Dr. Faye Belgrave (l) and Dyteya Lewis (r)
The Program
Rotarian of the Day Dyteya Lewis introduced our speaker, Faye Belgrave, Ph.D., health psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work is community and intervention focused, and attends to aspects of culture (gender, ethnicity, age, and place, etc.) to promote well-being among African American youth and young adults.
Dr. Belgrave works collaboratively with community-based agencies to identify and implement relevant programming and research. Her recent projects have provided culturally-integrated substance abuse, HIV prevention, and sex education curriculums to African American college students and students attending middle school. She is also the founding director of the Center for Cultural Experiences in Prevention, and has been widely published (more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and eight books).
Dr. Belgrave told us that when examining the African-American family, we have to look back in order to look forward. She says that the historical characterizations of the African-American family have been harsh, and that we need to look at how the roots of slavery and decade’s-old public policy have left residual effects that still impact families. She says that while slave owners would allow slaves to marry (in order to foster procreation), they would often break up the family later, selling off children and spouses.
Following emancipation, the African-American family encountered a whole new set of challenges, which included the anti-family “Man in House Rule,” which denied government assistance to African-American families if the man was still living in the home. Dr. Belgrave says despite these harsh realities, the African-American family is blessed with strong bonds between siblings who help one another, as well as grandparents who fill in for working mothers.
The Meeting
After a rousing rendition of R-O-T-A-R-Y and My Country Tis of Thee and the invocation by Pam Tubbs, Joey Rothgery gave the visitation report. Dr. Bill Lehew is recovering from knee surgery at Lake Taylor and Barbara Lipskis is back after suffering a broken leg.
We had two guests. Steve Schultz brought Michelle Tapia who was being voted on for membership and Jeff Wells brought ODU Rotaract member Pakita Ciupta.
Other items:
- Jos Hekking turned in his red badge for blue.
- Dr. Steven Jones is asking us to ramp up our efforts to sell sponsorships and tickets for Suds & Buds. He’s also asking for members to purchase and donate wine (minimum price for each bottle - $20) for the wine grab at the event.Happy Bucks:
- Jane Dembert for Bucknell University’s men’s basketball team and its recent big OT win.
- Bill Eisenbeiss was excited to share the wide range of subjects being taught at this year’s Winter 2018 Classes for the Community: Evenings at Saint Patrick Catholic School. In its 13th year, you can find classes there on everything from cooking and wine to history, arts, sports, business, and health. There’s even a class on hog butchering! Visit www.eveningsatstpcs.org for more information.
- Both Sharon Laderberg and Lois Kercher were excited about the ODU women’s basketball team and its performance at the recent Hoops for a Cure event. The Lady Monarchs beat the University of Texas – El Paso for their fifth straight win.
- Jason Drane announced that a new powerful magnet has been installed in the addition being completed at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. Among other things, it will be used for tumor removal.
- Jeff Wells announced that since all his kids are now out of college, he is going back to school to earn his master’s degree in psychology at Regent University