Category Upcoming Events

The second Color Matters webinar – Incarceration – Beyond These Walls – will premiere on August 19th, 2020, at 6:00 PM Eastern.

This conversation will be moderated by Nikole Parker (Director of Special Projects, Equality Florida).

She will be joined by Navon Stephens (Trans Community Voice), Angela Hunt (Educator, Heart and Hands), and Omega Chuckii (Founder, Tranz of Anarchii, Inc.).

About the Guests

Nikole Parker is the TransAction Florida Project Coordinator, assisting with Equality Florida’s statewide Transgender Inclusion Initiative. She also currently works for the onePULSE Foundation as the Stakeholder & Community Relations Manager.

Nikole has sat on various non-profit boards within the community, including the LGBT+ Center Board of Directors, the Orlando United Assistance Center Advisory Board, TransAction Advisory Council, Spektrum Health Board of Directors and Peer Support Space Board of Directors.

In addition to her work with the onePULSE Foundation, Nikole co-leads the work of the Orlando Trans Collective, a collaborative group of transgender and gender non-conforming leaders of color who focus on community building and advocacy efforts for the Central Florida transgender community.

In 2018, Nikole was honored with the Humanitarian of the Year award by the Miss Glamorous Pageant. Nikole was also was recognized as one of Watermark’s Most Remarkable People of 2018 for her work with the onePULSE Foundation and her ongoing advocacy and empowerment of the transgender community.

In 2019, Nikole was recognized by Congressman Darren Soto for LGBT+ Pride Month and her biography was read into the Congressional Record. She hopes to encourage open dialogue on transgender issues and educate individuals from the community on healthy and safe ways to undergo a transition, finding self-care practices and providing resources so black market hormones and unsafe lifestyles can be avoided.

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My name is Tai’Rance S Kelly Sr. B.K.A Omega Chuckii a native of “Chilanta” which is a cross of Chicago & Atlanta. I’m an educator, father, trainer, facilitator, empowerer activist, advocate & creator of my own organization, Tranz of Anarchii, Inc.

The goal is to detoxify the overall spectrum of MASCULINITY within both the trans and cis-gendered communities by healing, empowering, and bringing awareness to related issues; such as behavioral, mental, physical, parental, sexual, spiritual, and financial health. Tranz of Anarchii Inc. is also here to educate the African American community about rehabilitation and to protect our society by providing community residential services to residents prior to and after their discharge from incarceration. The primary goals are to develop self-discipline and promote skills required for continued rehabilitation, transitional initiatives, and positive re-entry into the community.

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Angela Hunt is a public speaker and educator on wellness and health for the trans community. She brings experience in managing customer service teams, volunteer recruitment, and event coordination.

Angela volunteers as a peer mentor to transgender women in Orlando, FL, connecting them to services and providing social and emotional support as well as inspiration.

She served on the executive host committee for the 2018 U.S. Conference on AIDS and co-organized and co-chaired the Trans Lounge for the conference.

As a survivor of the foster care system, Angela went through a transformative journey to discover and reconnect with her own identity. She is known for being an excellent listener and is passionate about self love and wellness for transgender people, especially those living with HIV.

As a Black transgender woman diagnosed with HIV herself in 2011, Angela wants others to know that anything is possible once you accept and love yourself completely for who you are.

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Join Community Education Group’s A. Toni Young, as she hosts distinguished panelists in a discussion about race, class, COVID-19, and more in CEG’s second webinar of the summer, Where Do We Go.

Join us on Thursday, July 23rd, 2020, @ 3:00 PM Eastern for a phenomenal conversation including some of the greatest minds in racial equity in public health.

Meet the Panelists

Linda Villarosa is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, covering race, health and inequality and a former executive editor at Essence Magazine. Her 2018 Times Magazine cover story on infant and maternal mortality in black mothers and babies was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

Last year she contributed to the ground breaking 1619 Project. Her essay examined physiological myths, based on race, that have endured since slavery. Most recently, her April cover story examined race, health disparities and covid-19 through the lens of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club of New Orleans. Linda teaches journalism at the City College of New York and is writing the book Under the Skin: Race, Inequality and the Health of a Nation, which will be published by Doubleday in 2021.

Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, holds the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair at Northwestern University, the first journalism professorship in the world endowed to focus on LGBTQ people. He is also a professor of journalism in Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism His writing has been widely published in the New York Times, Guardian, Village Voice, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Slate, Souls, the Journal of American History and in ten book anthologies. Named Journalist of the Year by the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists’ Association in 2012 and one of the most influential LGBTQ people of the year by Out magazine in 2019 , Dr. Thrasher holds a BFA in filmmaking and a PhD in American Studies from New York University. His research on race, H.I.V./AIDS and the criminalization of sickness has been awarded grants from the Alfred P. Sloan, Gannett and Ford Foundations. He is currently writing his book, The Viral Underclass: How Racism, Ableism and Capitalism Plague Humans on the Margins, for the Celadon Books imprint of Macmillan Publishing.

• A Black Body on Trial: The HIV Conviction of “Tiger Mandingo” – Buzzfeed, November 2015
• H.I.V. Is Coming To Rural America – New York Times, December 2019
• An Uprising Comes From America’s Viral Underclass – Slate, June 2020

Alphonso David is President of the Human Rights Campaign. Alphonso is an accomplished and nationally recognized LGBTQ civil rights lawyer and advocate. He’s the first civil rights lawyer, the first Black man and first person of color to serve as president of HRC in the organization’s 40-year history.

He has been at the forefront of the movement for LGBTQ equality for more than a decade at the national and state level, serving and as Counsel to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as New York Deputy Secretary and Counsel for Civil Rights, and as a staff attorney at the Lambda Legal.

LGBTQ Organizations Unite to Combat Racial Violence – Sign-On Letter

Dr. David Campt

With more than 25 years of professional experience, Dr. David Campt (@thedialogueguy) is considered a national expert in the areas of inclusion and equity, cultural competence, and intergroup dialogue.

His insights about the keys to more inclusive and effective institutions and communities have been sought by small executive boards of fewer than a dozen to large-scale summits involving thousands of people. His clients have varied widely, and have included the US military, The White House, large corporations, international organizations, foundations, governments, universities, national associations, and non-profit groups.

David is the author of a number of books including The Little Book of Dialogue for Difficult Subject (2007) and Read the Room for Real: How A Simple Technology Creates Better Meetings. (2015). In early 2016, he created a project called the Ally Conversation Toolkit (ACT), which has engaged thousands of people in person and on line. Under this initiative, David has written three books – White Ally Toolkit Workbook, a supplement for the workbook called the Discussion Group Leaders Guide, and the Compassionate Warrior Boot Camp for White Allies. David’s work on dismantling racism has been featured by a number of prominent media outlets, such as Think Progress and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

White Ally Toolket – https://www.whiteallytoolkit.com/

A Man for the Times: David Campt, top race relations expert, sees progress – Rockingham Now

Dr. Carl Dieffenbach is the Director of DAIDS at the NIAID. DAIDS supports a global research portfolio to advance biological knowledge of HIV/AIDS, its related co-infections, and co-morbidities. With the goal of ending AIDS, the Division fosters research to: 1) reduce HIV incidence through the development of effective vaccine and biomedical prevention strategies; 2) improve therapy and cure HIV infection; 3) treat and/or prevent the co-infections with the highest disease burden and 4) foster partnerships to implement effective interventions at scale.

Since February 2020, I have worked tirelessly to bring effective prevention and treatment strategies in the clinical evaluation for COVID-19. These include direct acting antivirals, preventive vaccines and monoclonal antibodies directed against the SARS-CoV-2 to prevent and treat COVID.

The search for an HIV vaccine, the journey continues – Journal of the International AIDS Society

CEG is a national organization that offers local programs and policy solutions.

We serving diverse populations, prioritizing indigenous populations and populations in need

CEG’s work includes Direct Service programs, Policy work, and Capacity Building

Join Host, Ty Williams (Project Coordinator, CEG) as he moderates CEG’s first ever YouTube Live event:

Learning Our Roots: A Journey Through Black Transmasculinity

Ty will be joined by four of the most respected voices in the Black Transmasculine community as they discuss one of the most pressing issues facing Black Transmasculine men:

“To whom do Black Transmaculine men turn, when looking for guidance and leadership?”

Joining Ty are the following panelists:

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Jevon Martin, Founder and Executive Director of the Princess Janae Place.

For over 20 years Jevon Martin has been a mentor, educator, advocate and a house father in the Ballroom Community. Jevon started his transition in 2000 at Callen Lorde in NYC. One of his strong focuses is being homelessness within the TLGBQI+ population.

Jevon presently serves as the Founder & CEO of Princess Janae Place, which he founded in 2015. Princess Janae Place is a referral organization for TLGBQI+ services with emphasis on the trans homeless population. Those services include medical, legal, mental health and recreational services.

He’s a proud brother of the 1st Transmen fraternity Theta Beta Chi where he has helped build brotherhood among Black Transmen in New York City, and around the country. He has advocated in the fight to change legislation for Marriage Equality & GENDA in New York.

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The Reverend Louis Mitchell, Operations Director at the Ingersoll Gender Center.

Rev. Louis Mitchell is a pioneering “intentional man”. Known around the country and abroad as an elder, advocate, trainer, teacher, student, minister, parent and friend. He is a proud father to his daughter, Kahlo, and co-parent with her mother, Krysia L. Villon.

Rev. Mitchell is a co-founder, former Executive Director and current Board member of Transfaith. He brings his own learned experiences, a broad range of resources, theories and studies, to offer a fresh, “on the ground”, open-hearted, holistic strategy to the work of individual and community healing, intersectional diversity planning and commitment to personal and community agency and solvency. He is a confirmed believer in the restorative power of truth telling in the voices of those whose stories are often told about them rather than with them. Engaging and witty, he brings his whole self to each endeavor and appreciates the opportunity to guide and witness growth and wholeness!

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Kylar Broadus, Esquire, Founder & Executive Director of the Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC).

Kylar W. Broadus is a Black trans man who has been a pioneer in the movement as an attorney, long-time activist, public speaker, author, and professor.

Broadus is known worldwide for his avant-garde work in the LGBT and Trans movements. He was just awarded the Trans Trailblazer Award by the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles and issued a Proclamation by the City Attorney’s Office of Los Angeles on March 28, 2019.

In 2018 the Gentlemen’s Foundation of Atlanta, he was awarded the 2018 Gentleman of Excellence Award. Mastercard, in 2018, featured Broadus for Pride Month. He was recognized by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office of King’s County in Brooklyn, New York, in 2018, for his contributions to the legal field. In 2017 Liberty Mutual honored him at the GLAAD Awards for his 30 years contribution to the movement. Also, in 2017, he was awarded a Certificate of Legal Excellence by the City of New York, County of Kings, District Attorney’s Office.  The Advocate recognized Broadus as one of “25 Legal Advocates Fighting for Trans Rights.”

He is the founder of the Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC), run by Brenden Watts.  Broadus was honored to stand with President Obama while signing the Executive Order adding protections for millions of workers in 2014. In 2012, he was the first trans person to testify before the United States Senate for employment protection.

Kylar serves on lots of boards and is a servant leader. He works with many causes beyond the LGBTQ community and believes in human and civil rights for all human beings.

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Carter Brown, Founder & Executive Director of Black Transmen, Inc.

Carter Brown is the Founder and National Director of Black Transmen, Inc. the first national nonprofit organization founded for the empowerment, advocacy, and equality for black transmen. Brown, of Dallas, Texas studied Psychology and Journalism at the University of Texas in Arlington, Texas.

Brown was compelled to help birth and build the organization, Black Transmen Inc. from the support and information he saw lacking in his own trans experience, versus that of other ethnicities and of the LGBT community. It is a known and statistical fact that societal challenges for an African American male exist. It is also well known that negative stereotypes of Black men have overhang stagnantly for generations. Brown wants to make his contribution to ending the cycle and diminishing the stereotypes by exposing the world to another face of the Black man.

Carter Brown is dedicated to making change in the lives of the many men of his likeness, black transmen. By helping to build stronger men, it will inevitably build stronger families, stronger communities and a stronger society.

Brown’s most recent accomplishments include celebrating the 8th year of the only National Black Trans Advocacy conference and also testifying before U.S. Congress in support of the Equality Act, an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections for transgender people.

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Check out our promotional images, below, and please tune in on June 30th

May is Hepatitis Awareness Month and CEG is participating by raising awareness of how the opioid and meth addiction crises in West Virginia intersect with the state’s grim record for having the highest rates of new Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) diagnoses in the United States.

In 2017, West Virginia reported the highest rates of new Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C infections in the U.S., with rates of 11.7 (per 100,000) and 5.6 (per 100,000), respectively. The national rate of new infections for both diseases is 1.0.

That same year, West Virginia had both the highest rate of overall drug overdose deaths (57.8 per 100,000), and the highest rate of opioid-related drug overdose deaths (49.6 per 100,000) in the U.S. The national overall and opioid-related drug overdose deaths are 21.7 and 14.5, respectively.

These statistics are not unrelated.

According to the West Virginia Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services, a majority of cases of both HBV and HCV reported injection drug use and/or street-drug use as the primary risk factor for transmission (OEPS, 2018).

CEG is working tirelessly to bring attention to West Virginia’s syndemic of Substance Use Disorder, HBV, HCV, and HIV, as well as the work of our state’s various Harm Reduction Programs – those run by both county health departments, non-profits, and Rural Health Service Providers.

Stay tuned to #CEGInWV’s website and social media pages as we reveal the exciting projects we have in store for both West Virginia and across the nation. While you’re waiting, be sure to get tested for Hepatitis on National Hepatitis Testing Day – May 19th, 2020.

References

West Virginia Office of Epidemiology & Prevention Services. (2018, April). HEPATITIS B AND HEPATITIS C INFECTION IN WEST VIRGINA 2016 – Surveillance Summary – April 2018. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Department of Health & Human Resources: Bureau for Public Health: Office of Epidemiology & Prevention Services: Hepatitis: Data and Surveillance: Summary Reports. Retrieved from: https://oeps.wv.gov/hepatitis/documents/data/Summary_2016_Acute_HBV-HCV.pdf