From a very early age, Reverend Dr. Denise Parker Lawrence has had a love for empowering youth in her midst. As a teenager, her initial organized effort was establishing the Eminence Cultural Centr...vizualizați mai multeFrom a very early age, Reverend Dr. Denise Parker Lawrence has had a love for empowering youth in her midst. As a teenager, her initial organized effort was establishing the Eminence Cultural Centre, a charm school, teaching etiquette, and deportment. As a member of The Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E./AME) Cathedral of New York, under the leadership of Pastors Floyd and Elaine Flake, she became a founding Chairperson for the Girls Rites of Passage program and later on served as the Director of the federally funded, One Choice, One Voice Abstinence program. In this, her debut devotional for parents, caregivers, and children, Dr. Lawrence is integrating her skills as Hospice and Certified Chaplain, Pastoral Counselor, and Diplomate Supervisor in Clinical Pastoral Education to sow into the lives of families. She believes an enlightened society needs to heed the African adage, which suggests “the ruin of a nation begins in a single hut.” She firmly believes that strengthening a community begins with strengthening family ties. Currently, she serves on the ministerial staff of Kingdom Fellowship (AME) Church with Pastor Matthew L. Watley in Calverton, Maryland, as Thrive’s ministry lead, which ministers to the 55-plus community. Even there, with great success, she has sponsored intergenerational programs to promote increased communication and decrease the generation gap.vizualizați mai puține