{"id":2302,"date":"2019-04-08T20:15:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T20:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2302"},"modified":"2019-04-08T20:16:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T20:16:20","slug":"the-network-of-superwomen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2302","title":{"rendered":"The Network of Superwomen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Western duo leads unique women’s initiative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Nattoo<\/strong> – Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharai Campbell and Alecia Newsome are an unlikely pair, and that may be the source of their effortless magic. Campbell had an idea six months ago, and that was all Newsome needed to hear to push her to execute it. Now, a quiet revolution \u2013 with a peculiar feminine flavour, is seeping across the West, and when it\u2019s all said and done, for women and young girls, glass ceilings will be shattered, and barriers will be broken, thanks to the now rapidly expanding movement founded by the two women \u2013 \u2018Peonies and Intellect\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peonies and Intellect is a women-only initiative geared at\nproviding a constant flow of access, resources and practical information to\nwomen and young girls across Western Jamaica, to help in their journey of\nsuccess and self-actualization. Each month, at a specific location, the\nsociety\u2019s members meet, socialize, and empower each other through seminars,\npresentations, mentorship and charitable initiatives, all in an effort to\nexpose its members and to increase their connectivity across various sectors in\nthe working world, as well as in personal endeavours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOW IT ALL BEGAN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, we realized for some time now, particularly between\nwomen in the workplace, that there was more competition than collaboration, and\nwe wanted to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is enough for us all to succeed, and so the two of us\ngot together, and decided to be the change we wanted to see. Essentially, we\nwanted to have a tribe of women \u2013 a network \u2013 helping each other on their\nindividual journeys to success,\u201d explained Campbell, the founder of Peonies and\nIntellect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her co-founder, Newsome, also shared her perspective on what\ndrove them to initialize the female empowerment movement, which has grown\nsignificantly in the past month. \u201cWe also realized specific cases in a general\noffice space where even when working towards a common goal, there was not\nenough of us as women trying to elevate each other. Instead, there was still\nthis idea of \u2018Oh, I\u2019m gonna win!\u2019 and we really wanted to change that also.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name \u2018Peonies an Intellect\u2019 may seem odd at first, but\nits symbolism is quite apt for what the inspired women are trying to\naccomplish. \u201cPeonies signify prosperity, good fortune, honour, and compassion,\nand that\u2019s exactly what our organization \u2013 our movement, is about. The\nintelligence part of it is pretty much self-explanatory. We want to foster the\nkind of environment, not just among ourselves, but in the lives of the women\nwho are a part of us, where they can thrive, and know that there is a whole\nnetwork behind them pushing them in practical ways to achieve whatever they\nfeel would make them successful,\u201d Campbell explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ORGANIC GROWTH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an organic way, the women of Western Jamaica saw the\nvision of Peonies and Intellect, and in a powerful way, they responded. In\ntheir first meeting, which was expected to have at most, 10 people, that number\ntripled. Then doubled. Even more, the movement, supported by women from all\nwalks of the professional spectrum \u2013 lawyers, doctors, investment bankers,\namong others, has begun to take on a defined structure far earlier than was\nintended by the founders. But, they are embracing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought initially, it was only going to be just a few\nfriends of Sharai and I, but now, we are in excess of 100 women who are now a\npart of the organization\u2026 it\u2019s gotten huge,\u201d shared a beaming Newsome. Backing\nher up, Campbell added, \u201cIt\u2019s just grown organically. We invited some women,\nwho invited other women, and now, here we are.\u201d Peonies and Intellect\u2019s rapid\ndevelopment did not just see a growth in membership, but also in the\norganizational structure of the society of like-minded professional women.\n\u201cPeople are reaching out to us on social media; some have asked about becoming\nour treasurer, others wanted to know who handled our public relations, others\nwanted to know if they could speak at our functions, all because they wanted to\nhelp in those ways.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018WE WANT TO DO THINGS BIGGER\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why only women though? The answer, for the founders, at\nleast, was simple: men have long since established networks of support,\nespecially for career-building and personal development purposes, and it was\nhigh time women in Western Jamaica had the same. \u201cWe are not saying women\nweren\u2019t helping other women in Western Jamaica before we started Peonies and\nIntellect; rather, we\u2019re saying we acknowledge those efforts, and want to do\nthose things on a much bigger scale,\u201d Campbell pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was also the issue of wanting to find people we could relate to. As a professional and as millennials, it\u2019s hard to juggle our many responsibilities, which we knew other women could relate to, so for me, having this network served as a space to really see how they have been handling those challenges, and to help each other along the way,\u201d Newsome added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s unique about the idea brought forward by Campbell and\nNewsom is that while a big part of it focused on having the usual presentations\ngeared at inspiring the women to make a change, their true actions went far\nbeyond that. \u201cSure, hearing the inspiring speech is good, but a week from now,\na month from now, when the inspiration wears off, what then? We don\u2019t believe\nthat your network is only supposed to be there when you have these meetings. We\nbelieve that your network should be a real thing that benefits you in the real\nworld.\u201d Campbell further disclosed that it is for that reason why a number of\ninitiatives are being rolled out in the coming months, all geared at providing\npractical ways for women to achieve success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharai Campbell and Alecia Newsome only wanted to bridge the\ndivide between women in the workplace, but now, they are doing so much more.\nPeonies and Intellect is a movement Western Jamaica never quite knew it needed,\nbut it\u2019s here, and it\u2019s flourishing, and it\u2019s getting bigger. The two women are\ndoing their part to foster productive competition, and with an army of\nlike-minded women walking beside them, they\u2019ll accomplish much more than that.\n\u201cThe two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day\nyou find out why.\u201d \u2014Mark Twain. It seems Campbell and Newsome have figured out\ntheir \u2018Why\u2019s\u2019, and so has the growing number of women from Western Jamaica\nwalking with them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is enough for us all to succeed, and so the two of us got together, and decided to be the change we wanted to see. Essentially, we wanted to have a tribe of women \u2013 a network \u2013 helping each other on their individual journeys to success,\u201d explained Campbell, the founder of Peonies and Intellect. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[1256,1255,1251],"class_list":["post-2302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-feature","category-news","tag-alecia-newsome","tag-sharai-campbell","tag-western-duo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions\/2304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}