OXNARD : Forum Explores Black Women’s Health Issues

More than 200 African-American women and teen-age girls gathered in Oxnard on Saturday to discuss health, work and other issues in Ventura County’s first such conference aimed at black women.

Sponsored by the county’s Public Health Tobacco Education and Control Program, the conference included speeches by writers and college professors, seminars on stress and nutrition, and an afternoon fashion show.

“This type of program offers a wonderful opportunity for all women,” said Yolanda Hill, a 46-year-old computer analyst from Oxnard. “It not only provides us an opportunity to learn and grow, but it also offers something that we can identify with and that is our heritage, who we are and where we are going.”

Jeanne Scott, the program’s organizer, said the daylong conference at Oxnard’s Boys & Girls Club was conceived primarily as a way to address the issue of African-American women and smoking.

According to studies conducted by the California Department of Health Services, 25% of African-American women smoke, compared to 19% of all women in California, Scott said.

Although the main goal of the program was to help women stop smoking or persuade them to never start, the conference also tackled such issues as choosing a career and managing relationships, Scott said.

“Leading a healthy life is important, but you can’t have that unless you have the means. You need to be educated to have a reliable job and you need to have self-esteem. We want to teach women how to achieve them,” Scott said. “They must learn how to take control of their lives and have goals. A lot of our young women today have none of that.”

The keynote speaker at the event was Patrice Gaines, a Washington Post journalist whose recently published book details her trials as a single mother and drug user who served time in jail.

“I was impressed with her,” said 34-year-old Maria Chandler. “A lot of the things she talked about are happening in my life right now, and that gave me some perspective.”

Scott said the county hopes to hold a similar conference annually.