“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” – Dolly Parton

This month we are featuring womxn working towards purpose in their own way. We have compiled a group of women that we have not only ‘rubbed shoulders’ with, but are also diligently working to create change in their various fields. We posed a simple question and wanted to hear their various perspectives.

Women have played a significant role in driving social change and making a positive impact on our communities through (insert your field of work). As a female identifying nonprofit leader, can you share a project or initiative that you or your organization has undertaken to empower women and the impact it has had?

Amy Moy
Co-CEO, Essential Access Health

Like many who work in mission-driven spaces, my lived experience has led me to where I am and the work I do. Envisioning and helping to create a future where everyone is free to make personal decisions about their health and families, and can access the essential health care they want and need—with dignity and respect—is not only a professional journey, it’s personal commitment and my life’s purpose. 

From an early age, I understood the fundamental impact that our reproductive health and reproductive choices—or lack thereof—have on our health, economic security and overall well-being.

My paternal grandparents immigrated from China to New York City. As immigrants with lower-incomes and being of reproductive age from the 1940s-1960s, their health care options were limited. Without access to contraception, my grandmother had 12 children. My maternal grandparents were unable to have children on their own, and adopted my mother, their only child. Fast forward to a generation later, when I was in college, I had the ability to make a personal decision about my reproductive health that allowed me to continue my education and sparked my career path. My family and personal herstory deeply inspired me to dedicate my career to helping to make sure that the decision to become and continue a pregnancy, and if and when to have children is an actual choice, that every individual is free to make. 

Today I am proud to serve as Co-CEO at Essential Access Health (Essential Access). Our work is centered on advancing health and reproductive equity for all and supporting equitable and affordable access to high quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services.The federal Title X family planning program was established by Congress in 1970 to provide a pathway for patients with low-incomes to access contraceptive care. Although this was a tremendous step forward, many remained without access to affordable birth control and contraceptive choice due to systemic and structural barriers and racist policies. For more than fifty years, as an original Title X program grantee, Essential Access has helped expand access to sexual and reproductive health services and information for millions of patients – and in turn, improve individual and community health, and increase educational, career, and economic opportunities for people who can get pregnant—regardless of race, gender, income, zip code, insurance coverage or documentation status.

In a post-Roe landscape, Essential Access is also working with a broad range of partners and stakeholders to advance public policies and administer newly established state-funded grant programs to make the right to abortion a reality for anyone seeking abortion care in California.

We believe that sexual and reproductive health play a critical role in individual and community health. Reproductive rights and justice is intricately connected to gender, racial, LGBTQ+, and economic justice. As Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own."

Andrea Manzo
Executive Director, Action Council & Building Healthy Communities Monterey County

Action Council/Building Healthy Communities is an organization that is proudly womxn-led.

Many organizing efforts within the organization have a strong base of womxn leaders that are addressing issues within education, neighborhoods, health and racial justice.

Our organization is supporting leadership pathways for residents to increase their capacity to use their voice and power on issues that affect their lives.

Liz Salter
Director of Donor Relations, Habitat For Humanity of Washington, D.C. & Virginia

I've been lucky enough in my career to work with many wonderful women leaders in the non-profit field. I've been inspired by their passion and commitment to creating more equitable communities by ensuring people have access to basic needs like food and housing while looking at how to make the process dignified and empowering for those we serve.

We host an event called Women Build at Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. & Northern Virginia. The goal of Women Build is to bring together women and gender non-conforming folks together to fundraise, build, and network. Women Build provides a way to make building on a construction site more inclusive and welcoming. While we work to create this environment every day on our sites, Women Build may attract someone nervous about coming on site because of preconceptions. After our teams have their build day, they are often ready to take on their projects at home and keep volunteering. 

We also have many women homeowners, and we want to ensure they feel empowered to feel comfortable managing their homes once they purchase them. We are currently building a single-family home for a woman and her family, and she is so excited about the stability that this home can provide and the growth for future generations. Having our current and future women homeowners at Women Build inspires them with all the wonderful volunteers and staff who are behind them as they start their journey. At Habitat DC-NOVA, we are lucky enough to have two amazing women on our construction team who are both leaders in their areas of expertise. We also have a lot of amazing women crew leaders and volunteers who join us in ensuring more families in our communities have equitable access to affordable homeownership.

Nakeyshia Kendall Williams
Founder & CEO, MindCatcher

MindCatcher envisions a world where all young people are designers of their own future and all educators are equipped to support youth in their journey. Our mission is to disrupt the cycle of hopelessness in learning spaces by fostering the social-emotional growth and decision-making power of educators and youth of color. Because the education sector is mostly women, our work often centers this group and seeks to bolster their leadership capacity. 

This past October, we hosted a retreat for participants in Collective Support, a cohort experience for systems and site leaders of color. As we believe in creating space for the genius of those actively engaged in leading school communities, we invited Collective Support members to share a session at the retreat. A female K-8 school leader hosted a session on Psychological Safety, which was a deep dive into what it means to experience freedom and support to take healthy risks. Under her skillful facilitation, we all came to the collective aha that professional environments where we supported to do our best work were few and far between. Those who had the positional authority to enact changes to create more psychologically safe environments accepted the charge to do so. Their decision-making will positively impact the learning environments of 4,500+ educators and 66,000+ youth. And the female school leader who led the workshop has gone on to share her thought leadership with education powerhouses such as Charter School Growth Fund and the Goldman Sachs x New Leaders One Million Black Women initiative. 

As Elaine Welteroth shares, "When women affirm women, it unlocks our power. It gives us permission to shine brighter.” As the Founder and CEO of MindCatcher and a woman social entrepreneur, I have accepted the charge to create more spaces for women to realize their genius. Onwards!

In these distressing times, it is vital that communities band together. Young children shouldn’t have to learn about tragic events; whether seeing it on the news, hearing about it from those around them, or experiencing it first hand - exposure to tragedy has become all too common. As acts of violence continue to increase, some parents may struggle with what to say and how to appropriately answer their child(ren)’s questions. 

It has become more important that parents have access to resources that can assist them in having those difficult conversations. We at rootid would like to share this list of resources that provide tips and best practices for talking to your children about tragedy and violence. It is our hope that you will find this list useful as you process your feelings and  support your children.

My school's new emergency plan includes lockdown drills. How can we keep them from scaring the kids?  https://childmind.org/article/my-schools-new-emergency-plan-includes-lockdown-drills-how-can-we-keep-them-from-scaring-the-kids/

Parent Guidelines for Helping Youth after the Recent Shooting https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/parents_guidelines_f...

Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Parents and Teachers
https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-safety-and-crisis/school-violence-resources/talking-to-children-about-violence-tips-for-parents-and-teachers

How To Talk To Kids About Violence, Crime and War
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-violence-crime-and-war

How To Help Children Cope With Tragic Events
https://newsroom.ocde.us/five-things-to-keep-in-mind-when-helping-kids-cope-with-crisis/

Coping In The Aftermath Of A Shooting
https://www.counseling.org/knowledge-center/coping-in-the-aftermath-of-a-shooting

Supporting employees in coping with community violence
https://www.lacoe.edu/Portals/0/LACOE/EASE/Guidance%20for%20Leadership_%20Supporting%20employees%20in%20coping%20with%20community%20violence-EASE-10%20(1).pdf?ver=2020-06-04-141201-693

RESOURCES IN SPANISH - RECURSOS EN ESPANOL

Ansiedad por los tiroteos en las escuelas; En busca de formas proactivas para lidiar con los sentimientos de preocupación
https://childmind.org/es/articulo/ansiedad-por-los-tiroteos-en-las-escue...

El nuevo plan de emergencia de mi escuela incluye simulacros de encierro. ¿Cómo podemos evitar que asusten a los niños? 
https://childmind.org/es/articulo/el-nuevo-plan-de-emergencia-de-mi-escu...

Cómo ayudar a sus hijos tras los tiroteos en los centros de educación
https://www.apa.org/topics/schools-classrooms/escolar

Recursos De Violencia Masiva
https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/terrorism-and-violence/mass-violence?search=&resource_type=All&field_taxonomy_event_type_tid=105&language=86&audience=All&other=All

Guía Para Los Padres Para Ayudar A Los Jóvenes Después De Un Tiroteo Reciente
https://www.nctsn.org/resources/guia-para-los-padres-para-ayudar-los-jov...

Hablarles a los niños sobre violencia: consejos para padres y educadores
https://conejousd.org/Portals/0/Talking_to_Children_About_Violence_Infog...

Date: March 17, 2021
Time: 9am - 11am PST
Location: Virtual (Participants will recieve the Zoom link once they have RSVP'd)

Join a group of nonprofit leaders & staff to explore narrative framing during a 2-hour Virtual Roundtable.

Watch the Storytelling Roundtable Presentation

We strive to co-create spaces of meaningful connection and belonging (these workshops are not webinars). We encourage and model frequent screen and body breaks. We believe collective learning leads to the most innovative and effective outcomes.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series that can be attended together or separately.

This roundtable will be co-facilitated by Kiara Nagel, Strategic Creative Consultant and Trainer with Center for Story-based Strategy.

This solution room-style agenda invites attendees to:

• Discuss challenges they are currently facing in narrative framing.
• Ideate with peers, consultants and funders from the nonprofit sector about potential solutions.
• Learn about tools, practices, and policies that have helped others succeed already in the face of similar challenges.
• Grow your network of nonprofit industry leaders to continue the conversation.

After the solution room, walk through a narrative planning framework that Center for Story-based Strategy uses with nonprofit clients.

The virtual session will take place over Zoom.

Seats are limited and reserved on a first-come first-served basis.

During this time of racial reckoning in combination with the global pandemic and catastrophic climate change, we must seize the opportunity to reinvent, reimagine and more effectively communicate a collective vision—a world of interconnectedness and collaboration, where those most impacted are prioritized and communications and technology are used to "sustain, heal and empower" rather than divide (Design Justice Network Principle 1).

The nonprofit sector is constantly evolving in response to the needs of our communities and planet—finding innovative and often grassroots solutions to our society’s most complex problems. Unfortunately, these same organizations are often forced to not only compete but are also starved of resources, professional development and collaborative opportunities to build, think and learn. 

Furthermore, nonprofits, service providers and funders have been siloed by issue and geography, operating within a scarcity mindset—competing with each other for resources. This fragmented and competitive approach often sacrifices the needs of the communities suffering the most harm and cannot deliver systemic change. As a sector, we need to reframe our shared values, vision and work through a lens of anti-racism, equity, trust and mutual aid. We need collaborative, systemic-focused, transformational change in order to solve intersectional challenges at the individual, community and national scale.

Communications, is easily the most adaptive tool we have to promote anti-racist, inclusive solutions that center the communities most impacted. Shared communication strategy builds clarity around what is at stake and promotes a comprehensive vision to guide community stakeholders towards a common purpose. 

We need to tell the right message to the right people at the right time, together.

Research repeatedly shows that those organizations with a strong focus on brand and communications strategy are, "stronger, smarter and vastly more effective." - Sean Gibbons, Executive Director, ComNet, The Case for Communications, Stanford Social Innovation Review

However, communications are often overlooked or forced to be an after-thought within organizations that are challenged by limited resources. This leads to less than equitable outcomes at best & harmfully reproductive outcomes at worst. “Today, communications is not just an opportunity for nonprofits; it’s a necessity. Whether we’re fundraising or trying to influence policy, how we reach the right person with the right message has changed profoundly." - Andrew Sherry, The New Communications Imperative, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Our internal data shows, and external studies support, that a focus on communications capacity building creates more resilient organizations as well as more equity-centered leaders.

Join us in co-designing and developing a community-driven communications collective. We as support organizations, funders, service providers and community organizers "must bring leaders together, creating spaces that are conducive to honest discussions, feedback, and collaboration. As the challenges facing our communities become more challenging, we play a critical role in strengthening communications among nonprofits." -Vu Le, The Mycelium Model for capacity builders, professional associations, funders, and other support organizations

Over the last 4 years, rootid—in collaboration with various community partners, as well as input gained through hosted workshops, surveys and individual stakeholder interviews—has co-designed and developed a suite of professional development and communications capacity-building experiences. The flagship of which is rootid's brand and communications strategy cohort model—a 5-working session experience paired with monthly office hours and rootid's 1-on-1 coaching that support nonprofit leaders' journeys toward the development of equitable, inclusive and strategic brand and communications. In conjunction with the cohort, rootid also co-hosts monthly roundtable discussions open to the larger community, where nonprofit leaders come together in a 'solution room' style format to discuss their challenges and work together to think, learn and brainstorm solutions to common cross-sector issues.

rootid has collaborated with over 150 nonprofit organizations in 2020 alone and are grateful for the ongoing partnership of UpMetrics: Data for Good Fund, Giant Rabbit, TechSoup, Kalamuna, Full Circle Fund, and the David Brower Center, just to highlight a few. 

A few sample events: 
Fundraising & Communications Virtual Roundtable: ~45 organizations attended
Year-end Campaign Planning Roundtable: ~25 organizations attended
Nonprofit Technology Summit: ~45 organizations attended
Upcoming 2021 Brand & Communications Coaching Cohort