WWDUC2 is a new initiative sponsored by the AAF-RDU Diversity Committee. Our goal is to educate talented high school students from diverse backgrounds about the unique career opportunities in the advertising industry through a summer internship program.

WWDUC2’s Vernessa and Ed met with Southeast Raleigh Assembly’s CEO Rita Anita Linger (1st photo) and Youth Program Coordinator Angela Jackson-Mann (2nd photo) to discuss engaging and recruiting teens from Southeast Raleigh to participate in the 2013 AAF-RDU Summer Internship program.

Artists young and old, female and male alike - those who spin divine words, come join our
sacred space for a chance to shower us with your wisdom as we explore the confines and
freedoms of Feminism....

What Is Feminism?
“Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies, aimed at defining and establishing
and defending equal political, economic and social rights for women” - Wikipedia, the free
dictionary

The Goals for this Open Mic Night/Open Talent Showcase will be to:

* Explore Feminism at its Core
* Understand how diversity impacts Feminism
* Engage the concept of Feminism from a male perspective
* Experience through spoken word, song and dance the personal birthing of Feminism
from an individualistic perspective

SERA INC. IS SUPPORTING THE TALENT OF YOUNG AND NOT SO YOUNG ARTISTS BY
PROVIDING A FORUM FOR GREAT MINDS TO SHARE THEIR WISDOM AND CREATE A
LEARNING AND GROWING ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL WHO ATTEND. COME JOIN US!

Date: March 27, 2013
Time: 6:00pm-8pm
Location: 121 N. Tarboro Rd; Raleigh, NC 27610

Light refreshments will be served!

Contact: Angela Jackson Mann- SERA, Inc. Open Mic Coordinator at: 919-747-8423

In Partnership with City of Raleigh - Building relationships with the youth of Southeast Raleigh

Dear SERA Ally:
 
Have you ever sat down in front of a computer with a goal in mind, but left feeling frustrated because you weren’t able to accomplish the task you set out to complete due to your lack of computer skills?
 
Don’t despair!  Participants to this workshop will be provided a special opportunity by SERA, Inc.’s State- of-the-Art Technology Team to join a group of community residents who desire to sharpen and enhance their computer skills.  
 
With improved basic computer skills you will be better able to navigate the “Internet Super Highway”, apply for jobs online, find your way around the wonderful world of email, communicate with family and friends, use Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office Suite programs, create a Facebook page, create a PowerPoint with sound and pictures, and many other tools and tips needed to be considered computer literate.  

The session will be held in a safe and comfortable environment where every question participants may ask is considered a “knowledge is power” opportunity, and where fun is at the core of this experiential learning journey!
 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:  
How to manage and use email, including email “group” function 
Basic “Microsoft Word” usage including how to create files, tables, charts and graphs
Basic use of Excel
How to use a thumb or portable drive
How to manage pictures (i.e. name and sort in the windows photo gallery)
How to save battery power
How to change screensavers and backgrounds
How to create a basic PowerPoint and incorporate sound and video 
How to create a basic Facebook Page
Texting for Seniors (teach yourself and others)
Smart Phones (IPhones & Androids)
This workshop is valued at $300.00 per person, however SERA Inc. with the support of the RBTC is prepared to scholarship all but $20.00 for this session.  Seniors free!  
With Great Expectations,
 
Rita Anita Linger, President/CEO – SERA, Inc.
A LIGHT MEAL WILL BE SERVED 
Where: Raleigh Business & Technology Center (RBTC)
900 South Wilmington Street
Date: March 20, 2013
Time: 5:30pm  -  8:30pm 
REGISTER NOW SPACE IS LIMITED with:
David Brown, Community Engagement Manager:
919-747-8421 or at david.brown@southeastraleigh.org

On Oct. 11th, AARP hon­ored five out­stand­ing orga­ni­za­tions that have demon­strated excel­lence in work­ing in North Car­olina with diverse com­mu­ni­ties at a awards cer­e­mony. SERA, Inc was an recip­i­ent of one of these awards  for Inno­v­a­tive Mul­ti­cul­tural Out­reach. We thank AARP NC which works and sup­ports ini­tia­tives from advo­cacy to retire­ment planning.

“AARP has been busy with new pro­grams and ini­tia­tives in African Amer­i­can, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian com­mu­ni­ties around the coun­try to show that real change hap­pens when we work as one. Col­lec­tively, we can cre­ate pos­i­tive social change. We will rec­og­nize orga­ni­za­tions that have demon­strated the power of our com­bined inter­est, energy and com­mit­ment to help­ing make life bet­ter for all,” Tyler-Horton

DON’T BE A BYSTANDER – BE AN
ALLY!
SERA, Inc. is a flag­ship non­profit orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is to facil­i­tate com­mu­nity capac­ity build­ing in its most authen­tic sense, eco­nomic devel­op­ment, sus­tain­abil­ity, and indi­vid­ual cit­i­zen empow­er­ment in order to enhance the qual­ity of life for South­east Raleigh res­i­dents and to build endur­ing rela­tion­ships with com­mu­nity part­ners. Our work is to pro­vide advo­cacy, edu­ca­tion, out­reach, col­lab­o­ra­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties, train­ing, and resources to indi­vid­u­als and other non-profit orga­ni­za­tions within the South­east Raleigh community.

 SERA Inc. is work­ing dili­gently to increase the efforts in the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, de-escalation, res­o­lu­tion, and elim­i­na­tion of bul­ly­ing behav­ior and actions in the edu­ca­tional sys­tem through­out South­east Raleigh schools. Our “Peace­ful Schools Anti-Bullying Cam­paign” is aimed to pro­vide solid edu­ca­tional pro­grams and resources to stu­dents, indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions and orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing teach­ing stu­dents how to man­age con­flict, nav­i­gate a some­time hos­tile world, how to effec­tively medi­ate dis­putes amongst and between their peers and to serve as an ally in a diverse envi­ron­ment. Stu­dents work­ing with adults will also learn how to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment within school that will not tol­er­ate bul­ly­ing, yet work with the bully to mod­ify behav­ior over the long term.  Trained stu­dent lead­ers will work with trained adults to facil­i­tate this program.

 Bul­ly­ing and inef­fec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion result­ing in unsolved con­flict is often the num­ber one non-academic issue that most edu­ca­tors face, yet many edu­ca­tors have never taken a pro­fes­sional course about bul­ly­ing dur­ing their teacher train­ing at uni­ver­sity or dur­ing their time in the field. Bul­ly­ing is also one of the top edu­ca­tional con­cerns of many par­ents. Scared young peo­ple can never reach their poten­tial as learn­ers in school or as cit­i­zens within their com­mu­ni­ties.  Episodes of bul­ly­ing are rarely con­fined to one place. Some­thing that starts in the play­ground often spills over into the com­mu­nity — and vice versa. Any suc­cess­ful approach to bul­ly­ing must involve the whole community.

 Bul­ly­ing is a prob­lem that affects mil­lions of peo­ple of all races and classes. One (1) out of four (4) stu­dents are bul­lied. SERA  Inc. rec­og­nizes  that in recent years , advances in tech­nol­ogy par­tic­u­larly, the use of the com­puter has increased the abil­ity of indi­vid­u­als to bully.  Exten­sive research shows that between 15–25% of U.S. stu­dents are bul­lied with some fre­quency, while 15–20% report they bully oth­ers with some fre­quency.  Here are some com­mon effects of bul­ly­ing that we found to be com­mon through­out schools.

• Poor aca­d­e­mic per­for­mance due to lack of
  con­cen­tra­tion on stud­ies from being bullied.


• Bul­ly­ing can affect a young person’s pathol­ogy by
  cre­at­ing an unpro­duc­tive and unsuc­cess­ful
  student.


• Youth will often skip school from being bul­lied. As many as 160,000
  stu­dents may stay home on any given day because of being afraid.


• Many bul­lied stu­dents com­mit suicide.


• Bul­ly­ing often leads to exper­i­men­ta­tion with
  drugs and alco­hol, and a down­ward spi­ral which  leads to poor and
  destruc­tive choices.


• 60% of boys who were bul­lies in mid­dle school had at least one
  crim­i­nal record by age 24.

SERA Inc. aims to cre­ate allies and youth advi­sors within South­east Raleigh schools.  These youth lead­ers will be trained exten­sively on how to iden­tify, ana­lyze, eval­u­ate, and resolve bul­ly­ing issues through the art and sci­ence of medi­a­tion and con­flict res­o­lu­tion. These stu­dents will pos­sess the cor­rect lan­guage, pro­to­col and action steps within the class­rooms, hall­ways, school grounds, and inter­net.   Through peer, fam­ily, parent-teen medi­a­tion train­ing, youth will work to cre­ate a friendly school envi­ron­ment and develop  best prac­tice solu­tions that fit all par­ties involved in any incident.

 SERA Inc. is con­cerned about the deadly con­se­quences of bul­ly­ing and will NOT stand idly by while oth­ers are bul­lied or harassed. We pledge our­selves to be an ally for those who are not able to stand up for them­selves and we pledge to make schools in South­east Raleigh a place of respect and under­stand­ing for
all.

 SERA, Inc. President/CEO, Rita Anita Linger,  is a nation­ally rec­og­nized medi­a­tion trainer, facil­i­tat­ing “train the train­ers” across the coun­try and hav­ing trained for the National Cen­ter for State Courts.  “I believe that the major­ity of con­flicts can be resolved within and with­out schools using medi­a­tion and con­flict res­o­lu­tion tech­niques designed to focus on an individual’s
inter­est over their position.”

 To reg­is­ter for this train­ing, and for more
infor­ma­tion about peace­mak­ing pro­grams or any SERA Inc. com­mu­nity based
ini­tia­tives, please

 Con­tact:

Quintin Mur­phy, Social Jus­tice
Advo­cate
SERA Inc
19 W Har­gett St., Suite
200
Raleigh, NC 27601

Social Jus­tice Com­mu­nity Advo­cate:
Quintin Mur­phy 919–747-8423   quintin.murphy@southeastraleigh.org

 CEO/President:
Rita Anita Linger 919–747-8420
ralinger@southeastraleigh.org

SERA’s ground break­ing twelve week health and fit­ness cel­e­bra­tion to reduce obe­sity and car­dio vas­cu­lar dis­ease. Click here to see WRAL’s video.

SERA, Inc. has devel­oped an endur­ing part­ner­ship with AARP her in North Car­olina.  AARP NC is com­mit­ted to address­ing the multi-cultrual issues that are emerg­ing in our com­mu­ni­ties as we age.

Your are Invited for Lunch

A new AARP sur­vey of North Carolina’s African Amer­i­cans age 50 or older reflects an older pop­u­la­tion with bright dreams of trav­el­ing and spend­ing time on leisure pur­suits in retire­ment, but con­cerns over stay­ing healthy, receiv­ing Social Secu­rity when they need it, and hav­ing enough health insur­ance cov­er­age cast a shadow over those dreams.  Only around one quar­ter of fewer of those sur­veyed feel they have the resources they need to address a wide range of concerns.

In addi­tion to AARP’s statewide sur­vey of African Amer­i­cans, our North Car­olina Direc­tor of Mul­ti­cul­tural Out­reach, Debra Tyler-Horton, has met with over 200 African Amer­i­cans 50+ in Wake County alone to ask, “when you tell the story about your com­mu­nity what are you most proud of?”  “What has been your con­tri­bu­tion?”  When dream­ing the future, there are many ser­vices and pro­grams avail­able to us as we age, “what is miss­ing for you in your community?”

You are cor­dially invited to join AARP for lunch to learn more about the sur­vey results and how AARP can help.  You will have an oppor­tu­nity to talk with experts in the field of AARP’s Advo­cacy, Care­giv­ing, Edu­ca­tion, Con­sumer Fraud Edu­ca­tion, Cre­ate the Good, Dri­vers Safety Pro­gram, Grand­par­ent Infor­ma­tion, Tax Aide and our Mul­ti­cul­tural Out­reach Ini­tia­tive.  You may also want to take this oppor­tu­nity to sign-up as an AARP Vol­un­teer!  Take this time to do some­thing good for yourself!

Sat­ur­day, March 26, 2011
711 Hills­bor­ough Street, Raleigh
11:00 am – 1:00 pm