. I haven’t stopped since 1990.

In 2008, I developed an organization, Message Media Ed.: a culture-specific, media literacy-based, professional development organization, dedicated to academic, social and economic advancement for youth and families of African descent. The vision of Message Media Ed is to develop critically conscious (Friere, 1970; Friere, 1974) and culturally courageous (Browne, 2008) leaders equipped with the skill-sets needed to diversify the 21st Century workforce. Offered through Message Media Ed, The Digital Elder Project is a program I designed and offer as a humble attempt to replicate my Mandela experience, to transform existing, regressive frames of references within in the Black community, from 20th Century thought to 21st Century action. In a country where Eurocentric, corporate American media has replaced the traditional role of the African Elder – as teacher, mediator, leader, value shaper – for Black community members, The Digital Elder Project reconnects participants to African culture and heritage, and empowers them to use human and technological resources to counter and thrive in a hegemonic culture. The Digital Elder Project combines Critical Pedagogy, specifically Critical Media Literacy, with African Centered Pedagogy, within a non-traditional, transformative learning environment, as tools to achieve its mission.

Join us for THE DIGITAL ELDER PROJECT - MARCH 2010
emPOWER On-Line & in the African American Community!

"This workshop empowers people to become more than themselves and take responsibility for each other.” – Digital Elder graduate

"Communication is so necessary!! Elders of all ages need this workshop for this reason. We must save our youth!! Nationwide!!” – Digital Elder graduate

Thank you for your time.

In service,

Shani Byard-Ngunjiri
Founder, Message Media Ed & The Digital Elder Project
http://DigitalElder.org

Copyright 2010 Message Media Ed.

Happy New Year & Mark Your Calendars!

1/1/10

Greetings Members & Digital Elder Graduates!

On this final day of Kwanzaa, Imani (meaning Faith), and as we kick off the New Year of 2010, we extend a heartfelt thank you for all of your support, wisdom and participation in expanding the impact of The Digital Elder Project! We look forward to more growth, on all levels, in 2010!

Also, mark your calendars for another opportunity to join our growing group of Digital Elder graduates! That's right... in March 2010, we are offering The Digital Elder Project - leadership and professional development workshop! If you consider yourself a current or potential leader, of African descent, and/or play a critical role in influencing the lives of Black youth, and you are between the ages of 14-100, you don't want to miss this!

***SAVE THE DATES***
The DIGITAL ELDER Project - MARCH 2010!
Sat. 3/20, 9am-6pm AND Sun. 3/21, 1pm-7pm
@ the Los Angeles Urban League West Adams/Baldwin Hills Worksource Center
5681 W. Jefferson Blvd. LA, Ca. 90016 (at La Cienega)
$60 Investment (includes all food & materials)

Check out the flyer here! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=100382587278

OR here! http://DigitalElder.org (Events section)

>>>BECOME A CULTURALLY COURAGEOUS LEADER FOR THE DIGITAL AGE!!!<<<

***SPECIAL OFFER FOR RETURNING DIGITAL ELDER GRADUATES!*** Bring a friend for a $100 total investment! Bring two friends for $140 total investment! And so on... :)

"Communication is so necessary!! Elders of all ages need this workshop for this reason. We must save our youth!! Nationwide!!" - Digital Elder graduate

"The Digital Elder Project has the potential of a groundswell movement for reclaiming or youths' potential by connecting with them to motivate and inspire." - Digital Elder graduate

Email us for a registration packet at digielder@gmail.com - Don't delay! Spread the word and hope to see you soon!

In service,

Shani Byard-Ngunjiri Founder Message Media Ed & The Digital Elder Project http://DigitalElder.org

"The value of intergenerational understanding in the Digital Age for individuals of African descent is priceless and essential to cultivating the collaborative capacity needed to evolve as an African American community" - Shani Byard-Ngunjiri (2009)

MESSAGE MEDIA ED ON ARTS EDUCATION FOR INNOVATION

10/11/09
Extracted from...

The 4th Annual Shaping Black Culture in the Diaspora: An Ark for the 21st Century
Leimert Park African Arts Village, Los Angeles, CA
Featured panelist: Shani Byard-Ngunjiri M.S., Founder, Message Media Ed
Panel: The Role of Performing Arts in Community Economic Development: A Conversation
Panel Organizer: M. Wesley Kabaila, Chair, National African American Congress
Panel Moderator: Dr. Anthony Samad, Author, Scholar & Managing Director, Urban Issues Forum

Other featured panelists: Sherri Franklin, Principal, Urban Design Center; Charles Anchang, CEO, Immigrant Magazine, Dr. C.Z. Wilson; and Rickie G. Tedford, CEO, Fan Club International, Inc.

DIGITAL ELDER YOUTH AFFIRMATION VIDEO MESSAGES

From The Digital Elder Project - October 2009, our Digital Elders chose an educational presentation w/ movement and a theatrical presentation to affirm and empower our youth. This video will be podcast at DigitalElder.org in the future, but is included in our Digital Elder group for you to share now! Enjoy!

BROTHER J & KUMU OF X-CLAN SPEAK ON THE DIGITAL ELDER PROJECT - VIDEO

After a 2-day workshop intensive... Digital Elder's Pledge

PHOTOS:::PHOTOS:::PHOTOS::: :)

Find more photos like this on Leimert Park Beat

The Official Flyer: The Digital Elder Project-October 2009 (click on flyers to enlarge)

SPONSORED BY:

http://VillageHealthFoundation.org

http://ConsciousFlowz.org

http://TheKeyInsights.com

http://GenuineHobo.com

http://TrueBlaq.com

http://Afrispora.com

http://PowerofthePeopleCulture.com

Youth/Adult Sponsors: Crystal Allen, Khalif Williams, Michael Massenburg

Professional Development: BECOME A CULTURALLY COURAGEOUS LEADER FOR THE DIGITAL AGE!

ATTENTION: Community Leaders, Law Enforcement Officers, Human Service Workers, Educators, Parents, Seniors, Youth, Friends & Family!

BECOME A DIGITAL ELDER IN OCTOBER 2009!

Introducing...
The DIGITAL ELDER Project
Closing the Divide & Reconstructing Self-Image for Socioeconomic Advancement

The Digital Elder Project is a traveling leadership/professional development training, designed specifically for youth, adults and seniors of African descent (ages 14-100).

It is a unique, interactive, 2-day workshop that combines instruction in basic to advanced computer operation, social media and internet navigation, with African and African American (historical & contemporary) education, exposing participants to technology's relationship to challenges and solutions in the Black community.

The DE Project is an opportunity for current and potential leaders, role models and anyone (from any ethnic background) in a position to influence or raise youth of African descent, to learn information, tools and techniques to better engage & prepare Black youth to advance in society.

THE DIGITAL ELDER PROJECT - OCTOBER 2009
Sat. 10/17, 9am-6pm AND Sun. 10/18, 1pm-7pm
(a 2-day commitment is necessary)
@ The Los Angeles Urban League West Adams/Baldwin Hills WorkSource Center
5681 W. Jefferson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016
(at La Cienega Blvd)

$60 Investment (includes materials and meals)

Facilitated by:
Shani Byard, M.S.
The Digital Elder Project Team
& YOU!!!

Become a Culturally Courageous Leader (Browne, 2008) for the DIGITAL AGE! Please email us at digielder@gmail.com for registration materials.

THE DEADLINE TO MAIL IN YOUR REGISTRATION IS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9TH. Email us today to reserve your seat!

More info on The DIGITAL ELDER Project http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=100382587278

http://DigitalElder.org

SEATING IS LIMITED, RSVP TODAY!
Call or email us 323-708-2526 or digielder@gmail.com for registration materials.


(LA Urban League is an Equal Opportunity Employer Program. Auxiliary services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. TTY 323-931-9076)