The ceremony was held last week at the City Springs Center in Sandy Springs.

By Allison Joyner

Last week, local nonprofit Synergies Work honored business owners with disabilities during the first-ever EDDIE Awards.

Short for “entrepreneurs dedicated to diverse, inclusive excellence,” the EDDIE Awards celebrate innovative and ambitious business owners with disabilities making a difference in their communities. 

“The EDDIE Awards is a celebration of who we are at the core — bringing disabled entrepreneurs and helping them with whatever business objectives they have,” said Aarti Sanghal the founder of Synergies Work. 

Inspired by her younger son, Angad who has a disability, Synergies Work helps entrepreneurs with disabilities reach their full potential by providing resources to help them grow their businesses. 

“When you think of disabilities, we are always thinking of something that needs to be fixed,” Sahgal said, “As a mother [of someone with a disability] and a person who works in this field, [I see it as] a celebration. Because why not?”

According to the Small Business Administration, there are 33 million small businesses in the U.S.  The National Disability Institute says almost two million are owned by people with disabilities. 

The EDDIE Awards showcase those disabled entrepreneurs and celebrate their accomplishments as successful business owners. 

After receiving almost one hundred nominations in its first year, the EDDIE Awards selected 15 finalists in several categories pertaining to technology, new startups and community-based businesses.

“The idea of celebrating disabled entrepreneurs is needed right now,” said Dom Kelly, founder of New Disabled South and Social Impact Award winner. “We need more joy in the disability community and more celebration.”

Dom Kelly won the Social Impact Award at the Eddie Awards 2023. (Image provided by Synergies Work.)

Kelly, who is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, created New Disabled South as a way of building a coalition of disability justice activists to advocate for organizations in the Southern U.S.

“We have five-person staff, all with disabilities serving 14 states and bringing disabled leaders across sectors to look at the issues our community faces,” Kelly said.  “[We] work together to figure out solutions and fight for systemic change.”  

In addition to giving financial support, Sanghal wants to encourage Atlantans to become mentors to disabled entrepreneurs and give them your talent, treasures and time to help them succeed. 

“I think people with disabilities want to be acknowledged and want to be valued and remember that we exist and also say that the word ‘disability’ is not bad,” Kelly said. 

Click here to learn more about the other EDDIE award winners. 

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With Black Maternal Health Week being earlier this month and National Infertility Week this week, it’s essential for everyone to know about their reproductive health.

By Allison Joyner

As the country debates abortion rights, it is only a fraction of the conversation regarding reproductive health. This is a necessary conversation to have, though, and one director and producer Chiquita Lockley aims to make more complete through her film. 

The documentary “Eggs Over Easy” discusses other aspects of this issue that are not being discussed, especially for African American women.

“We talk about fertility, which also includes adoption but it also includes being child-free by choice which most people leave out when so many of us fall in that category,” said Chiquita Lockley, director of the film. “I wanted to include that conversation because I did not know until one of my friends tried to tie her tubes. When you are under age 40 and without children, you need a letter from your husband to give you permission – assuming you have one – or a psychological evaluation.”

Lockley was inspired to direct, write and produce the film when her OB-GYN asked her if she thought about having a baby and discussed other gynecological concerns during her annual visit. When she entered her 40s, her doctor discussed the remaining eggs she had in her body. Blacking out during the conversation, she was confused about what to do with them.

“I found out that the fibroids we’ve been watching for a decade had grown so large that I needed a myomectomy, similar to a  cesarean but they take out fibroids instead of taking out a baby.”

She was even recommended to have a hysterectomy, which seemed a little too extreme, and she wanted to find less invasive measures. 

When she discussed this with her friends, they also admitted their own fertility issues with her. 

According to the March of Dimes, Black women are nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports the infant mortality rate among Black babies in the U.S. is 10.6 per 1,000 live births. 

“80 percent of Black women will have fibroids by age 50 and the number one option doctors are giving us to fix this is a hysterectomy,” Lockley said. 

In addition to discussing fibroids, Lockley’s film documents Black women going through various medical issues and procedures, including Endometriosis, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, IVF, miscarriages, surrogacy, and egg donation and freezing procedures.

Official movie poster for “Eggs Over Easy.” (Image provided by Justin Foster)

“I did fertility, which spans the full spectrum from women who want to have children and are maybe trying or they don’t even know they shouldn’t be trying to conceive because nobody had a conversation with them about the AMH or antimalarial hormone, which lets you know if you have eggs and how many you still may have,” Lockley said. 

She says plenty of things women need to know regarding their reproductive health. 

Asking your Human Resources department or healthcare provider if they have an insurance rider in their benefits package. This will help with the additional costs that occur when beginning the fertility process. 

Since Lockley was conversing about her reproductive health with her doctor in her 40s, she believes that women should start talking to younger women in their 20s instead. 

She said that Black women are active on social media, posting activities like their latest vacation but should also start financially preparing for motherhood. 

“Do you have a savings account set up in case of an emergency?” Lockley said. “You might need it if you wake up and decide you want a child at age 35 to 40 and find out you don’t have any eggs.”

She also suggests that when you start the fertility process, have the man tested for their sperm count before having the procedure that counts the number of eggs in a woman’s body. 

“Men are a third the cause of [infertility] for a couple (there’s female-factor infertility, male-factor infertility and couples-factor infertility),” Lockley said. “But when couples are tested, the woman is 9.5 times more likely to get tested first. Since the test for men is less invasive, why not test the men first? He has to leave a sample in a cup to see if he has sperm and if they are mobile.”

You can find “Eggs Over Easy” on-demand or on Discovery+.

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The six-week program gives tools to prevent participants from going back into incarceration.

By Allison Joyner

To prevent a repeating cycle of imprisonment, the Henry County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) has partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to create a program to helps those returning to society. 

Last month, the “Step in the Right Direction: Pathway Forward Reentry Program” began at the Henry County Restorative Center to help men released from Henry County Jail develop new life skills they will use after release. 

The 180-day program will feature learning modules focused on personal development, job readiness, securing housing and addressing transportation needs, among other topics. At the end of the program, the inmates will receive a certificate of completion from Morehouse School of Medicine and participate in a graduation ceremony. Resources on enrolling in government assistance programs for amenities like food, housing and healthcare are also given to participants to utilize after graduation.

This partnership will help maximize the opportunity for each inmate to succeed and prepare them for a promising future. “Recidivism has been an ongoing initiative Sheriff Reginald Scandrett has had on the top of his list,” said TaMarlion Carter, Director of the HCSO. 

Morehouse School of Medicine building
Credit: Morehouse School of Medicine.

Thanks to a grant from healthcare company Wellpath, which has already funded the school’s life coaching program, MSM can improve health equity efforts for those who have been imprisoned. 

“MSM has always had a focus on equity, and when we think about health equity, we think about vulnerable populations but one of those significant populations are those currently incarcerated,” said Dr. Adrian Tyndall, Dean and Executive Vice President of Health Affairs at MSM. 

The program serves men whose sentence is almost complete and teaches them life skills like problem-solving, job readiness, success planning and money management, which will help them from falling back into the criminal system.  

“We at MSM want to help resolve their internal issues that are happening and rehabilitate them not by locking them up but by giving them a pathway forward,” said Dr. Angelita Howard, Founding Dean of Online Education and Expanded Programs at MSM.

The recently opened Henry County Restorative Center was developed to support mechanisms that directly reinforce the HCSO recidivism initiative. The center uses four approaches — educational enrichment, life skill enrichment, technical enrichment and self-care enrichment — to help engage, equip, empower and employ those participating in their programs. More specifically, applicable inmates will be able to receive their GED,  or welding, forklift, fatherhood and job interviewing principles certifications. 

Sherriff Reginald Scandrett cutting the ribbon to open the new Henry County Restorative Center. (Image provided by Henry County Sherriff’s Office.)

“Not only is [the program] equipping the individual but it’s strengthening their families and the potential for the community to step in the right direction,” Carter said. 

Howard told SaportaReport that 30 participants are currently enrolled in the program and are motivated to use what they learn after release. Also, the Henry County Courthouse is interested in using the program for alternative sentencing instead of jail time. 

“It’s programs like these that will equip them to go back into these dynamics because once an individual is a part of the justice-involved system, it will be downhill from there,” Carter said. 

HCSO is looking for more partnerships through their Henry County Sheriff’s Office Foundation with local businesses and organizations. Click here to find out more. 

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