The International Center for Traditional childbearing last week kicked off a new round of training for young women planning careers in the area of pregnancy support, family education and infant mortality prevention.
In a word, each woman hopes to become a doula.
"They offer pregnancy and birth support for the mother and the husband, with pre-natal care and post-partum too," said ICTC founder and director Shafia Monroe. "They're really making that village concept and improving birth outcomes."
The Center recently won a grant from the Kellogg Foundation to provide doula training for free to local women of color – although last week women traveled from all over the West coast to participate in a 22.5-hour-long series of workshops in the field....

More than a million Oregonians turned in ballots Tuesday, boosting Barack Obama's presidential campaign but giving poor outcomes for other Black contenders in the Portland area.
For the first time ever, Oregon's primary figured prominently in a presidential bid, although observers say Obama's 58 percent versus Hilary Clinton's 41 percent vote count was cancelled out by Clinton's win in the Kentucky primary, where she took 65 percent and vowed not to give up the fight.
Meanwhile, City Council candidate John Branam was edged out of the runoff for the seat vacated by Mayor-elect Sam Adams by slightly more than half a percentage point, losing the runoff spot to Charles Lewis. Lewis faces Amanda Fritz in November.
For City Council Position 2, candidates Fred Stewart and Harold Williams II won single-digit percentages in a race where Nick Fish wiped out the opposition with almost 62 percent of the vote....

John Head, author of "Standing in the Shadows: Black Men and Depression"

Gayathri Ramprasad has a Master of Business Administration, a family history of mental illness, and a mission to help communities of color find treatment and healing for depression and other mental health problems.
"They are disorders of the brain and can be treated," she says....

The Portland State University NAACP hosts "Black America: State of Emergency," Saturday, May 24 at Cramer Hall. The one-day series of seminars includes 16 workshops presented by educators and activists such as Charles McGee of the Black Parent Initiative, Kayse Jama of the Center for Intercultural Organizing, and PSU Urban Studies Professor Karen Gibson. The events are free and lunch is provided. Organizers want to make it an annual event....

What's happening for me in my City this week? Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your week. For a full calendar please click on "Read the complete article" below.

Volunteer and Seattle Police Sgt. Jay Shin cheers on Jaleah Calloway, 9, as she reels in a rainbow trout at the annual Fishing Kids event May 17 at Seward Park. As a way to get more kids interested in fishing, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation have teamed with businesses, organizations and volunteers to provide an opportunity for kids to fish at local parks. For $5 kids get to catch and keep a couple of rainbow trout, they recieve a T shirt and they get to keep the Zebco rod and reel their given at the start of the event.

Barack Obama won a healthy victory over Hillary Clinton in Oregon, and is projected to take 30 of 52 pledged delegates in the state. Clinton also won handily in Kentucky, but it didn't give her enough delegates to secure a chance of winning the nomination.
Clinton has vowed to continue the fight through the last primaries in early June _ determination which was cheered on by a group of female supporters from the WomenCount political action committee who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times urging her not to give up.
After Tuesday's primaries, Obama has 1,961 out of 2,026 needed to secure the nomination; Clinton has 1,777....

SEATTLE (AP) — State officials, paid consultants and interested volunteers are making efficient progress toward revising the Washington science education standards but the leader of the committee managing the effort says their work may be wasted if things don't change in the classroom.
"Our standards aren't bad. I don't think the science WASL is that bad, but we still only have 36 percent of students passing," Jeff Vincent, chairman of the state Board of Education's science committee, said Friday.
The board on Thursday approved the final report from a consultant hired to review the science stand ards. The next step is an overhaul of the standards by the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction....

Renowned internationally for her provocative performance art and writings about race, damali ayo made a radical career change this month.
The author of "How to Rent a Negro," who was chronicled by The New York Times and National Public Radio as she traveled coast to coast panhandling for reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, is now a clothing designer.
Her new fashion line, Crow Clothing, is available exclusively on her website. What made ayo decide to switch from social justice activism to designing clothes? ...

click here for all the career news