Following the success of our first project on Gulf Coast Gives, we have initiated another project, intended as enrichment to our life skill class participants.  With your help, we aim to take twelve women to a Women’s Empowerment Conference in Orlando at the end of January.

These are women who have never been to a hotel, a conference, or anywhere independently. The effect this weekend will have on their confidence, their growth, their future, and their children’s future is immeasurable. We’re letting everyone know of this opportunity to help pay for the hotel (4 to a room) and van rental, giving a woman a chance to blossom and change her world.

Our goal is to raise $850 by January 22^nd and we’ve already had a donation of $100.  Any amount you can give will get us closer to the goal and will be very much appreciated.

The second SCLO Women of Wisdom Awards Evening will be held on November 3rd at 6pm in the Community Room of the Sarasota Herald Tribune Building, honoring Pam Carter (JH Floyd Sunshine Manor), Shirley Walker (Goodwill), and Pastor Robinson (Living Hope) for their huge contribution to our community. 

These special Women of Wisdom have shown they are strong, safe, survivors – matching the goals of the SISTA Project and therefore it seemed fitting that our SISTAs host the Women of Wisdom Awards Evening. These newly empowered young women surprised themselves by being able to plan the event from the start, which included interviewing the three honorees who served as their role models. 

As these SISTA Project graduates are now able to be mentors to younger ladies in the community, their involvement in the Women of Wisdom evening serves two purposes. Firstly, it reinforces the importance for the graduates to have a strong, selfless role model and of gaining the confidence to become mentors themselves.  Secondly, it also gives the SCLO volunteers a project they can take ownership of, giving them the satisfaction of following something worthwhile through to completion. 

Please call 360-8660 to rsvp if you are able to join us on November 3rd to celebrate the accomplishments of these three very special women.

I joined the SISTA program last year, not knowing that it would become the foundation of me learning to be the strong woman I always wanted to be.  I found myself being over excited to see what we would be doing in class each week.  And as time progressed I became able to say that some of my most memorable, life changing moments were brought on during my most appreciated experience at SCLO!

Through Second Chance, we were able to attend a Woman Act Now Women’s Conference in Orlando that bonded all the young ladies that had a chance to go.  It also gave us our ‘voices’; we all took something special away from that powerful experience.  It reinforced much of what we had been learning in the SISTA Program.

I think I speak for all the participants of the SISTA Program when I say that the skills, encouragement, wisdom and love we received from Second Chance helped us to apply all the things that we learned in SISTA to our daily lives.  I consider myself blessed to have been able to enjoy the SISTA Program and SCLO as a whole because all the women I encountered encouraged me to be the best ‘me’ that I can be.  On behalf of the women in my community that SCLO has blessed and to all those supporters who made it possible for the women to participate in the SCLO programs, I thank you for changing our lives.

The SCLO Women of Wisdom Awards Evening will be held on April 7th at 6pm in the Community Room of the Sarasota Herald Tribune, honoring Valerie Buchand, Carolyn Mason, and Jone Williams for their huge contribution to our community. 

A group of clients who graduated from the SISTA Project, an empowerment and health education program, have formed an upper level group called Big SiSTAs. Our Women of Wisdom, Valerie, Carolyn, and Jone have shown they are strong, safe, survivors – matching the goals of the SISTA Project and therefore it seemed fitting that our Big SISTAs host the Women of Wisdom Awards Evening. These newly empowered women surprised themselves by being able to plan the event from the start, which included interviewing the three honorees who served as their role models. 

As these SISTA Project graduates are now able to be mentors to younger ladies in the community, their involvement in the Women of Wisdom evening serves two purposes. Firstly, it reinforces the importance for the graduates to have a strong, selfless role model and of gaining the confidence to become mentors themselves.  Secondly, it also gives the SCLO volunteers a project they can take ownership of, giving them the satisfaction of following something worthwhile through to completion. 

Please call 360-8660 to rsvp if you are able to join us on April 7th to celebrate the accomplishments of these three very special women.