Meet our Grantee Partner — Women Encouraging Empowerment

Women Encouraging Empowerment community building event, 2023.

Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE) strives to educate, advocate, protect, and advance the rights of low-income immigrant and refugee women and their families through organizing, leadership development, and service delivery.

WEE is a recipient of our 2023 Community Impact Grant. We had a chat with the WEE team about the immigrant women who founded the organization and how they’re breaking down barriers to success for all in their community.

What led you to create this organization or

take this leadership role? Can you tell us more about your connection to the work and the specific need you saw?

Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE) was founded in 2010 by a group of immigrant women who recognized and responded to an unmet community need. Revere — a community with a large population of immigrants — lacked culturally and linguistically responsive support for immigrants, and most notably, there were no organizations led by immigrants to support other immigrants. Hundreds of immigrant families in Revere with a wealth of skills and a desire to contribute to their communities faced financial, linguistic, and cultural barriers to success.

Since its founding, WEE has filled this critical gap in support for immigrant families by offering financial literacy and job training courses, English learning opportunities, and other forms of advocacy grounded in the empowerment of local immigrant families.

How is WEE working to foster greater opportunity for women, girls, and gender-expansive folks in the communities you serve?

WEE has the privilege of offering local students, immigrants, and even its own employees with a range of opportunities to overcome common barriers to success. Because the language barrier presents a primary barrier to community involvement and financial stability for many newcomers, WEE hosts two levels of English classes all throughout the year. WEE’s physical space unlocks countless other opportunities for immigrant women and families every day; the space transforms from a classroom to a resource distribution center to a support group for local immigrant women depending on the self-identified and ever-changing needs of the community. Regardless of who walks through WEE’s doors or the reason for their visit, the organization aims to thoughtfully listen, instill confidence, and guide them to access the resources and support that they deserve.

What’s one thing people might not know about your organization?

Whether by word of mouth or by way of formal referral, WEE is often the first point of contact for immigrant women who are in search of resources and support. Over the last 13 years, WEE has established itself as a trusted community resource and source of reliable, multilingual information for local immigrant women.

WEE is available for all immigrant women and families, offering comprehensive support that goes far beyond offering English classes. At the same time, WEE advocates for system-level change to positively impact the lives of and opportunities for local immigrant families.

What’s next for you? What project or goal is WEE working on right now?

In addition to continuing its ongoing courses and advocacy, WEE is excited to formalize its Women’s Circles for local immigrant women. There are few opportunities for immigrant women to safely experience and express joy. They often work outside the home in front-line jobs, manage the household responsibilities, and care for children, leaving little time for self-care. WEE’s Women Circles offer a space for immigrant women to eat, dance, laugh, learn, bond, and momentarily relieve their burdens. Through these Women’s Circles, immigrant women learn about topics ranging from navigating the American education system to strategies for healthy living, all with an emphasis on encouraging participants to live the lives they deserve.

What does liberation look like to you?

WEE works to advance a vision of social justice, gender equality, and collective empowerment for immigrant women. Access to reliable and multilingual information is critical to liberation as it allows immigrant women to advocate for themselves, their families, and their community. WEE also uplifts self-care as liberation. For immigrant women who carry so many responsibilities and often experience isolation, prioritizing mental health, personal care, and self-compassion can be radical acts of self-love and resistance.

Nominate a Local Leader to be a BWF Leading Us Toward Liberation Honoree!

As we celebrate 40 years of radical giving, we are excited to announce that we will publicly honor 40 Liberation Leaders who have contributed outstanding work toward racial, gender, economic, and social justice in Greater Boston! These Liberation Leaders will be commemorated at our 40th Anniversary Community Celebration in September 2024. To us, Liberation Leaders are people who are leading and engaging in movements that resist oppressive systems and are striving to create new systems.

We remain committed to doing philanthropy differently — in partnership with communities — and we need your help. Who are the innovative changemakers who have touched your life and the lives of your community? Who are the women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals who have fought for their communities and have yet to receive their flowers? Often, such pivotal work by leaders from our communities goes unsung. Let’s change that together.

We invite you to nominate Liberation Leaders with outstanding work and impact in Greater Boston over the last 40 years.

Nominate a Leader Today!

Boston Women’s Fund’s 40 Liberation Leaders are:

• Women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals who are a part of the communities BWF serves (people of color, elderly, youth, refugees, immigrants, LGBTQIA+, low income, and disabled).

• Working toward racial, gender, economic, and/or social liberation.

• Working within or beyond the nonprofit sector.

• Working in and impacting the Greater Boston area.

• Currently leading liberation work or have led liberation work at some point during the past 40 years.

• Individuals with a proven track record of working toward liberation for at least 5 years.

• Representative of the communities they serve.

If you have any questions, BWF staff will be available for virtual office hours throughout the nomination process.

Thank you for your support!

In Solidarity,

Claudia Thompson, 40th Anniversary Chair

Natanja Craig Oquendo, Executive Director

Official Statement on the Israel-Hamas War — We Cannot Stand Silent. We Will Not Look Away.

The Boston Women’s Fund team has spent the last week and a half heartbroken over the violence in Israel and Gaza. It is difficult to fathom the number of mothers searching for or mourning their missing children. It is difficult to hold the number of lives lost and families whose worlds have been forever changed.

We know that in times of war, women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals suffer disproportionately because existing inequalities are severely amplified, and the impacts of gender-based violence and lack of access to reproductive and general healthcare are life-altering. We know this is especially true for women who are among the LGBTQIA+ or disabled communities. We also know that here at home, violent threats against Muslim and Jewish people in the U.S. are escalating as well.

Violence distorts the core of what connects us all — our humanity. We cannot stand silent amid acts of terror against Israelis. And we cannot ignore the oppression and violence of the continued occupation of Palestine. There is no playbook for how to process a time like this. But one thing I hold on to is the meaning of the word philanthropy, “the love of mankind.” Though our hearts grow heavier each day, we continue to keep our eyes open. We have a responsibility to bear witness to the atrocities that terrorism and war cause. We have a responsibility to the most vulnerable people in Gaza and Israel.

We will not look away from the pain of the women and children begging for peace, water, food, shelter, and safety. We will not look away from those mourning the sudden and violent losses of their children and elders.

We will, however, continue to educate ourselves. We will provide a safe space for others to process the fear and devastation of these events. Please stand by for details on ways we can be in community with each other. We will also work with you to support those who are impacted. You can reach out to me directly at natanja@bostonwomensfund.org.

We hope that you and your loved ones are safe, and we are sending all of our energy and prayers out in deep hope of peace.

Warmly,

Natanja Craig Oquendo

Executive Director, Boston Women’s Fund