National economic trends, such as unstable employment, the threat to Social Security as we know it, and the widening gap between wealth and poverty are the basis for the development of Financial Fortitude, the current Economic Development program initiative of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Financial Fortitude is a process that will help program participants to set and define goals, develop a plan to achieve them, and to put the plan into action. The process serves as a blueprint to address all aspects of personal finances.

The Financial Fortitude initiative is comprised of ten components and provides a collaboration of information from major economic corporations and other well-known financial institutions. The ten components include: Goal Setting, Financial Planning, Budgeting, Debt Management, Savings & Investments, Retirement Planning, Homeownership, Insurance, Estate Planning, and Entrepreneurship.

 The initiative helps members of the Sorority spread financial education throughout their local communities.

 Potomac Valley Alumnae Chapter’s Economic Development Committee marks over 10 consecutive years of planning and executing a successful, sustainable, impactful, community-centered economic development financial education program that encompasses all ten components of Delta Sigma Theta’s Financial Fortitude Initiative:  Goal Setting, Financial Planning, Budgeting, Debt Management, Savings and Investments, Retirement Planning, Homeownership, Insurance Estate Planning, and Entrepreneurship.

The Committee implements Financial Fortitude by conducting and sponsoring workshops, conferences and Financial Fortitude Friday events; creating Financial Fortitude videos; promoting useful online financial management tools; and distributing financial literature – all to help individuals make better financial decisions, to set and define goals, to develop plans to achieve their goals, and to put their plans into action.   

Highlights of PVAC’s Economic Development Financial Fortitude activities include:

• Annual Financial Fortitude Month Workshops targeting youth
• Annual Financial Fortitude Friday Workshops targeting Delta Dears and community senior citizens
• Annual Montgomery County Affordable Housing Conference targeting first-time homebuyers
• Supporting community events and Minerva Entrepreneurship Awards that target and spotlight African-American business owners, potential business owners and young entrepreneurs under 30
• Supporting Small Business Networking Breakfasts
• Distributing financial resource materials to promote debt management

The PVAC Educational Development Committee has collaborated with Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and Scholastic Reading, Inc. for the past five years to work toward enabling children to have access to books and develop an appreciation for reading.  PVAC’s Educational Development Committee is dedicated to working with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to support and actively participate in its endeavor to promote success for all students in the development of their reading skills and to foster a life-long appreciation for literacy.

The PVAC Literacy Program, a key component of its Educational Development Thrust, works with eligible schools in MCPS to provide free books and literacy resources to underserved children. For the past 6 years PVAC Educational Development committee members have worked with Clopper Mill Elementary School, an MCPS federal Title I school located in Germantown, Maryland.

PVAC Educational Development committee members meet yearly with school staff and administrators to develop an implementation program and calendar of activities which includes selecting interesting and exciting books, scheduling periodic book distributions for the entire the school year, celebrating the annual Dr. Seuss Day, reading to the kindergarten children, and a culminating, end-of-the-year recognition of all of the students for their avid participation in the Literacy Program.

The Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy

Catching the Dreams of Tomorrow, Preparing Young Women for the 21st Century: The Delta Academy was created in 1996 out of an urgent sense that bold action was needed to save our young females (ages 11-14) from the perils of academic failure, low self-esteem, and crippled futures. Delta Academy provides an opportunity for local chapters to enrich and enhance the education that our young teens receive in public schools across the nation. Specifically, we augment their scholarship in math, science, and technology, their opportunities to provide service in the form of leadership through service learning defined as the cultivation and maintenance of relationships. A primary goal of the program is to prepare young girls for full participation as leaders in the 21st Century.

DELTA GEMS: GROWING AND EMPOWERING MYSELF SUCCESSFULLY

A natural outgrowth and expansion for the continuation of the highly successful Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy: Catching the Dreams of Tomorrow, Delta GEMS was created to catch the dreams of African-American at-risk, adolescent girls aged 14-18. Delta GEMS provides the framework to actualize those dreams through the performance of specific tasks that develop a CAN DO attitude. The goals for Delta GEMS are:

• To instill the need to excel academically;
• To provide tools that enable girls to sharpen and enhance their skills to achieve high levels of academic success;
• To assist girls in proper goal setting and planning for their futures in high school and beyond; and
• To create compassionate, caring, and community-minded young women by actively involving them in service learning and community service opportunities.

The Delta GEMS program offers a road map for college and career planning through activities that provide opportunities for self-reflection and individual growth. Delta GEMS, like Delta Academy, is implemented by chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Delta GEMS participants have the opportunity to define and “Discover their individual Brilliance.”

The primary goal of the combined PVAC Delta Academy/GEMS program is to help young girls find their voices and become leaders in the 21st Century.  During the year, the PVAC Delta Academy/GEMS partnered with the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) and several Chapter Committees providing the participating 30 girls a wide variety of experiences that included:

• STEM Engineering activity
• Book exchange and cultural activity designed to share Guatemalan and Jamaican holiday traditions
• Career Exploration Workshop
• International Awareness activity
• Financial Workshop
• Healthy Lifestyles Workshop
• Government Affairs Overview and Debate
• My Choice Book Selection
• A Pottery Workshop

Empowering Males to Build Opportunities for Developing Independence (EMBODI)

The EMBODI program is designed to refocus the efforts of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, with the support and action of other major organizations, on the plight of African-American males. Both informal and empirical data suggests that the vast majority of African-American males continue to be in crisis and are not reaching their fullest potential educationally, socially and emotionally. EMBODI is designed to address these issues through dialogue and recommendations for change and action. EMBODI addresses issues related to STEM education, culture, self-efficacy, leadership, physical and mental health, healthy lifestyle choices, character, ethics, relationships, college readiness, fiscal management, civic engagement and service learning.

During the 2017-2018 sorority year, PVAC’s EMBODI Committee partnered with the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, Tri-Sigma Chapter, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and with several Chapter Committees to provide a variety of experiences and activities to 4th – 8th grade boys which supported:

• Career Development
• Cultural Development
• International Awareness & Service Learning
• Social Action Involvement  
• Economic/Career Development
• Physical & Mental Health  

Supporting Delta’s 2017-2019 biennial theme, “Joy in our sisterhood, power in our voice and service in our heart”, PVAC’s 2018-19 EMBODI Program will focus on “Power in our Voice” to address the identified issues. We will provide experiences that will encourage our young men to be comfortable using their voices to effectively express themselves as well as recognize their ability to become agents of change.

The PVAC EMBODI 2018-2019 program year will incorporate the following issues:

• Cultural sensitivity
• Suicide prevention
• Substance abuse

Mary Help of the Sick Mission Hospital

Realizing that adequate prenatal and maternity care was seldom experienced by women on the African continent, in 1955, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. began making plans and laying the groundwork to establish a maternity hospital in the east African country of Kenya. The plans for a facility came to fruition in the early 1960s when Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. made a major donation to help finance the construction of the Thika Maternity Hospital in Thika, Kenya, which is now named Mary Help of the Sick Mission Hospital. The first hospital to open after Kenya gained its independence, Mary Help of the Sick Mission Hospital continues to be operated by the missionary sisters of the Holy Rosary.

DELTA SIGMA THETA SORORITY, INC. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (CHÉRETTE, HAITI)

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., in collaboration with Water in Education International opened the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Elementary School, The Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre Campus in Chἐrette, Haiti June 15, 2013. The Water and Education International Student Collaboration for Haiti Outreach Opportunities for Learning (WEI SCHOOL) Project was established to provide an adequate school facility to include clean water for school children in Haiti. It is the first of many initiatives to alleviate some of the challenges in obtaining a quality education in Haiti. The remote village of Chἐrette is located 96 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince.

DELTA HOUSE (MBABANE, SWAZILAND)

Dedicated in 2002, the Delta House is a home for children who became orphans due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is located in what is now known as Vashti Village, in Mbabane, Swaziland along with two similar structures. Built to accommodate 12 children and a housemother, the home was made possible with funds contributed by Delta sorors at the 45th and 46th National Conventions held in Chicago (2000) and Atlanta (2002). Situated in a picturesque valley, an expansive vegetable garden flourishes behind the Delta House where residents (most of whom are adolescents) grow some of their own food. The village is still a work in progress with an office complex, conference center, church and apartments envisioned for the future.

The intention of the International Awareness and Involvement Committee is to exemplify a purposeful and positive commitment to the empowerment of our global community, and thereby strategically impact the challenges of its people. Chapter level programs and events stimulate community engagement as well as support the seamless continuation of the sorority’s current national initiatives.

For the 2017-2018 year, the committee constructed workshops with our youth mentoring programs, Delta Academy/GEMS and EMBODI to increase global awareness, interest, and concern.  Our creative project was making blankets for the seriously ill youth from all over the world living at The Children’s Inn while they receive treatment at the National Institutes of Health.  During the workshops we engaged in learning about other countries and raising an awareness of similarities/differences as well as the challenges in the global community.

The Committee also contributed to the following projects:

• The Helen Project International, Inc. – micro-lending project in Winneba, Ghana for grandmothers to start their own businesses in order to support their grandchildren infected with/affected by HIV/AIDS.
• The Children’s Inn – residential facility which houses and supports families of seriously ill children being treated at NIH.
• Life Connection Mission – a Christian organization that supports programs of food distribution, medical care, education, career preparation and hope to impoverished children and adults in Haiti.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE: TOTAL WOMAN: MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT

As an organization of predominantly African American women, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is uniquely positioned to impact not only the well-being of its membership, but also the families and communities we serve. Journey to Wellness: Committing our Bodies to Physical and Mental Health is now the signature Physical and Mental Health call to action. The initiative addresses the challenges of living holistic and healthy lives. The three-pronged approach to Journey to Wellness includes: signature programs, Catching, coping, Conquering; My Cry in the Dark; and Healthy Lifestyles. Members have actively engaged in physical fitness and are taking an active interest in the welfare of their health.

 The Physical and Mental Health Committee’s programmatic thrust focused on improving the quality of life for adults and teens.  The Committee’s activities supported the following programs:

• A Sexual Assault and Abuse Workshop for the Delta Gems that emphasized the importance of personal body safety and understanding the #metoo movement.
•  Health Education Primers for the chapter members that covered breast cancer screenings, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and prevention, and maternal and child health. 
• Participated in the March for Babies Washington, DC Walk and Fundraiser.  Sorors raised over $4000 for this national community partner.

In March of 1913, nearly six weeks after its founding, several Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Founders marched in the historic Suffragist March under the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. banner, the Sorority’s first public act. Today, low voter turnout statistics highlight the need to continue to identify ways to include opportunities for all citizens to exercise their voting power. Each of Delta’s programmatic initiatives has an advocacy component that is implemented under the auspices of social action when it is appropriate or necessary to do so. Under the auspices of the National Social Action Commission, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. continues to institute activities that foster:

• Sponsoring Voter Registration and voter education programs
• Combating Voter Suppression
• The full restoration of voting rights for individuals who have paid their debt to society (ex-offenders)
• Affordable Health Care and access to quality health care
• Financial Literacy and Economic Empowerment
• Support for HBCUs
• Political Awareness and Involvement
•  Gender Equality
• Eradicating Racial Profiling

PVAC’s Social Action Committee is committed to carrying on the legacy of our 22 Illustrious Founders who were committed to promoting equality and change.  Through its Political Awareness and Involvement thrust, PVAC conducts advocacy activities that ensure citizen, institutional, governmental, and organizational response to the emerging and perennial needs of the community; heighten community awareness regarding pressing socio-political issues, provide cultural enrichment activities, and ensure the participation of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. in advocacy and collaborative program activities improving the wellbeing of families in Northern Montgomery County, Maryland. 

PVAC participates in the following initiatives: 

• Delta Days in the Nation’s Capital. Delta Days in the Nation’s Capital, is an annual legislative conference to increase members’ involvement in the national public policy-making process. The annual conference includes legislative briefings, issue forums, and advocacy skills development. Featured speakers include key policy makers, members of the United States Congress, Congressional staff members, and national issues experts.
•  Delta Days in Annapolis, which provides sorority members with insight into, state laws and legislation that impact women and children
• Regional Day of Service during which chapter members advanced the issue of child adoption and foster care by distributing more than 500 flyers at key community sites
•  Women’s Legislative Briefing, an annual meeting for discussion and workshops with county and national speakers on topics important to women within the state of Maryland.
• Voter Registration drives, designed to increase voter participation. 

HBCU Awareness and financial support, designed to increase awareness about HBCUs and to advance the missions of these universities by providing financial support.