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Be Ready, a PAC to Elect More Black Women in New Jersey, Takes Off

projectreadynj.org

The group also aims to advance an agenda important to Black women, which includes education, health care, and closing the wealth gap.

It’s called Be Ready, New Jersey’s first Political Action Committee dedicated to getting Black women elected and addressing the issues that are important to them.

Executive director Shennell McCloud said a poll run by the group’s sister organization Project Ready, a nonprofit focused on education and voter turnout, revealed what those issues are.

“The wealth gap, how wealth can limit the opportunity and potential of black women, education, whether or not students are receiving a quality education given all that’s happened amid Covid, and health care,” she said.

McCloud said she sees this as a building year for the group to forge ties with among others Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver, the first woman of color to serve in a statewide elected office in New Jersey, and all Black women who want to get involved.

“We are all in alignment that the time is now to have more equal representation at the table where decisions are being made by a group of people who are showing up at the polls,” said McCloud.

Janice Kirkel is a lifelong award-winning journalist who has done everything from network newscasts to national and local sports reports to business newscasts to specialized reporting and editing in technical areas of business and finance such as bankruptcy, capital structure changes and reporting on the business of the investment business.