Unusual Suspects
Published On 08-13-2008 , 9:54 PM
While the YWCA’s mission to eliminate racism and empower women is, indeed, lofty, the steps they are taking pretty much depend on the rest of us.
The forums, workshops and other programs developed by them to address these selected issues all too often, like so many opportunities, everywhere, suffer for lack of participants
Denise Jones, chairperson of Pasadena Y’s Racial Justice Committee, today’s guest on Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith LIVE, didn’t make a big to do about the “unusual suspects,” as we came to call those folk who never show up for the events staged for their benefit.
Unusual Suspects? Well, they came to be named such because most programs and events are pretty much attended by the same people and the Y doesn’t stand alone in this. one.
How many organizations hire outreach coordinators to beat the bushes to find the very sleeping souls their mission and projects are made for?
While Jones wasn’t in the guest seat to carry on about who comes to the programs and who doesn’t, it was ME who jumped on the chance to hammer away at parents for allowing their teenagers to sleep-in on Saturday mornings rather than join in for something beneficial.
I apologized to Jones for going on a tangent but then I took back my “I’m sorry” because I meant every word I hurled at parent and caretaker viewers.
Yes, I demanded, for whatever good it didn’t do, that parents get Jerome and Jantell out of bed on Saturday mornings and make sure they come home early on Friday night so they can do something that stimulates their intellectual and educational growth.
Maybe the Unusual Suspects don’t participate because they don’t feel welcome. Maybe they don’t participate because they really aren’t welcome.
What’s your take on social service organizations mainly serving the Usual Suspects?
During viewer call in, Racial Justice Committee chairperson Jones talked Alice, from Riverside, though her concerns about the dismantling of affirmative action in California. While Jones said her committee worked mainly with local issues she was willing, she said, to have it on the committee agenda for discussion.
Read about the YWCA’s available programs in our News/Announcements section.
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Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith LIVE airs Wednesdays 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. and can be seen by visiting this website, during broadcast hours, and clicking on the PCAC logo on the homepage. Call in at (626) 794-2116 or (626)794-2551
Next week's guest: Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor, Michael D. Antonovich
Topic: Foster Care
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