A good news story about a small nonprofit, The Community Empowerment Group

Gwendolyn West Sutton, Executive Director of the Community Empowerment Group, a local nonprofit based in Philadelphia, gives all credit to now retired Pennsylvania State Senator Shirley M. Kitchen for inspiring her to start an annual Mothers and Daughters Day Conference in Philadelphia. They hosted their 14th annual Mothers and Daughters Day conference this year in September.
The Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance, originally known as the Black Women’s Health Project, under the leadership of Brita Hudson Smith, had a name change back in 2004. Ms. West Sutton stated, “I and others in our organization felt that the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance deserved to be lifted up after forty years of doing the work they do. The Community Empowerment Group plans the annual Mothers and Daughters Day Conference. That is our primary goal, to have that conference every year. It’s a teenage dating and domestic violence awareness event. We certainly address other issues as well. This year, we featured a panel discussion about trauma. The theme this year was “Mothers and Daughters, Going Through Our Trauma.”
While the Community Empowerment Group is not a brick-and-mortar organization, they still do outreach in meaningful ways. Gwendolyn West Sutton says if someone reaches out to her group that’s in a domestic violence situation, for example, they will refer them immediately to New View Institute, Dr. Helena Fontes’s organization. If there are matters where someone is dealing with an issue of teenage dating violence, they would direct them to the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance. They have programs and information to enlighten and inform our youth. West Sutton shared, “We are a small organization. However, we lend our energy to other organizations.”
The Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance (the new name of the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Project) was established by 100 Philadelphia Black women who attended the first national conference on Black Women’s Health issues in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1984. The ladies recognized that the voices of African American women were largely unheard in the Philadelphia health community and mobilized their efforts to establish the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Project as the “voice.” In 2004, the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Project changed its name to the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance, and continued the legacy as the voice of African American Women in the Philadelphia health community.
The Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance works to improve healthcare outcomes and eliminate or reduce health disparities experienced by African American and other minority women and their families through education research, programs, and support services.
The work that the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance does is so critical that is what Gwendolyn West Sutton and her organization, Community Empowerment Group, chose to honor them last month.
Brenda Shelton Dunston is the current Executive Director of the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance and architect of the flagship initiative Creating a Legacy of Wellness: Mind, Body and Spirit in Philadelphia, PA.
She is known as a “boundary spanner” for facilitating effective partnerships between community, faith-based, health, and corporate entities. In addition, she has managed Nursing Homes and Community Health Centers, provided health and human service management, health education, and awareness consulting in the public and private sector, and developed the first Minority Infant Mortality Reduction Program in the State of North Carolina.
She received an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA; a BS Degree in Medical Technology from Central State University, Wilberforce, OH, and licensure as a Nursing Home Administrator in NC and PA.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the NAACP “104 Influential Black Women in Philadelphia Award.” Also, she is Chairperson of the Health Commission of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Rudolphy/Mercy-Douglass Human Services Affiliate, Inc., and a member of the Omega Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated in Philadelphia.
To learn more about the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance, log onto their website at www.pbwha.org or call them at 215-225-0394. To learn more about Community Empowerment Group, contact them at 267-736-8801.