WOMEN’S WAY’s
2010 Education & Advocacy Agenda
The guiding principles of this agenda:
WOMEN’S WAY seeks to conduct public education and advocacy around the issues that it funds and will work to increase civic engagement around the advocacy priorities and other mission-central issues. WOMEN’S WAY is particularly concerned about how the identified priorities impact vulnerable populations of women and girls including low-income women, the immigrant community, LGBTQ, elderly, disabled, and incarcerated women.
The Education & Advocacy Agenda is community-driven as it is primarily shaped by the results of the 2008 Annual Women’s Issues Summit and ongoing conversations with WOMEN’S WAY funded agencies. The Summit is an annual opportunity for WOMEN’S WAY to hear from those working directly in the field with women, girls and their families about the most pressing needs facings these communities. This Agenda includes targeted advocacy initiatives, determined with the guidance of an advisory committee, which will help to achieve incremental policy change around each priority issue. Throughout the year, WOMEN’S WAY may join other allied coalitions working on advocacy initiatives that align with WOMEN’S WAY’s mission.
ADVOCACY PRIORITIES
- Helping all women achieve economic self-sufficiency
Advocacy Initiatives:
· Working to pass the paid sick days legislation pending at the city level, Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces (Bill No. 080474), which would require employers in the City of Philadelphia to allow employees to earn a minimum number of paid sick days. Women continue to be overrepresented in low-wage positions which are significantly less likely to offer paid sick days. Yet working women remain the primary caregivers, and for many women, staying home to care for a sick child or other family member means losing a day’s pay. This policy will have a positive impact on the economic security of women and families in Philadelphia.
· Working at the state level to pass the pending paid sick days legislation, Healthy Families, Healthy Workplace Act (House Bill 1830), which would require employers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to allow employees to earn a minimum number of paid sick days.
- Ensuring access to comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care
Advocacy Initiative:
· Advocating for quality, affordable health care for women and families by joining the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN), a statewide coalition of organizations and individuals committed working to pass health care reform at the state and federal levels, and Health Care For America Now (HCAN), a national grassroots coalition dedicated to passing federal health care reform. As part of these coalition efforts, WOMEN’S WAY will work to ensure women’s health concerns, including reproductive health issues, are key elements of health care reform proposals.
· Leading the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of Raising Women’s Voices, a coalition working to ensure women’s voices are heard during the health care reform debate. This coalition is advocating for policies that support the full-range of comprehensive reproductive health care services for all women in health care reform legislation.
3. Countering community and interpersonal violence
Advocacy Initiatives:
· Addressing the critical shortage of funding for domestic violence services in the state by working with Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) to pass legislation that would generate additional revenue sources for domestic violence services by increasing the surcharge on marriage license fees and adding a new fee on divorce filings.
· Advocating for programming that would promote rape and sexual assault awareness on college campuses across the Commonwealth by working with Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) to pass the College and University Sexual Violence Education Act. This legislation would provide college students with an understanding of sexual violence and the link between sexual assault and the use of drugs and alcohol. This program would also provide information about confidential local medical and legal services that are available to victims, and educate students about the parameters of rape laws and the legal consequences of such offenses.
Additional Coalitions WOMEN’S WAY has joined:
v Pennsylvanians for Choice (PFC) - a statewide coalition of pro-choice organizations and their allies whose mission is to protect and enhance reproductive health care for all Pennsylvanians. The focus of PFC for the next two years is going to be on educating state legislators about abortion so they will have a base of accurate information to draw from when they are called upon to legislate on the topic.
v Pennsylvanians for Responsible Sex Education (PARSE) - a statewide coalition dedicated to ensuring that all Pennsylvania youth receive age-appropriate, comprehensive, evidence-based sex education throughout grades K-12. Efforts to curtail Pennsylvania’s acceptance of Title V federal abstinence-only-until-marriage funding is ongoing, as well as school district level advocacy. PARSE is advocating on behalf of two bills: Healthy Youth Act, which would require teaching comprehensive sexuality education in all schools already providing HIV/AIDS education, and Notice Home Act, which would ensure that public schools inform parents of curriculum content related to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the classroom.
v Value All Families Coalition (VAFC) - a statewide coalition working to pass House Bill 300 which would amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identify or expression. The current law provides legal protection against discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, handicap or disability, education, and the use of a guide dog, but not sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.
v Philadelphia Anti-Trafficking Coalition (PATC) - a coalition made up of government agencies, law enforcement, social service agencies and advocacy groups dedicated to ending human trafficking in the Philadelphia area. PATC aims to create a network of agencies to assist victims of human trafficking in order to coordinate an appropriate response and make available a wide range of services. PATC’s main focus currently centers on increased outreach efforts toward vulnerable populations as well as training events for those likely to encounter or provide services to victims. Human trafficking is the practice of people being tricked, lured, coerced, or otherwise removed from their home or country, and then compelled to work on terms which are highly exploitative. The victims of human trafficking can be used in a variety of situations, including prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, forced labor, and other forms of involuntary servitude.
