Cynthia de Lorenzi Partners With SCES

Second Chance Employment Services is proud to welcome a new partner, Cynthia de Lorenzi. Ms. de Lorenzi has already become a Silver Sponsor for the upcoming Annual Second Chance Gala – Last Kiss of Summer at the Four Seasons in downtown Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 23, 2008. Contact Second Chance to become a sponsor for this exciting benefit.

Cynthia de Lorenzi has given so much to the community. SCES is pleased that a woman of such dynamic background has partnered to help at-risk women find suitable employment. Ms. de Lorenzi’s many accomplishments include:

- Co-founding Success in the City (SITC) in 2004. SITC is the unconventional networking organization for senior level executive women to encourage, embrace and celebrate the value of meaningful peer relationships and friendship.

- Business ventures in GoGawGaw, an international Web development firm and de Lorenzi Group, a business development firm dedicated to connecting business to opportunity.

- Co-founding the North Texas Technology Council in 2002 and served as its CEO and continues to serve as an Advisor.

- Served as the Southwest Regional Director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan, grassroots educational organization advocating fiscal responsibility and reform of entitlement programs to ensure the viability and fairness for all generations.

- Serves as a Board member of the Community Business Partnership & Women’s Business Center to provide the training, assistance and support women need to start and grow successful small businesses in Northern Virginia.

- Ms. de Lorenzi’s has been vital in the regional efforts of the Telework Coalition, including leading by example and implementing telework programs in her own businesses and serving on the planning committee for Washington Area Council on Telework (WACOT) conference.

- Founded the Bob de Lorenzi Scholarship fund at George Mason University in honor of her late brother. The Bob de Lorenzi Scholarship will be awarded annually to an adult man or woman, returning to school after a personal or career interruption, to complete an education delayed or postponed.

- Helped initiate the Bob de Lorenzi Telework Award given to individuals or entities that demonstrably followed the ideals and commitment to foster telework and telecommuting, as pursued by Bob de Lorenzi, a founding member of the Telework Coalition.

- Selected by Washington Business Journal as one of 2006 top 25 Women Who Mean Business awardees.

- Winner of the 2003 Bob de Lorenzi Memorial Telework Award.

- Co-founder of Success in the City.

- Co-founder the Washington Bureau for ISP Advocacy.

- Board Member, Community Business Partnership & Women’s Business Center .

- Board Member, TelecomHUB.

- Board Member, Telework Coalition.

- Board Member, Livingston Communications, LLC

- Special Advisor, Stargazer Foundation.

- NVTC – Tech Emergence Committee – Vice Chair.

- Capital Gaines – Advisor for a new Distributed Work Concept.

- Forum Moderator for Capital Society Forum – An organization of CEO’s seeking to further develop leadership skills.

- Finalist for 2004 Women in Technology Entrepreneur of the Year.

- Served on the Virginia Joint Commission on Technology and Science’s (JCOTs) Advisory Committee on Computer Crimes.

- The Association of Contingency Planners (ACP).

- The Mid-Atlantic Telecommuting Advisory Council (MATAC).

- Co-founded the North Texas Technology Council (NTTC).

- Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2006.

- Advisory Board of Vitalia MedSpa

Cynthia de Lorenzi also writes the blog for Success in The City called “Powder Room Diaries”. A link to Ms. de Lorenzi's Blog is found in the right column of this page. You know I love that she is a blogger!!

I am so excited and would like to give a warm welcome and thank you to Cynthia de Lorenzi for partnering with Second Chance Employment Services.

Last Kiss of Summer IV Host Committee

As I had reported before, the Second Chance annual Last Kiss of Summer gala in 2007 was a huge success! Above is a picture of the Host Committee. Here are just a few of the people in the above:

Front Row: Ludy Green (center in white), David Blanken (2007 gala chairman, right of Ludy in black), James Schenck (2006 gala chairman, left of Ludy in blue)

Back Row: Barbara Freedman (behind David Blankin in black), Stephanie Willson (left of Barbara), Joseph Green (far right in dark suit)

Thank you David for chairing this event and making it so memorable!

The Hershey Company Agrees To Job Partner with Second Chance Employment Services

(Andre Goodlett, The Hershey Company)

In early November of 2007, The Hershey Company signed an agreement with Second Chance Employment Services to hire Second Chance's at-risk clients whose skills match Hershey jobs.

I met with Andre Goodlett, Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion of The Hershey Company's Human Resources Department, and put together the agreement on behalf of Second Chance Employment Services domestic violence victims seeking employment.

Thank you Andre Goodlett and The Hershey Company for helping to create the roadways to make a big difference in the lives of so many woman. Thank you for helping to break the silence and lend a helping hand for women becoming financially independent.

Ludy Green is nominated as Washingtonian of the Year!

The Washingtonian selects men and women who make a difference in Washington as Washingtonian of the Year. Recently Ms. Ludy Green, President and CEO of Second Chance Employment Services was selected. The Washingtonian printed the following article regarding Ludy Green:

"Like too many children, Ludy Green grew up with domestic violence.

As a congressional intern , she helped with childcare at My Sister's Place, a woman's shelter. And as a human resources professional, she volunteered for women's and children's causes. She found that to escape abuse, women needed financial stability and the ability to achieve it.

In 2002, Green left the corporate world to start Second Chance Employment Services, which gets battered women that stability through well-paying jobs. It is, she believes, the only such placement agency in America.

Second Chance helps client write resumes, practice interviews, and find new suits, childcare, or transportation. Drawing on her contacts with employers from IBM to Marriott to hospitals and associations, Green has encouraged recruiters to look at her clients first. She's brought in career coaches, makeup consultants, and even a dentist and a surgeon who replaced one client's knocked-out teeth and repaired another's scars - at no cost.

So far Green has placed 473 abused women and helped more that 1,000 with legal aid, job training, psychological services, and more. With new offices in New York and LA, she is reaching even more women and employers.

'However long I live, I want to do this,' she says. 'I never wanted to see another woman who is financially trapped. I couldn't help my mom, but I always knew someday I would help other women.'"

Mario Lopez turns his back on Victims of Domestic Violence

(Image Source: perezhilton.com)

Mario Lopez a NO SHOW, actor from Saved by the Bell and host of Dancing with the Stars, who was scheduled to attend a benefit for victims of domestic violence and their children in his hometown of Chula Vista (San Diego) on Saturday, October 27th

The 9th annual benefit raises money for children of Casas Seguras, a shelter for domestic violence victims.

Lopez had signed off on the event and was on all their promotional materials. Lopez claimed that he was unable to attend the event due to the local fires in California and displaced relatives due to the fires. However, Lopez was instead partying at the Playboy Mansion instead.

This story has been heard on the radio through out the country. From Washington DC's Mix 107.3 to St. Louis Movin 101.1.

(Image Source: movinstlouis.com)

I really don't know what sort of comment to leave to this story........speechless!

Second Chance Helps Women Become Independent

Financial Abuse is one of the key ingredients in a domestic violence situation that keeps a woman trapped.

Signs of Economic or Financial Abuse (from the helpguide.org website):

Remember, an abuser’s goal is to control you, and he will frequently hurt you to do that. In addition to hurting you emotionally and physically, an abusive partner may also hurt you in the pocketbook. Economic of financial abuse includes:

• Controlling the finances.
• Withholding money or credit cards.
• Giving you an allowance.
• Making you account for every penny you spend.
• Stealing from you or taking your money.
• Exploiting your assets for personal gain.
• Withholding basic necessities (food, clothes, medications, shelter).
• Preventing you from working or choosing your own career.
• Sabotaging your job (making you miss work, calling constantly).

Above is the Music Video by Destiny's Child called Independent Woman from the Charlie's Angels. Second Chance Employment Services is all about helping at-risk women become independent so that someday they may too be able to say these same verses about themselves and the children they care for:

Question: Tell me how you feel about this
Try to control me, boy, you get dismissed
Pay my own car note, and I pay my own bills
Always 50/50 in relationships

The shoes on my feet - I bought 'em
The clothes I'm wearing - I bought 'em
The rock I'm rockin' - I bought it
'Cause I depend on me
If I wanted
The watch I'm wearin' - I bought it
The house I live in - I bought it
The car I'm driving - I bought it
I depend on me

All the women who independent
Throw your hands up at me
All the honeys who makin' money
Throw your hands up at me, baby
All the mamas who profit dollas
Throw your hands up at me
All the ladies who truly feel me
Throw your hands up at me

The White House Proclaims October Domestic Violence Awareness Month

President Bush proclaimed October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month in 2003. I wanted to highlight some of the parts of his speech since we are in October and the awareness is needed just as much today as ever. I am only posting a few things the President stated in his address below. For the full article you can click on the title link above. There obviously needs to be a lot more work and awareness here, but I applaud and thank President Bush for helping to break the silence.

President Bush said the following about Domestic Violence:

A home, a family should be a place of support, should be a peaceful place -- not a place of cruelty and brutality. Domestic violence betrays the most basic duties of life, it violates the law, it's wrong, it is a crime that must be confronted by individuals, by communities and by government.

Too often its victims suffer in secret and in silence.

Domestic violence cuts across every line of geography and income.

Abuse is found in every community in our country -- every community -- and it must be fought in every community.

Hundreds of thousands of incidents of domestic violence are reported every year. The sad news is, many go unreported.

About a third of women murdered each year in America are killed by this type of violence. And nearly half the households where domestic violence occurs also has a child under 12 years old. There's more than one victim.

Women and children are facing dangers in this country, and they need strong allies.

Imagine what it would be like if you were an abused person trying to find help and you went from one place to another. With laws and police and all the rules of a regulations of a free society, it must be confusing and disheartening. The victim has been so traumatized, and then she has to tell her story over and over again, which repeats the trauma. There's a better way to do this. There's a better way to help people who need help in our society.

We have a moral obligation in our society to help relieve the suffering and to show that there is a better life.

May God bless those who are victims of domestic violence. And may God continue to bless our country. Thank you.