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Madison Links, Inc. to Host “Yes, I Can! Yes, I Will!” Middle School Girls’ Conference

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Girls enjoy 2019's Madison Links, Inc.’s “Yes, I Can! Yes, I Will!” Middle School Girls’ Conference.

Madison Links, Inc.’s “Yes, I Can! Yes, I Will!” Middle School Girls’ Conference is a day of learning, networking and fun for a large group of African-American girls. This year, it will be held on Tuesday, March 10, in the Spark Building, a state of the art building dedicated to innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship in Madison.

“We are really excited to be hosting this event in the Spark Building this year. It will be a chance for these girls to see something different and to see some possibilities,” Corinda Rainey-Moore is the secretary of the Madison Metropolitan Chapter of the Links, tells Madison365. “Dreambank has offered to lead them on a tour and to pick out any item down there they’d like. For our girls, this is a really great space for encouraging their dreams.”

The “Yes, I Can! Yes, I Will!” Middle School Girls Conference, now in its 11th year, is a day of engagement, learning and networking for middle school girls from schools throughout the Madison area. 

The Madison Links has been serving the Madison community and supporting Madison’s African-American students for 33 years. The “Yes, I Can! Yes, I Will” conference is one of their signature events. Internationally, The Links, Incorporated, is comprised of approximately 15,000 women of color from all walks of life and age brackets, who share a common and genuine vision of friendship and service. 

Rainey-Moore says that she expects there to be roughly 100 girls in attendance from all over Madison.

“We’re working with middle school girls in a way to really give them some skills but to also talk about some issues that may be important as they go through their school year and give them some tools to continue to be better students,” says Rainey-Moore, who is the chair of the Services to Youth Facet Committee for The Links along with Camille Carter. “Hopefully, we’ll pique some interest in some areas.”

Girls are dealing with a lot of issues at this age. Unfortunately, bullying is a prominent one.

“Brittany Neal from Anesis [Marriage and Family Center] will talk about bullying and the mental health issues associated with it. We are seeing more and more young kids committing suicide these days and bullying is a problem,” Rainey-Moore says. She’ll be tackling bullying, social media and mental health and how that impacts the mental health of the kid. In this day of social media, you can’t even go home and get away from bullying because it’s on your social media.”

Maydm will be at the event showing the girls how to do some coding. School board member Ali Muldrow will be the keynote speaker. Camille Carter will talk about financial literacy with the girls. 

The Madison Links

The conference is a day of empowerment and encouragement for middle school girls.

“We are bringing back the same girls from last year. Last year they were in 6th grade; this year they are in 7th,” Rainey-Moore says. “Next year we hope to have them again when they are in 8th grade. We’re trying to work consistently with the same group of girls so we can reinforce the message, but also for some consistency in our work.

“My favorite part of the event is seeing the excitement of the girls. This is an opportunity where they really get to learn from other folks who look like them in different fields,” Rainey Moore adds. “They are always so excited to see different folks who look like them in various careers talking about things that are important for them. For me, that is very exciting.”