Raising Him Alone Campaign
Raising Him Alone Campaign is committed to increasing advocacy for single mothers raising boys through series of forums convening in Baltimore, MD, and Newark, New Jersey. They are designed to engage single mothers in structured conversations centering around the challenges and triumphs of single mothers.
See official site for more details:
RaisingHimAlone.com
View Newsletter here
Help for Single Mothers
70% of African American children are raised by a single mother. A large percentage of these children are male. Often these male children do not have a lot of contact with their fathers. We believe that it is vital for mothers to learn more about male parenting and male development.
See official site for more details:
RaisingHimAlone.com
Press Release:
LAUREL, MARYLAND – Institute for Interactive Instruction, Urban Leadership Institute, and the Residential After-School Program are pleased to announce the Raising Him Alone Campaign. The campaign seeks to create a larger community dialogue around the importance of supporting single mothers who are raising boys. With generous funding from the Open Society Institute’s Campaign on Black Male Achievement, the Raising Him Alone Campaign has created a national platform to support single mothers raising boys in some of the toughest communities throughout this country.
Raising Him Alone draws from the experiences of single mothers across the U.S. to create an inspiring series of engaging community based activities. Through focus groups and in-depth interviews, single mothers across the country, provide key insight to help shape community strategies and social marketing concepts targeted toward single mothers raising boys.
The Raising Him Alone Campaign will focus specifically on implementing a series of empowerment seminars as a part of a larger advocacy campaign that will take on two strategic cities-- Baltimore, MD & Newark, NJ. The initial campaign kickoff will be hosted on Saturday, March 14, 2009 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NJ) from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The kickoff will begin with an expo featuring recognized service providers that support mothers and sons. The second kickoff will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at Coppin State College in Baltimore, MD. The Baltimore kickoff is part of a larger initiative for women designed to promote health and wellness. Heal a Woman, Heal a Nation (www.partofthecure.org) and Raising Him Alone have joined forces in Baltimore, MD to create greater advocacy linkages for families.
Following each kickoff, Raising Him Alone will partner with community organizations that have “community credibility” to implement quarterly forums that will provide resources that help single mothers:
- Physical Health, Mental Health & Nutrition
- Obtain health, fitness & nutrition resources for their family
- Information & referrals- mental health services
- Legal Support
- Obtain pro-bono legal services
- Issues related to custody
- Issues related to contact with the police & juvenile services
- Education
- Parent advocacy-connecting with PTA
- Addressing issues related to special education
On March 14, 2009, the campaign will also release the book Raising Him Alone - Things Black Women Can Do to Raise Boys to be Men, written by David Miller & Matt Stevens. The book serves as a source of inspiration and information for the millions of single mothers who struggle daily with the challenges of raising boys to become healthy, productive, and responsible men.
Further, the campaign will feature a state of the art web portal designed to be used to connect single mothers across the country through web based applications. After the kick-off, these applications will continue to serve as a critical advocacy and resource network to mothers. The web portal will also feature on-going internet based chats, blog discussions and a motivational voice messaging service. The motivational voice messages will be offered to mothers who connect to the Raising Him Alone Campaign. These mothers will receive weekly messages that reinforce positive parenting and inspiring greatness.
