Sharon Booker uses her political platform to make democracy a reality in the lives of the underserved. Booker is concurrently serving a second term as a member of Sharon Hill Borough Council and the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee and she is in her a first term on the executive committee of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Party.
Sherri Darden has worked incredibly hard to get to her current position. After graduating from high school in 1987, she went to work for the Philadelphia Council for Neighborhood Organizations as a secretary/bookkeeper. During her time there, she became a young mother and went to work at the Defender’s Association where she worked for 29 years working her way up from clerk/typist to human resources manager. While there, she worked to advance the mission of providing criminal defense services to people who cannot afford legal representation. She worked behind the scenes to enable those on the frontlines to complete their daily work.
Adina Ekwerike has worked in maternal and child health for over 34 years. Within her medical studies, she has focused on nutrition science and the effect the length of stay in foster care has on a child’s health.
FunTimes sat down with the mayor of the sixth-most-populous city in Pennsylvania, to explore the elements responsible for the gradual make over of a community consisting of 83,000 inhabitants with diverse backgrounds.
Our initial contact with Mayor Micozzie was his wanting to train his entire staff on cultural sensitivities in a town that is shaped by so many different cultures; one would be hard pressed to stay abreast of it all. He recognized that diversity is something to be celebrated amidst the challenges he and his staff may face from having to be sensitized to the needs of each culture.
Celebrating cultural diversity has now become a tradition in the township of Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia. In its second year this September, the Upper Darby International Festival show cased how diverse and welcoming the township has become under the leadership of Mayor Thomas Micozzie, who is equally focused on rebranding the township’s image and improving its business climate.
Donald Bonnett is Council President of the Township of Upper Darby. He has worked with Mayor Micozzie to advance the administration’s welcoming policy and its goal of forging a more diverse community with the immigrant population
From the School District, Police Department, the Sikh Community, and the Multicultural Commission, FunTimes Magazine has interviewed four members of the community on Mayor Micozzie’s Agenda for Upper Darby.
Upper Darby was a community built in the 1600s through the influx of immigrants settling in the area. Tom Judge and former Mayor Raymond Shay took note of their community’s history of immigrants and brainstormed ways to engage their new community members into feeling welcome.
Under the leadership of Portia Kamara and the MCFS board of directors, MCFS began the provision of culturally targeted and interconnected advocacy, educational, social, prevention, health and recreation support services aimed at bridging the cultural, linguistic and communication gaps faced by Liberians and other African/Caribbean immigrants and empowering them to succeed in their resettled community.
