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(Full article text and other writing samples available from the author by request)
Lula Belle Stewart Center: Making a way for teen moms to succeed
Michigan Chronicle, March 27 - April 2, 1991
Third Place, Best Feature Category, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), 1991
Michigan Chronicle, March 27 - April 2, 1991
Third Place, Best Feature Category, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), 1991
Kelly Dawkins wants to be a journalist.
Her soft spoken manner belies an inner strength that shows through in the careful way she phrases her thoughts into
sentences, her dreams into words.
When you see Dawkins it's pretty apparent that she's 21. She dresses like other young women her age. laughs and
talks the way they do But once you talk to her you realize the naive edge most 21-year-olds still possess has been
worn away by a tough adolescence that erased her well-laid teenage plans.
Dawklns was an above average seventh grade student when she became pregnant with her first child. She was 14
years old. The crisis forced her to drop out of school and severed the already distant relationship she had with her
mother.
It took six years and another child for Dawkins to decide to do something with her life. At the time she says she had
no goals for herself, she didn't know what she wanted to be or where she wanted her life to go. She says she didn't
really care. And then a friend persuaded her to get Involved with the Lula Belle Stewart Center.
"When I got here I got a better perspective of what I wanted to do," she reveals. "I had options of what I wanted to
be. So now I know for sure what I want to be.
"The center was a big part of me deciding what to do."
THE LULA BELLE STEWART CENTER was borne of a community's desire to take care of its own.
Her soft spoken manner belies an inner strength that shows through in the careful way she phrases her thoughts into
sentences, her dreams into words.
When you see Dawkins it's pretty apparent that she's 21. She dresses like other young women her age. laughs and
talks the way they do But once you talk to her you realize the naive edge most 21-year-olds still possess has been
worn away by a tough adolescence that erased her well-laid teenage plans.
Dawklns was an above average seventh grade student when she became pregnant with her first child. She was 14
years old. The crisis forced her to drop out of school and severed the already distant relationship she had with her
mother.
It took six years and another child for Dawkins to decide to do something with her life. At the time she says she had
no goals for herself, she didn't know what she wanted to be or where she wanted her life to go. She says she didn't
really care. And then a friend persuaded her to get Involved with the Lula Belle Stewart Center.
"When I got here I got a better perspective of what I wanted to do," she reveals. "I had options of what I wanted to
be. So now I know for sure what I want to be.
"The center was a big part of me deciding what to do."
THE LULA BELLE STEWART CENTER was borne of a community's desire to take care of its own.
| (c) 2007 Stefanie Worth |
African-Oriented Churches: New Hope for Young Black Males
Class, February 1993
Class, February 1993
When author Jawanza Kunjufu challenged the traditional black church's inability to hold the attention of young
African-American males (Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys), Afrocentricity was not in vogue and
black nationalism had not stirred anew. Spiritual urgency was not a priority. But things have changed. And it seems
only natural that young people seeking social action are turning to churches and religions can provide the challenge
many traditional black churches have failed to meet.
African-American males (Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys), Afrocentricity was not in vogue and
black nationalism had not stirred anew. Spiritual urgency was not a priority. But things have changed. And it seems
only natural that young people seeking social action are turning to churches and religions can provide the challenge
many traditional black churches have failed to meet.
Finding New Ways: Urban Communities Adopt Aggressive Approaches to Urgent Problems
Upscale, April 1994
Upscale, April 1994
In the '80s, there was self. We indulged ourselves in the pursuit of self-gratification through physical and fiscal
fitness. Then came the '90s, a decade characterized by the decline of the Republican empire and the realization of
what we had done to ourselves.
Thirty years after the trails blazed in the '60s, civil, social and economic trials have again come to visit. Poverty,
illiteracy, drugs, crime and the apathy of hopelessness tear through our families and communities. The problems
plaguing America's urban communities are the same from city to city, varying perhaps in intensity or prevalence.
As if on cue, leaders of urban centers coast to coast took the "I" of the ' 80s, added the two words, "am
responsible," and set out to solve their ills. These communities are now making their own way, using their own
resources and are achieving inspirational results. In an effort to bear the brunt of being under siege, cities across the
country have adopted initiatives small and large to prepare our communities to meet the educational, professional
and economic challenges of tomorrow's world.
fitness. Then came the '90s, a decade characterized by the decline of the Republican empire and the realization of
what we had done to ourselves.
Thirty years after the trails blazed in the '60s, civil, social and economic trials have again come to visit. Poverty,
illiteracy, drugs, crime and the apathy of hopelessness tear through our families and communities. The problems
plaguing America's urban communities are the same from city to city, varying perhaps in intensity or prevalence.
As if on cue, leaders of urban centers coast to coast took the "I" of the ' 80s, added the two words, "am
responsible," and set out to solve their ills. These communities are now making their own way, using their own
resources and are achieving inspirational results. In an effort to bear the brunt of being under siege, cities across the
country have adopted initiatives small and large to prepare our communities to meet the educational, professional
and economic challenges of tomorrow's world.
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