Karen Shain
Samantha Rogers, a formerly incarcerated woman, recently spoke at a party celebrating the passage of AB 2530 (Atkins)—California’s new law that forbids the shackling of pregnant women in California’s state prisons, county jails and juvenile probation facilities.
“I was one of the women inside that was shackled. That is humiliating, you know, to be feeling like you are an animal in a cage,” Samantha said to the room filled with people who had helped fight for the hard-won victory. “Change is coming when everybody is aware what really happens behind closed doors.”
This was not an easy struggle—the bill passed unanimously in the legislature twice but was also vetoed twice. In this case, the third time was a charm and the bill passed unanimously to finally be signed by Governor Jerry Brown. The new law went into effect January 1, 2013. You can read AB 2530 here.
Samantha, along with other remarkable people and organizations who helped win this important victory, are highlighted in a new radio documentary, called Our Bodies, Our Stories: Reproductive Health Behind Bars created by Making Contact, a national radio series. The documentary highlights the words of women who have been pregnant while incarcerated, as well as activists who have fought to end the shackling of pregnant women. Read More »
Assemblymember Holly Mitchell
For the last seven years we’ve held our annual Legislative Reception in Sacramento, our state’s capital. This lively evening event is our way of celebrating the incredible work of our current and past Women’s Policy Institute fellows as well as an opportunity to build relationships with our state legislators.
What’s more, this year, we’re celebrating an important milestone: 10 remarkable years of the Women’s Policy Institute.
Every year, we honor three or four inspiring individuals during the Reception. This year we are honoring Women’s Policy Institute Director Marj Plumb, PhD, Assemblymember Holly Mitchell, Senator Mark Leno, and The California Endowment. To give you some context about our Women’s Policy Institute, the Legislative Reception and the people we will honor, we sat down with our President and CEO Judy Patrick and asked her three brief questions.
Question: Why did we choose to honor these three individuals and one organization on the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Policy Institute?
Judy Patrick: Of all the programmatic work that I have done over my lifetime, this is the one program that has completely blown my mind. It has phenomenal results and the reason that it has had phenomenal results is demonstrated in who we’re honoring this year. Read More »
Lourdes Alarcón is a parent leader with Parent Voices, an incredible parent-led grassroots organization that works to make quality child care affordable and accessible for all families.
Two weeks ago Lourdes was in Sacramento with fellow parent leaders advocating for child care and early care education programs. She spoke at a hearing and argued that child care ought to stay under the California Department of Education as opposed to being transitioned to individual counties.
Lourdes spoke to us last Friday. In the below interview she explains why she believes quality child care education is important for California’s children and mothers.
Lourdes has an associate’s degree in accounting and is now working on getting her teaching credential from the San Francisco State University. She expects to be done in a year and a half.
Read More »
Our first ever People’s Momentum Award contest ended at noon on March 28. Some minutes later, we announced the winner on Facebook and Twitter, and a couple of hours later we made the announcement on our website, blog and via email.
The winner was Alexandria House, a nonprofit that serves recently homeless women, mothers and children in Los Angeles. They won with 3,280 votes, while a total of 45,662 votes was cast for 337 organizations.
A couple of minutes after the voting ended, we sat down to deliver the great news to Alexandria House. This was one of those phone calls that makes you smile by simply thinking about them, and that makes you warm inside when you listen to them.
We recorded the interview and you can listen to an excerpt by clicking here or pressing play below. You’ll be hearing the voices of our Director of Communications Sande Smith and of the Executive Director of Alexandria House, Judy Vaughan.
Read More »
We are honored to announce the winner of our first ever People’s Momentum Award contest:
Congratulations, Alexandria House!
To win the contest, they garnered 3,280 unique votes from their community of supporters. A total of 45,662 votes was cast for 337 organizations.
Alexandria House is an incredible organization based in Los Angeles. For the last 17 years, they have provided a social safety net and a launch pad for single women and mothers with children who are trying to move from emergency shelters to permanent housing. Read More »
On Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in partnership with the California Budget Project, we released a report that shows that almost four years since the official end of the Great Recession, California’s women have not shared equally in the state’s emerging recovery.
A Fair Chance: Why California Should Invest in Economic Opportunity for Women and Their Families, notes that employment among the state’s women has declined in the past two years, even as it has increased among men. In addition, the last five years of budget cuts has weakened the services and support that not only tide women and families over during transitional times, but also help them to gain skills and contribute to the workforce.
In addition to a drop in employment for women, during the same time budget cuts have resulted in
- A significant decline – from five years to just two years – in the amount of time a parent can receive CalWORKs cash assistance and participate in the full array of welfare-to-work activities.
- Reductions to the CalWORKs grant, which mean that families now lose cash assistance well before their incomes reach the federal poverty line.
- A decrease by one-third in funding for the childcare budget. This $900 million decrease in annual funding has resulted in a loss of 110,000 childcare slots.
- A steep decline in women’s enrollment in California’s community colleges, which provide education that leads to employment or a four-year degree.
The result is that poverty in California is higher than it’s ever been, with nearly one in four children now living in poverty. Read More »
Today we launched our first online contest, the People’s Momentum Award. A qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the most votes come noon PST, Thursday, March 28, will take home a $10,000 grant.
This contest was designed to celebrate March—Women’s History Month—and is sponsored by Wells Fargo.
Everybody in California is invited to nominate and vote for their favorite nonprofit, which must be working on behalf of women and girls in California. For example, a qualifying organization might be a women’s health care clinic, a job training program that works with teenage girls or an organization that makes sure that low-income mothers have quality childcare. Read More »
Earlier this week, the Rosenberg Foundation published their second edition of Justice in California, an online publication that features the writings of 17 visionary thinkers on critical social justice issues.
You are quite familiar with two of those visionaries: Judy Patrick, our president and CEO, and Susan Burton, founder and executive director of our grant partner A New Way of Life.
The two wrote a powerful article that is a must-read for all who are interested in prison reform in California as well as successful rehabilitation of formerly incarcerated women.
Read More »
In celebration of Valentine’s Day this year, we decided to dedicate our newsletter to powerful women whose contributions changed or are changing our lives. And we decided to ask you to show your love to these women by tweeting or posting about them on Facebook. Rosa Parks is one of the three women we chose to celebrate this Valentine’s Day.
The other two are Latifa Lewis and Sarah Weddington.
This is why we’re recognizing Rosa Parks:
Earlier this month we celebrated Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday anniversary. On December 1, 1955, this inspirational woman vanquished her fear and choose to remain seated on a segregated Montgomery bus.
Her nonviolent act of resistance gave a much needed spark to the Civil Rights Movement. A month later the Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized and led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The rest is history. Read More »
In celebration of Valentine’s Day this year, we decided to recognize powerful women whose contributions changed or are changing our lives.
And we decided to ask you to show your love to these women by tweeting or posting about them on Facebook. Sarah Weddington is one of the three women we chose to celebrate this Valentine’s Day.
The other two are Latifa Lewis and Rosa Parks.
This is why we’re recognizing Sarah Weddington:
This year we also celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a law that protects every woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions without interference of politicians.
Not many people know this, but the main attorney behind the decision was Sarah Weddington, then a 26-year-old woman who dared to challenge deeply entrenched beliefs and systems. Read More »
