U.S. Senate Candidate Cheryle Jackson Calls on Women to Empower Women 

WOW! Women Organizing Women to mentor girls, build strong families and advocate for progressive policies 

 U.S. Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson challenged women leaders at a luncheon today to take a hands-on approach to improve conditions and prospects for women and girls by becoming WOW! Ambassadors. To celebrate the contributions of women, Jackson is calling on women and girls to share their stories about how they’ve overcome challenges or helped someone who has or how they’ve made an impact in the lives of women and girls. The stories will be compiled in a book entitled WOW! Me which will be unveiled on Jackson’s birthday on January 26.

Jackson organized WOW! Women Organizing Women to advance mentoring programs, build stronger families and drive action on issues like health care, reproductive care, education, job creation and training, domestic violence that are key to the development of girls and the empowerment of women.  Jackson launched WOW! last month with activist and actress Tracee Ellis Ross in a series of events that included a forum with girls at Chicago’s Robeson High School, where it was announced last year that 115 students at the school were pregnant or already mothers.

“Women – all of us – need to stand up and harness our power to organize to make a difference in the lives of youth in crisis, women in crisis, and families in crisis. We need to come together in every city and every town and demand resources that improve education, provide essential health care and counseling, jobs and training. Women need to take the lead to give young people and women hope and a path to success and empowerment,” said Jackson.

 Jackson is helping to organize WOW! house parties, events with prominent women and activists, and online social media outreach to build networks of support for the personal and professional lives of women and girls.  She is also urging women and girls around the state to host their own WOW! events and and organize themselves to discuss and act on all that’s at stake for women, girls and families in their community or to mentor and support each other in the professional and personal lives of women and girls. 

WOW! Me Submission Criteria

No more than 250 words

Story should be about how you or another woman or girl who has made a difference in their own life or the lives of women and girls or their community

You must sign a permission waiver should your story be selected for publication

Author of the story must live in Illinois

Submit online at 

www.cheryle2010.com

Deadlines

January 12, 2010:  Story submission deadline



January 26, 2010:  Book published