Jasmine Crowe, founder of Black Celebrity Giving, organized a panel of professional women to speak to a room of eighth grade teen girls at McNair Middle School in Georgia about domestic violence. The purpose of continuing the We Speak campaign is to shed light on giving exposure and awareness to teen domestic violence. We Speak seeks to give the girls advice about recognizing and avoiding abuse.
The panelists included Nicola Mitchell, author and motivational speaker; Johnetta McSwain, professor at Clark University (expert in child abuse); Victoria Giffard, graduate of Tuskegee University with a Doctrate of Veterinary Medicine; Fly Musiq, artist, speaker, author; Mary Mz Skittlez, celebrity stylist, CEO of Cupcake Mafia; Zoey Clarke, artist; and Chivon Ferguson, brand management specialist. Many of the women on the panel were victims of domestic violence, abuse, and rape. They shared their stories with the students.
After the panelists introduced themselves and shared their stories, the floor was immediately opened up to the teen girls to text questions they had about abuse or domestic violence to the moderator’s cell phone. I was quite shocked at the questions the girls had for the panelists. It’s terrible hearing some of the problems these young ladies are experiencing in only the eighth grade.
Unfortunately, many of the teens had questions like “How do you know when it’s abuse?”, “What advice would you give if the abuse is coming from a family member?” and “How [do we deal with] jealous boyfriends?” The panelists did an excellent job responding to the questions.
Because 1 in every 4 women will experience domestic violence, these platforms are necessary to alert the girls that help is available and to know they are not alone in experiencing these pains of life.
To close, Black Celebrity Giving moderator Jasmine and the panel provided gifts from Radio One, tote bags and pens and held a raffle for iTunes gift cards, scholarship coaching, books and beauty products.
