Executive Director Joy Briscoe and Accelerator Director ReShonda Young will be presenting on the 24/7 Black Leadership Advancement Consortium. The organization is a non partisan 501 C3 aimed at increasing personal and professional development, stimulating the creation of generational wealth and financial empowerment and building networks of influence with navigational support for Black Professionals.
In response to the unique needs for entrepreneurs to recalibrate during the COVID-19 induced recession, 24/7 Black Leadership Advancement Consortium launched the Cedar Valley Black Business & Entrepreneurship Accelerator (CCMBEA) to proactively serve the needs of the African American business community and better understand where considered action could do the most good.
Joy Briscoe is a consummate diversity, equity and inclusion professional; as an Air Force veteran with more than 15 years of experience in developing culturally inclusive programming. She is currently the Talent Acquisition and Outreach Specialist for Waterloo Schools where her role is to increase the amount of staff of color, develop Grow Your Own talent programming while also supporting the Waterloo Career Center on equity strategies to attract and retain underrepresented students and fostering business engagement. A master of innovation and the professional pivot, Joy has hosted multiple virtual team building retreats to develop skills to improve communication and team work, manage conflict, align business activities to organizational vision and values, and leverage diversity.
Prior to working at the district, Joy led the YWCA of Black Hawk County in its mission to eliminate racism and empower women as the Marketing and Development Director. There she was responsible for the first Cedar Valley Stand Against Racism campaign in conjunction with 650 community organizations across 44 states in the United States; as well as revitalizing marketing materials to meet YWCA “On A Mission” national branding campaign.
Joy is the creator of several initiatives aimed at reducing disparity for underserved populations with entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation in response to her community being designated as one of the top five cities in the US for Blacks. Her philosophy is the conversation on diversity, inclusion and retention cannot be addressed without a commitment to resources and access. In this vein, she is the co-founder of Inclusion Cedar Valley, the Cedar Valley Fashion Art and Culture Expo, SHIPHT Youth Opportunity Accelerator, the Minority Business and Entrepreneurship Accelerator and the 24/7 Black Leadership Advancement Consortium. Joy is an Upper Iowa alum with a degree in graphic design, a minor in marketing and a certification in communication.
ReShonda Young was born and raised in Waterloo, IA and graduated with her BA from Wartburg College. She has been an active voice on Working Family issues, advocating for pay equity for women, and many other issues that will benefit working families. ReShonda is a founding member of the Iowa Main Street Alliance, a board member of the national Main Street Alliance, and was honored in April 2015 as a White House Working Families Champion of Change. She serves on the boards of Waterloo Center for the Arts, Black Hawk Economic Development, Link Christian Community Development, and Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa. ReShonda is also the founder of Popcorn Heaven, a gourmet popcorn chain that opened in Waterloo, IA in February of 2014. ReShonda licensed Popcorn Heaven locations in North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, California, Missouri, and Iowa.
Can you believe the District Conference is only two weeks away? The Committee has been working hard to make this a great virtual conference. Attached is the program for the conference, if you haven't registered yet, don't delay! Register here..
Don't forget to buy a duck for the Duck Pluck. Three lucky winners will receive a Paul Harris Fellow, and your donation will go to the Rotary Foundation. Remember, in three years half of what is donated to the Annual Fund comes back to the District in the form of District grants. Buy a duck or send a check for $5 per duck to:
The silent auction that is typically held during the District Conference is virtual this year as well. The auction will open for bidding on April 23 and bidding will end on May 7. Clubs - if you still want to donate an item for the auction, it's not too late! Funds from individual purchases will go to the Rotary Foundation in your name.
By Steven Sanbo, past governor of District 6690 and Zone 30 assistant Rotary coordinator
What I recall most are the hundreds of faces. Faces of hope. Faces of relief, gratitude, fear, joy, excitement, desperation, anxiety and yes, faces with tears all hidden behind masks during my volunteer shift at a mass vaccination center in Arizona, USA, on 26 February.
The only other time I had seen hundreds of faces filled with so much emotion was leading a Rotary mission trip in Guatemala in November 2014 to open a trade school. That morning an earthquake measuring 7.4 magnitude hit the San Marcos region 40 miles from where we were working. It was the largest earthquake to hit Guatemala since 1976.
That afternoon I and two other Rotarians volunteered to be first responders with Shelter Box leaving at 04:00 the following morning for San Marcos. You could see it on their faces. The villagers cried for help, support, food, water, shelter, hope for missing family members amid the destruction and crumbled houses. I was there to provide hope.
Vaccination rollout
This December, my wife Jill and I left our home in Columbus, Ohio, where I am a member of the Rotary Club of Upper Arlington, to travel to Cave Creek, Arizona, to spend a few months closer to our three adult children and five grandchildren who all reside in the western U.S.
Feeling we needed to do something to assist with the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, we immediately started looking to volunteer. After six weeks being on a list, my wife received an offer to help the all-night shift at the Glendale Arizona stadium. Since we signed up at the same time, I figured I would get a call at any moment. But one never came. Frustrated, I finally contacted the Arizona Department of Health and was crushed to find out I was “lost” in their system. Once I re-signed up, there were 8,000 volunteers ahead of me.
I didn’t want to wait another two months; I was ready to go. That’s what Rotarians do, right? By pure luck (and persistence) I found a vaccination site in Yavapi County, Arizona, that needed one nonmedical volunteer early the next morning.
I arrived in Verde Valley and was led into the small arena and assigned a position. I was in charge of registration which meant checking people in on a FEMA computer system, given five minutes of training on the software, and turned loose. As people started to line up, I was probably the last person they wanted checking them in as speed learning new software is not my strength.
