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Posts published in “Family”

GBN Wishes You and Yours a Happy Mother's Day in 2015

By goodblacknews on May 10, 2015

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To all the mothers, grandmothers, daughters and sons – may you have a wonderful day celebrating or being celebrated as the most important women in our lives. It may not always be easy, but it’s always worth it.  Happy Mother’s Day!

MamasDay.Org Offers Free, Diverse e-Cards for Mother's Day

By goodblacknews on May 9, 2015

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In its fifth year, Strong Families, an organization dedicated to supporting families that may not fall within traditional definitions, is offering free e-cards for Mother’s Day via mamasday.org.  As the website states:

We know that mamahood is not one size fits all. But most popular images of mothers exclude mamas based on their sexual orientation, race, income, immigration status and more. And Mothers Day, one of the biggest commercial holidays in the United States, often reinforces traditional ideas of family and motherhood that there’s only one way to be a family.

Each year, Strong Families commissions artists to create original art that reflects the various ways mamas and families look. The result is a collection of beautiful and unique cards that better reflect the families that exist in the 21st century.
Click the link above or here to send one!
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)

FAMILY: Teen Danotiss Smith Asks Mom Belinda to Be His Prom Date For The Sweetest Reason

By goodblacknews on May 7, 2015

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Danotiss Smith and his mom, Belinda Hunt-Smith (Photo via huffingtonpost.com)

A Michigan senior is going to spend one of high school’s most important nights doing something special for, and with, his mother.
One afternoon last month, Belinda Hunt-Smith asked her 18-year-old son Danotiss Smith — whom she lovingly calls Stump, a nickname his great-grandfather gave him two days after he was born — about who he was taking to prom.
Unexpectedly, Stump told his mom he didn’t want to take anyone but her.
“He explained it to me like, ‘You’re always there, you do everything for me. I want you to go,” Hunt-Smith, who lives in Pontiac, told The Huffington Post. “For him to want to share that moment with me… I’m at a loss for words.”
The invitation was particularly meaningful to Hunt-Smith because, as her son knew, she didn’t go to her own prom. She turned down several dates because she couldn’t afford to buy a dress or get her hair done.
“It tore me up inside, because I really wanted to go. I think I cried every night up until prom,” Hunt-Smith said. She told classmates who asked why she wasn’t there that she hadn’t wanted to attend.
“I didn’t want people to know that I was in a bad situation,” she explained. “I [told myself] ‘If I ever have kids I’ll make sure they can go.'”
When Hunt-Smith was 11, her mom died of leukemia. Her dad decided he couldn’t take care of her and her siblings two years later, she said, and she moved in with her grandmother and helped raise her two younger brothers. She felt like she was on her own in life.
“It didn’t change my way of thinking, because I wanted to make my momma proud of me,” Hunt-Smith said. “She told me before she died, ‘You are my strongest kid.’ And I never understood it until now, but everything I went through, I came out of.”
Hunt-Smith is now filled with pride for her own son. She fondly remembers when he was a 4-year-old water boy for her older son’s third grade baseball team and ended up filling in as third baseman.  “Do you know, my baby got on that base, and not one ball got past him?” she gushed.
Stump eventually switched to football and track. Next year he will go off to college in Iowa. But first, he and his mom will spend Friday evening at the Waterford Kettering High School prom — watch Hunt-Smith show off her dress and teach her son to dance in a video from Click on Detroit by clicking here.
“This is the best Mother’s Day gift I ever could have wanted,” she said.
article by Kate Abbey-Lambertz via huffingtonpost.com

Davion Only's Quest for a Family Finally Ends When Connie Bell Going, His Case Worker, Adopts Him

By goodblacknews on April 18, 2015

In October of 2013, 16-year-old Davion Only stood in front of a church in St. Petersburg, Florida with one request— for someone to adopt him.

“My name is Davion and I’ve been in foster care since I was born. I know God hasn’t given up on me. So I’m not giving up either.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnU7b577Faw&w=560&h=315]
His request to find a family was picked up by a local news station and more than 10,000 people from around the country responded.  Unfortunately, after a brief stint at a home in Ohio with a potential adopter, he went back to Florida and was placed in four different homes over the next year.

(Image Credit: Instagram)

But that all changed last July when he called a woman he’d known since he was seven— his case worker, Connie Bell Going.
According to Yahoo! Parenting, Only would ask Going every year to adopt him, but she always believed there was a better family out there for him.
Something in her heart changed, though, when he made the request again last summer. She explained:

“In adoption there is a ‘claiming moment,’ when you know [someone is] your child. When he called me to ask, in that moment, I just knew.”

So after a successful test run with her family — she has two daughters and a son whom she adopted out of foster care — Going started the adoption proceedings for Only.

(Image Credit: Twitter)

On April 22, 2015, the adoption proceedings will be finalized and Only will officially have a forever family.

“Today, I am feeling blessed and honored by being chosen to be the parent to all my children,” she said. “I work every day on being the best parent I can to them, to be patient and creative so that I can meet all their needs.”

Only is over the moon about his new family, and always believed Going to be his mom. He told her:

“I guess I always thought of you as my mom. Only now I get to call you that for real, right?”

(Image Credit: Twitter)

And Going feels exactly the same way.

“When he asked me, my heart felt this ache and I just knew he was my son,” she said. 

After years of moving from place to place — never having anything to call his own — Only is finally home.

article by Amanda Ghessie via ijrreview.com

Five Fun Apps to Upgrade Your Black History Knowledge

By goodblacknews on February 15, 2015

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(Image: BlackInvestors.com)

If there is one thing we should know, it’s that Black History is made every day. For example, Madame C.J. Walker, who created specialized hair products for African-American hair, paved the way for many women such as Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, to start their own haircare companies. Frank Greene, considered one of the first black technologists, cleared the path for future innovators like Chinedu Echeruo, the Founder of Hopstop.com and Tripology.com.  And without a doubt, knowledge of your history can empower you to forge successfully into the future.

If you’re looking to learn more about history or discover other African Americans making their mark on the world, check out this list of Black History apps for your smartphone or tablet.Black Inventors Match Game: Celebrate African American inventors with best friends Myles and Ayesha as you learn who earned patents for everyday items such as the doorknob, the traffic light and lemon squeezer. Then test your IQ with a matching game. (Available for Android and iOS)

  • Then and Now Series: Black History: The Then and Now Series apps shed light on facts about different cultures. In the Black History edition, you can learn about 100 different people through biographies, images and links to video or music. Print or email the bios to share the knowledge with friends. (Available for iOS)
  • More Than a Mapp: Explore an interactive map and bring black history close to home—literally. Set your location, and nearby historically significant sites will illuminate on the map. Check out related links, photos and videos. Know of a significant location not shown? Send it in, wait for verification and create your own pinpoint for all to see and learn. (Available for Android and iOS)
  • Black History Quiz: Test your knowledge of important black figures with multiple-choice questions. If you don’t know an answer, learn as you go—you won’t be able to move onto the next question until you get it right. (Available for Android and via the Amazon App Store)
  • The Root: Update your perspective with The Root, an inclusionary news source that features writing by prominent African American writers. In addition to political, social, cultural and racial commentary, tune in to podcasts and view slideshows for an interactive, visual news experience. (Available for Android and iOS)

article by Kandia Johnson via blackenterprise.com

HEALTH: Beyoncé Launches Vegan Meal Delivery Service

By goodblacknews on February 3, 2015
Now we can all eat (vegan) cake by the pound just like Beyoncé! The pop icon has partnered with her trainer Marco Borges to launch a new vegan meal delivery service.
The company is called 22 Days Nutrition, after the belief that it takes 21 days to break a bad habit.
All meals will be 100% plant-based and delivered once a week. All ingredients will be non-GMO, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free and organic. What’s more, compared to many other meal delivery services, prices will be affordable, ranging from $9.76 to $16.50 each.
“All you have to do is try. If I can do it, anyone can,” Bey, who went vegan with her husband Jay Z last year, said in a press release.
“We all know the importance and value of eating plant-based foods but often times find ourselves trapped in a series of bad habits that sabotage optimum wellness,” says co-founder Borges. “The Vegan Meal Delivery program makes it easier to reset your habits with healthy and delicious plant-based foods.”
22 Days Nutrition dishes include a sesame cabbage lentil bowl, ratatouille pasta with pesto, curried fried rice with vegetables and an almond blueberry breakfast loaf.  Click here to get more information on the service (Beyoncé-like results not guaranteed).
article by Evelyn Diaz via bet.com

50 Cent Brings Holiday Cheer by Volunteering with Feeding America

By goodblacknews on December 14, 2014

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This week, Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, hosted a bi-coastal celebrity volunteer event.  Harlem and LA Feeding America food banks are just two of the 200 food banks they have throughout the United States. In total, they help feed nearly 46 million people.
The East Coast Hope For The Holidays event went down at the Food Bank For New York City’s Community Kitchen & Pantry in Harlem. Celebrity guests began to flow in for their day of volunteering. 50 Cent, Andy Grammer, Karolina Kurkova, and Savannah Guthrie all ventured out into the brisk NYC morning to give back to the community.
Meanwhile, in L.A., Troian Bellisario, Jennie Garth and Anika Noni Rose all came out to rep the West Coast event. With one in six individuals struggling with food insecurity in the United States, it became apparent this is a cause that 50 Cent feels very passionately about. “A lot of the stuff I am involved in, people don’t actually know. I just go quietly about it,” he tells us about volunteering. “When I have time to do it, it’s cool. To be here and run into cool people who are not from my genre of music… that will create things we didn’t know about each other.”
Volunteering is such an awarding part of life, and a great way to connect with your community. But it can often become overwhelming on where to even begin. As for that, 50 Cent stated, “Look on FeedingAmerica.org and from there you can learn all about it. Around the holidays is always a great time to start.”
article by Joey Parker via act.mtv.com

NFL's Andre Johnson Spends Over $16K on Toys for Children for 8th Year in A Row

By goodblacknews on December 5, 2014
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Andre Johnson (Twitter)

Houston Texan wide receiver Andre Johnson spent over $16,000 on toys for children in need.  The Andre Johnson Foundation hosted its annual event for 11 kids in Texas’ Child Protective Services at a local Toys ‘R’ Us.

Every child who participated received a bike and a gaming system, as well as all the toys they could grab in 80 seconds.


This year was the 8th annual event. You can check out the 2013 event here.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com

A New Image of Black Fatherhood [PHOTOS]

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2014
Giovanni and 9-month-old Ethan chill on their Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn stoop.  (Photo by Marcus Franklin) 
By Marcus Franklin
This photo essay is part of Life Cycles of Inequity: A Colorlines Series on Black Men. In this installment, we explore and challenge the notion that black families face a crisis of fatherhood. The installment includes a dispatch from Baltimore, in which four dads challenge the easy assumption that all children of unwed mothers have absent fathers. 
In June of 2013 I started photographing black men and their children and created The Fatherhood Project, the online home for photos that capture them in ordinary moments. A single dad helping his daughter with math homework during a break at work. A dad teaching his daughter how to walk as they wait to see a doctor. A father and son chilling on a stoop.
Why photograph black men and their children? What’s extraordinary about these subjects?
For starters, black men taking care of our children is, on some level, revolutionary—and a form of resistance to the legacies of laws and other tools used to hinder our ability to parent. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, for example, fathers were routinely separated from their children as family members were sold. And currently, disproportionately and consistently high incarceration and unemployment rates for black men have made it difficult, if not impossible for many to parent. There’s also the disproportionately high rate of homicide among black men, whether by people in their own communities or at the hands of the state. My own father was murdered by a cop a couple of weeks before my 15th birthday.
As New York Times writer Brent Staples asked in a tweet this past Fathers’ Day: “Imagine yourself jailed on a low-level Rockefeller-era drug charge. Now a felon: denied a job, housing and the vote. How would you ‘Father’”?

PARENTING: Five Ways to Teach Your Kids About Giving Back

By goodblacknews on November 9, 2014
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(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

It’s not uncommon to see a child stop when they see another child crying and ask “why is he crying” and even go as far as to offer a toy or hug to help. Or for my own kids to offer to feed me if I say I’m hungry or for them to say “mommy are you okay?” if I stumble, get hurt or have an accident.

Children are inherently full of love and enjoy helping those around them, but if we also want our kids to become caring, compassionate and charitable adults, then we have to teach it to them.  We have to teach them that caring about others is good and that it’s good to help those in need.
From hunger, to homelessness, to cancer research, the world is in desperate need of charitable people. But teaching your child to give to others is not only good for the world, it’s also good for your child. In research recently published by Harvard Business School, giving to others promotes happiness, enhances your sense of purpose and increases your satisfaction with life.
So teaching your child to be charitable is good all the way around – for the world and for your child.
Five simple ways to teach your child about charity today:
1. Start a “giving bank.” A “giving” bank is a piggy bank that the whole family contributes to and when the bank is full, the money is donated to a specific charity. Doing this makes giving a family activity and makes it more fun for your child. It’s also a great way for parents to model giving to their children and for you to practice what you preach.
2. Choose a different charity every year and encourage your child to learn about it. From the flood victims of Kashmir, to families in our own communities who need clothes and furniture for their kids, there are many different people in this world who need help. By focusing your giving on a different group every year, you’re providing your child with a wonderful educational opportunity to learn about the many different causes and struggles worldwide. Choosing different people annually will also show your child that everyone with a need is equally deserving of our compassion.
3. Make giving a holiday tradition. Have your child pick out a toy and donate it to child in need this Christmas holiday. There’s no better way to make the act of giving more emotionally satisfying than to put a smile on a child’s face. It might help you to start a new holiday tradition.
4. Give through your child’s school. From food drives to clothing drives, take advantage of any charity events run by your child’s school. Getting involved through your child’s school will enhance your child’s sense of community at his or her school while teaching them about the value of helping others. If your child’s school doesn’t do charity programs, take the initiative and have your child start one.
5. Make birthdays a time for receiving and giving.  Encourage your child to give away old toys that are in good condition every birthday when your child receives new toys. It will help families in need, teach your child about giving and help you to de-clutter. So it’s a win-win for everyone. To help you get started. There are many organizations that will accept your toy donations. Some of them include Room to Grow for New York residents, Goodwill, Toys for Tots and Second Chance Toys. You can also contact local family shelters in your area and ask them if they need donations. So get to it. Happy teaching and happy giving.
article by Notoya Green via essence.com