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I grew up thinking that girls were just like boys. As I grew older I realized
that women struggle every day to receive the rights they deserve. Being a
Salvadorian girl, I face challenges everywhere I go. There are issues of
racism and the problems of being a youth. It is difficult for adults to
realize that youth also have a voice and need to be heard. Working at the
Boston Women’s Fund gives me an opportunity to express my opinions as a youth
as well as a girl. —Claudia Contreras
BWF Grantees 2004
Adbar Ethiopian Women’s Alliance
The mission of the Adbar Ethiopian Women’s Alliance is to empower
and strengthen Ethiopian women and girls by encouraging them to
become agents of change. The Alliance works to enhance the status
of Ethiopian women through community organizing, advocacy, and
service using culturally appropriate strategies. It provides empowerment
programs and service linkages to other providers, as well as
legislative and legal advocacy to meet the needs of Ethiopian immigrant/
refugee women who have been traditionally underserved or
neglected. It is strongly committed to helping Ethiopian women and
girls achieve economic independence and maintain personal safety as
they adjust to a new environment.
Asian American Resource Workshop
Forged in the fires of the grassroots activism of the civil rights movement,
AARW emerged as the first pan-Asian organization in the
Boston area to address issues of racism against the Asian community.
The organization has positioned itself on the cutting edge once again
with its new anti-racism education program called “The Sticky Rice
Project for Women.” This program was developed to fill in the critical
pieces missing from the dialogue on racism—a dialogue based
largely on a black-white paradigm. Workshops will combine race,
class and gender analysis to understand the specific oppressions
facing Asian-American women and will facilitate organizing
approaches that address their needs and vision.
Asian Pacific Islanders Women’s Social Justice
Project
The API Women’s Social Justice Project is the local response to the
recent Ford Foundation report “Asian American Women: Issues,
Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy.”
This groundbreaking report found that Asian and Pacific Islander
(API) women are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder and
suffer human and civil rights abuses on a daily basis. The Project
is a diverse, grassroots, community-based, women-led coalition
dedicated to developing a constituency-driven, racial, social, health,
and economic justice movement for API women in Eastern
Massachusetts, particularly the urban areas of Greater Boston,
Lowell, Lynn, and Revere.
Association of Haitian Women
The Association of Haitian Women equips Haitian women with the
necessary tools to improve their social, economic, and political status.
BWF funding supports the Battered Women Task Force. Recent
changes in welfare and immigration laws have forced many lowincome
Haitian women to endure battering relationships from fear
of INS and police involvement. Haitian women are also frequently
denied shelter services in part due to linguistic and cultural barriers.
Based on the principle of collectivity, the Association develops workshops
for battered women to support each other, increase their personal
and political power, and strategize around violence-prevention
and economic opportunity. The workshops are an attempt to lessen
the acceptance of violence—by women, the Haitian community,
and community service providers.
Coalition of Asian Pacific American Youth
Stereotyping and pigeon-holing affect young APA men and women in
similar ways—they are stereotyped as silent, high-achieving, and
without problems. Many young women, however, have the added
cultural pressure at home of being the “good Asian daughter” who
does not question male authority and who learns to clean and cook.
CAPAY has been in existence since 1994, building the consciousness
and leadership skills of APA youth in the Greater Boston area. Youth
learn about systems of oppression and to analyze root causes of the
injustices and problems in our society. For young APA women, a
space like CAPAY where they can take leadership roles and have their
strength validated is extremely important. They can build a support
network among their peers, both male and female, and find role models
among the adults who set examples of leadership and strength.
Cooperative Economics for Women
Women in poverty struggle with the multiple burdens of racism,
xenophobia, and the overwhelming demonization of the poor in the
United States. Cooperative Economics for Women works with lowincome
women to create constituency-driven, cooperative incomegenerating
projects and to address the punitive effects of welfare and
immigration laws and reform. It organizes with low-income immigrant
and refugee women of color to address problems they face as
they struggle to meet their basic needs. Currently CEW is working
with Cambodian, Cape Verdean, Eritrean, and Haitian immigrant and refugee women and their families in Boston and surrounding
communities. Its current programs include worker owned cooperatives,
food security, legal advocacy, community organizing training,
ESOL classes, and children’s programs.
Crossing Communities Collaborative
The Collaborative’s mission and guiding principles are geared toward
the development of positive community change through education,
spiritual development, and collaboration. It works with existing
social-change organizations and educational institutions to develop
coalitions and cross-cultural exchanges both locally and internationally,
organizes around issues of social justice, and actively challenges
racism in all of its forms. It also works toward international solidarity
and equality while promoting spiritual awareness in social activism.
The Collaborative intends to bring a group of Cuban women to
Boston to share best practices.
Eastern Mass Abortion Fund
Abortion has been legal in the United States for over thirty years,
but for too many women, it is still inaccessible due to a lack of funding,
a shortage of providers, restrictive legislation and anti-choice
harassment and violence. While MassHealth gives women in
Massachusetts greater access to abortion than women in many other
states have, the barriers are still prohibitive for many women, especially
uninsured or underinsured women, young women, immigrant
women, and women living outside Metro Boston. By providing
financial aid in the form of grants to low-income women and girls
seeking safe and timely abortions, EMAF empowers women to be
guided by their belief systems rather than financial constraints.
Fuller Museum of Art
The Teen Docent Program at the Fuller Museum of Art empowers
young women in Brockton to express themselves visually and verbally
through the study and creation of art. Works in the museum
are utilized as a springboard for the discussion of issues such as
the perception of women, sexuality, multiculturalism, domestic
violence, discrimination, and self-esteem. The discussions then fuel
ideas for the teen’s own creative artwork. Additionally, teen girls
utilize these experiences to plan activities and discussion for the
fourth- and fifth-grade girls that they mentor one day per week for
ten consecutive weeks. Docents also act as guides for the museum’s
cultural activities.
Homes for Families
Homelessness is a demoralizing experience for families. It interrupts
family life, interferes with children’s education and development, and
often results in the separation of family members. Diminishing
wages and welfare benefits, and lack of affordable housing are the
primary causes of family homelessness. Homes for Families works
with homeless families to advocate for and provide solutions to
problems in the areas of housing, education, and jobs. The organization
recruits and fully involves the people most affected by the injustice
of family homelessness—women and their children. Formerly
homeless people serve as active members of the board and are
involved in the decision-making process of the organization.
The Kitchen Table Conversations Project
The Kitchen Table Conversations Project grew out of an investigation
into the situations of Cambridge women who were directly
affected by the dramatic changes in federal and state welfare entitlement
programs. During 2003, its work has focused on the need for
accessible, sensitive health care for two reasons: 1) Poverty has
created a great deal of stress in the lives of low-income women as
individuals, as providers for their families, and as mothers, 2) the
depth of that stress became evident during the past year when two
members of the group died of preventable causes. As a result, we
have worked hard to save MassHealth by petitioning, holding community
meetings, speaking at rallies, and meeting with health-care
administrators and providers to increase services and access to lowincome
women and our families.
Low-Income Welfare Organizing Collaborative
LIWOC is a ten-member coalition of groups in Greater Boston area
that focuses on organizing low-income people around issues of
poverty and injustice. The member groups come to the coalition
with a commitment to low-income missions and leadership. Since its
inception, LIWOC has been a forum for leaders to work together,
identify common issues, sponsor trainings on welfare rules, and
develop joint materials. The coordinated systems developed by the
groups enable them to increase their individual outreach, leadership
development, and organizing capacity. LIWOC has helped each
group to significantly expand and educate its constituency of current
and former welfare recipients through direct outreach.
MassCOSH
Girls, especially immigrants and young women of color, have the
fewest resources and the least power both in their communities and
in the workplace. The teen leadership development project Teens
Lead at Work engages youth in organizing for jobs that are free
from sexual harassment, discrimination, and other dangerous working
conditions. Youth learn about the roots of the issues of concern
to them, train other youth, design strategies for change, and organize
for results. Over the next year, peer leaders will campaign for
passage of a child-labor reform bill.
The Network/La Red
The Network/La Red, one of the few organizations working specifically
to end woman-on-woman battering, collaborates with a wide
variety of community organizations to end domestic violence. The
organization and its newspaper offer a political analysis of womanon-
woman battering in order to encourage constituencies to act for
broad social, political, and economic change rather than single-issue
advocacy. Phase II of the Network’s visibility campaign is designed
to engage the LBT community in taking ownership and responsibility
for the issue of domestic violence through community collaborations,
strategic planning, media advocacy, advertising, a ribbon
campaign, and a “Help Out a Friend” campaign, which includes
trainings and materials.
Peace at Home
Peace at Home began as a grassroots effort to increase press coverage
and raise awareness of domestic violence and to track the number of
women, children, and family members involved in incidents of domestic
violence. Its philosophy states that domestic violence is not just a
women’s issue but a human rights violation. It believes that everyone
can help stop domestic violence and reshape the way society thinks
about and responds to this emergency. This can build a movement to
claim the right to live at home in safety and dignity, free from fear of
physical and psychological abuse. The goal of Peace at Home is to
provide the general public with the tools and information it needs to
prevent domestic violence and provide victims with the resources and
support they need. It does this through education, prevention and
advocacy, including its Public Information Campaign, which brings its
materials and resources to people where they live and work.
People to People
People to People works collaboratively with women who are incarcerated
or at risk of being in conflict with the law. It helps them to
couple their inherent power with external resources to take control
over their lives. The first program in Massachusetts of its kind,
People to People challenges the systems of oppression and dismantles
the patterns of thought about the abilities and potential of
women. Providing a structured, positive opportunity for interaction,
women inmates have an opportunity to intervene in the cycle of
incarceration and recidivism by helping young women make better
choices about their own lives.
Public Housing Organizing Committee
Developing short-term and long-term campaigns, building community
partnerships and relationships through one-on-one interaction, and
holding house meetings are all traditional organizing strategies that
work well in the dense geography of public housing. The Public
Housing Organizing Committee believes that the sustained and
meaningful participation by residents in all aspect of housing-agency
operations is also an important ingredient. Its mission is to represent
public-housing tenants in dealings with the Chelsea Housing Authority
and other public entities and to mobilize tenants to protect, improve,
and expand public housing in Chelsea. The women who lead the
Committee conduct grassroots community organizing, leadership
development, and community-building in the face of staunch
opposition and intimidation tactics by the Housing Authority
administration.
Sisters Together Ending Poverty
STEP aims to “build a lasting and diverse movement for economic
justice run by and for low-income women that will transform society.”
Members support individual low-income women by helping them
become empowered and engaging them in organizing, public education,
and coalition campaigns that strengthen their lives and the
local community. STEP works in collaboration with community
partners, organizations, and funders, reaching across the lines of
class, race, gender, and sexual orientation, to build a mutual power
base with a healthy value system of mutual support—to “leave no
one behind.”
Southeast Asian Bilingual Advocates, Inc.
SABAI was founded in response to the need for strategies and services
that address issues of health care access, health status, and cultural
and linguistic appropriateness of care for Southeast Asian communities
in the Greater Lowell area. Working at the grassroots level in the
Lowell area, it is committed to the development of programs that
are respectful of cultural, individual, family, and community needs
while reducing barriers between Southeast Asian and Western health
beliefs and promoting participation in health services and activities.
SABAI is especially committed to serving those members of the
Southeast Asian community who are most marginalized and isolated
by language, poverty, age, or circumstance.
Survivors, Inc
Survivors, Inc., mobilizes a broad welfare-rights constituency to fight
for economic justice. The power of low-income women is increased
through leadership development, community organizing, education,
and advocacy concerning policy and practice related to low-income
women and families. As a result, the women become leaders in their
organizations, in their communities, and in the larger movement for
economic and social justice. It organizes nationally for the creation
of social policy with low-income women at the table. It also organizes
locally at Boston welfare offices, in its communities, and at UMass
Boston with the belief that the best advocates for low-income
women are the women themselves.
The Theater Offensive
The Theater Offensive presents theatrical works that break down
personal isolation, challenge political orthodoxy and help to build a
progressive community. DAGGER is its multicultural, multiracial
guerrilla theater troupe for queer women and girls. Its performances
will concentrate on how issues of class, race, sexuality, sexual orientation
and gender play out in women’s and girls’ real lives, seen from
a queer woman’s perspective. By using the techniques of guerrilla
theater, DAGGER challenges the status quo and works with other
grassroots community groups to educate and move toward social and economic justice for all. DAGGER will collaborate with
People to People to sponsor a series of community activities to
promote intergenerational networking and mentoring for DAGGER
members, with a particular emphasis on women and girls of
color.
United Teen Equality Center
Educating communities about the root causes of social and economic
problems lies at the heart of UTEC’s youth peer-led learning
projects. The Young Women’s Project, which gives young women
the ability to be agents of social change in their own communities,
focuses on the specific needs of Lowell’s young women and helps
them become leaders at the Center and in their personal lives.
Youth serve as full board members and have their own youth
advisory council. UTEC currently produces a quarterly ’zine
called Goddess that examines a variety of gender-related issues.
Women of Action Project
Individually, low-income women have little or no power to influence
the decisions of major institutions and policymakers. The
Women of Action Project is a grassroots, direct-action organization
of low-income women, particularly women of color and single
mothers, who have joined together to support one another and to
wage campaigns demanding social and economic justice. WOA is a
means for low-income women to gain power as a group and to
obtain the rights and respect they deserve. The campaign being
waged this year against the local housing authority will hopefully
result in a tenant/housing authority partnership that will incorporate
tenant decision-making at every level.
The Women’s Theological Center
The Women’s Theological Center is a community-based organization
dedicated to addressing the ways in which women can draw
on their spiritual strength in their social-change work. Built on
leadership tools first developed in the Civil Rights movement that
linked personal faith, community belonging, and social action, its
mission is to “support and engage the spiritual leadership of
women using the power of our deepest values and hopes as a
creative force to strengthen communities, bridge differences, and
work for justice throughout society.” The WTC offers programs
using popular education models based in community participation
to ground its theory and practices. It consults and produces publications
on spiritual leadership for effective social change to its
membership, organizations, and the wider community.
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