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.