SAVE THE DATE: 9/14/24  

                              9am -12pm

          8611 HWY 23, Belle Chasse, LA 70037

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. ® , Rho Pi Omega Chapter's Enhance Our Environment Committee will be supporting a paper shredding event hosted by The Ansardi Group. Please bring your papers and documents in need of shredding. Protect your identity/privacy, shred papers that contain your personal information.  No limit on the amount of papers that can be shredded. 

See enclosed flyer for more details.

Did you know that our Golden Soror, Debra Gould was honored with "Outstanding Achievement & Exemplary Contribution Award" at the Greater New Orleans chapters, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Founders' Day Brunch?

You can read more about it here:

 https://www.ebonyspeakers.com/ebony-speakers-blog/debra-gould-honored-with-outstanding-achievement-exemplary-contribution-award-at-aka-founders-day

Thank you Golden. Continue making Rho Pi Omega proud.

#WeAreRPO #RPOstrong

Sista Strut 2023 - Your attendance is requested for Sista Strut 2023. This service project is in support of the Uplift our Local Community initiative under SOAR.

• Saturday, March 18 8-12 noon
• Location: City Park Festival Grounds
• RPO Meeting Location: Under the Pavillion (map to be provided day before)
• Attire: AKA Athletic Wear, colorful wigs or other headpieces are encouraged
• Sign up: https://raceroster.com/events/2023/71720/sista-strut-new-orleans 
• Select Team "Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc."
  

We are supporting this event in partnership with our local AKA chapters of Alpha Beta Omega and Omicron Lambda Omega.  We will host a table on the Festival Grounds, as well as conduct a check presentation on stage to the American Cancer Society. For any additional questions or information, please contact the Sista Strut Chair - Soror Zeta Hayes-Gabriel at zetahgabriel@gmail.com.  Any sorors that are breast cancer survivors, please email rpoprograms@gmail.com by Wednesday, March 1. 

Program Committee Signup - Sorors, thank you to everyone that has signed up for a program committee and many thanks to those that have stepped up to serve as Chair or Co-chair.  I'm in the process of finalizing the lists, so please review the link below and update the committees in which you wish to serve by Wednesday, March 1.  For committee Chairs and Co-chairs, we will meet Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30 pm.  You will receive a meeting notice shortly. 

 RPO Program Committees 2023

Youth Leadership Institute - We have begun planning for the Youth Leadership Institute with a soft-launch in the Spring and full launch in the Fall of 2023.  The focus will be on "Loving Yourself" and teach youth key principles on the following: 1. Respect for our ancestors/elders, 2. Expansion of their cultural experiences, 3. Entrepreneurship and Ownership.  Soror Benita Scott serves as the Chair.  The members of this committee are under the Empower our Families initiative. If you still would like to sign-up, please feel free to contact her directly at prov31nita8@yahoo.com. 

Pearl Essence - We have begun planning for the Pearl Essence event tentatively scheduled for August/September 2023.  This event will be hosted in partnership with the Westbank Omega Psi Phi chapter, and the fundraising efforts will support the donation of backpacks for local schools under the CHIPP program. Soror Ronique Sylva-Beverly serves as the Chair.  She will utilize the members of the fundraising committee as her planning committee.  If you still would like to sign-up, please feel free to contact her directly at rsbeverly2002@hotmail.com. 

February Focus: Build our Economic Wealth Initiative  - For the month of February, we are focused on how to keep the dollar within our community longer.  For Black communities, the dollar stays within our community only 6 hours! In comparison, the dollar stays 28 days in the Asian community, 19 days in the Jewish community, and 17 days in the White community.  Let's be intentional with our dollar...

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is launching our most progressive and revolutionary economic initiatives this century. This administration has created institutional-level solutions to combat institutional-level challenges.  We will further encourage and equip our members to place key strategies into action to build personal, organizational, and community economic wealth.

https://www.thebalance.com/investments-new-investors-should-avoid-357226

Come out and support  two of our very own chapter sorors, Hon. Ernestine Trahan and Linetta Gilbert as they will be honored for the work that they do in the Algiers Community!!!! Member's of Alpha Kappa Alpha are asked to wear pink and green to show your support. Algiers Day will honored on Thursday Dec 20, 2018 at 10am in the City Council chambers at City Hall

 

https://www.essence.com/news/politics/americas-youth-has-a-message-for-america-on-yara-shahidis-inaugural-wevotenext-youth-summit/

She's rewriting the rules of philanthropy in New Orleans

Updated Sep 21; Posted Sep 21 https://www.nola.com/300/2018/09/linetta_gilbert_new_orleans_30.html 

A portrait of Linetta Gilbert by artist Jessica Strahan of Where Y'Art, as commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune for its "300 for 300" celebration of New Orleans' tricentennial. (NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)  

By Contributing writer

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: community activist Linetta Gilbert.

The icon: Linetta Gilbert.

The legacy: Linetta Gilbert is rewriting the rules of philanthropy, showing us that it isn't restricted to people with fat checkbooks who donate to already-flush organizations. Through her years of experience, including nearly a decade with the Ford Foundation, Gilbert -- whose areas of concern including housing, violence prevention, health and education policies, and child-welfare services -- has worked to strengthen community-based philanthropic organizations, such as the Greater New Orleans Foundation, to build community strength and enhance the overall quality of life. In addition to getting money to organizations that need it, Gilbert also works to strengthen the boards that run these enterprises, to enhance the diversity of board membership and to make New Orleans a better, strong and more resilient city.

The artist: Jessica Strahan.

The quote: "She talked about how philanthropy is re-tooling -- that issues around social justice are again up for conversation and that we have more assets and resources than in the past. ... She told us to always look at an issue from the standpoint of the local level, stretch yourself, recognize that our jobs are to be talent scouts (and to) err on the side of the person who has a good idea." -- Jennifer Shanks, writing about Linetta Gilbert on www.epip.org, the website of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy

Explore more of Strahan's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St.

TRI-via

• She founded Gilbert & Associates, a New Orleans-based firm that shows companies how to achieve their goals. She is its managing partner.
• During nearly a decade as the Ford Foundation's senior program officer for social justice, Gilbert used $1 billion to strengthen community-based philanthropic organizations.
• As vice president of programs for the Greater New Orleans Foundation, she not only designed and implemented grant-making programs but also expanded the types of organizations and causes that would receive such gifts.
• Gilbert was the New Orleans-based consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation for its Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. The foundation was established to improve children's lives.
• Her clients have included Baptist Community Ministries, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
• Gilbert was a founding board member of the Foundation for Louisiana, a statewide charity designed to build stronger communities; Agenda for Children; and the Louisiana Children's Museum. Among the boards on which she sits are those of the Amistad Research Center and the Old Algiers Main Street Corp.

By John Pope, contributing writer
Source: The Times-Picayune archives; www.epip.org, gopropeller.org; staff research