The Roanoke (VA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated has been recognized for an impactful program the chapter created and initiated at Roanoke’s Hurt Park Elementary School.
At the Links’ Eastern Area Conference, held April 26-30 in Philadelphia, the Roanoke Chapter received a Best Practices Award for its “Linked to Success” program at Hurt Park Elementary. The program, which completes its third year this month, is an enrichment/mentoring initiative in collaboration with Roanoke City Public Schools and the principal and staff at Hurt Park. The program’s aim is to impact student reading comprehension, provide adult professional role models as mentors, support school personnel in delivering academic subjects, and provide a linkage between parents, students, and school personnel.
When launched, the chapter worked solely with a group of third-grade students. In the 2022-23 school year, the chapter continued to work with these students – all fifth-graders – plus a new group of fourth-graders. Workshops, conducted from September 2022 through April 2023 by the chapter’s five facet committees, covered a range of topics – from global awareness and bullying prevention to art history, academic preparation, and urban farming.
The program has received national recognition, was honored with two grants through the National Wildlife Federation, and was featured by an international nonprofit with which the chapter partnered, in an article about the successful results of anti-bullying/upstander training for Hurt Park students.
While the program has been one in which all of the Roanoke Chapter members have participated, a special thanks is extended to Carolyn Patterson, the chapter’s immediate past president; Anita James Price, lead facet chair; and Sandra Davis, program coordinator, for their very dedicated leadership.
The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946. The membership consists of more than 16,000 professional women of African descent in 299 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.
The President of the Roanoke (VA) Chapter is Rhonda Poindexter; Vice President is Lutheria Smith.
