International Women’s Day: Introducing Angela Draughn

“Without women in this world, nothing is possible…nothing.” -Angela Draughn💞

Angela Draughn, Martha’s Table Family Success Center Manager and Chairperson of the Community Advisory Council (CAC), shares how the women in her life have shaped her into the impactful, service-minded, and uplifting woman she is.

This International Women’s Day, we want to take a moment to highlight women like Angela who dedicate their time, energy, and resources to making the world a better place.

Meet Angela

N: What does it mean to be a woman?

A: I just think a nurturer you know. A healer, a multitasker, a trailblazer, and a pathfinder. 

N: Who are some women in your personal life that have inspired, healed, and nurtured you?

A:Well, of all the women in my family from my aunts to my mom, I want to highlight my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother. I used to stay with my great grandmother. We had this really big house in North Carolina. I stayed with them for the first six years of my life because I had a third degree burn. 

And my great grandmother taught me how to pray and have faith because that’s what she was, and I stayed with her. So I was able to breathe in all of that energy, you know, from her every night up until I was six. And my grandmother was just an amazing soul. And she did not know how to read. So she was a functional illiterate, but she was a woman of great wisdom. And so I will say those women began to shape my life in a powerful way. And they taught me about the power of serving.

Community Advisory Council

N: And you serve a lot. Can you talk a bit about how you serve the CAC?

A: I serve with the CAC by putting myself in the  shoes of the community, and giving to them what I needed when I was younger.  When I first moved to Ward 8, it was a different space for me. I hadn’t experienced all the things that I saw when I first moved over here. So it took some time to learn how to find my place here. 

And so when I serve with the CAC, I serve from a point of view of helping them find their place, wherever they are. I read this book, entitled ‘Bloom Where You’re Planted’.  It’s about learning how to bloom wherever you are. That’s how I started the CAC, just nurturing them to the point that they can bloom in their neighborhoods, in their apartment complexes, in the grocery stores, you know, wherever they are, they’re able to just bloom there.

N: I love that. And for those who don’t know, what is the CAC, what is the mission, what does it do?

A: The purpose of the CAC is to get a diverse group of folks together and do training and leadership development. We will come together to create activities and shape programming. And for them to also give us advice on are we going in the right direction, should we be having this program? Is it a need in our community? They are our boots on the ground, and they bring that wealth of knowledge to us and from that space.

Family Success Center

N: Can you talk a little bit about your role at Martha’s Table, and how that aligns with your personal passions.

A: I am a Family Success Center Manager here. It’s about growing successful families, in my opinion, and that doesn’t have to look like a big house, a boat, or a car, or this or that. But if you can find the ability to raise your family with love, integrity, keep your family together, keep your family safe, give your family the ability to dream, and then give them practical steps to help them achieve those goals or those dreams. I consider that a success. 

And the reason why I’m able to be so passionate about this work is because I come from a really good family even though we didn’t have money. So if you were to look at my family, you would have been like, you weren’t successful because you didn’t have money. The very woman who did not know how to read was married to my grandfather for 58 years. That’s successful. They had nine successful children. None of their kids died of gun violence, none of their children were hurt or harmed. They were able to grow up and become entrepreneurs, go on to do great things, and to be pathfinders within their own right. 

So they came from a family with not the best education or  money, but they did great things. And so I can use my mom as an example, in the sense that my mom was an offspring of that family. And even though growing up and living here in DC, we faced many challenges. Because my parents were separated, my mom had to be a single parent. In spite of all that she experienced, and all the challenges she had, she made sure that we were okay. We were raised in DC while it was the murder capital of the nation at the time, and yet my mom kept us all out of trouble. My brother went on to be an entrepreneur and an engineer, I went on to do the things that I’m doing now. My sister is successful in her own right. 

So when you start to see what it took for this one woman to make us a success, it was connected to love,  determination, and  a spirit of resilience. I served from that point of view, because I know that if my mom could do it back in that era when it was really difficult to live in DC, I know I could do it too. So I stand for our communities as best I can.

A Letter to Women

N: What is some advice that you would leave to the women in your community?

A:I would say, write your own narrative. I think that’s very powerful. Because, for us, women of color, there are so many stereotypes that we are constantly breaking down like “Oh, you’re an angry black woman.” I try to tell people that anger is an emotion that anybody can have. Don’t let people take a hold of your narrative.

Be who you are. Be wonderful. Be adventurous, be unique, and make your mark in the world because the world needs strong women. Without women in this world, nothing is possible. Without women life does not go on. We are nurturers, and so just be unique.

***************

Thank you Angela to the empowering work you continue to do and thank you to the women, the nurturers, the givers, and the creators who bring life into this world!

Happy International Women’s Day!

*Interview by Nia Rose