Weekly Round-Up: Grantees Making Waves Nationwide

This week we celebrate, highlight and call your attention to the successes and ongoing campaigns of our grantee partners. Salute them, join with them and help them make change.

Congratulations
Rachel Laforest has been selected to serve as first Executive Director of the Right to the City Alliance. Congrats!

Grassroots Leadership announced that Gail Tyree is a Soros Justice Fellow and will work to create a network of organizations and individuals in the southeast US to respond quickly and effectively to stop for-profit prisons, jails or detention centers from moving into their communities.

In the News
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed a law that voids Milwaukee's paid sick leave ordinance that was passed by voters in a referendum and upheld recently by the state Court of Appeals. Dana Schultz, of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, said in a statement: "We will continue this fight until paid sick days is the law of the land in Milwaukee and nationwide. We are going to fight to ensure the government works for everyone, not just a select few."

In the News: On May 16 Angela Davis -- guest at Critical Resistance’s Brecht Forum event Conversations Uptown: The world we want is the world we need -- was featured on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC talking about the history of struggle against the prison industrial complex.


Stand Up and Take Action
The governor of Georgia signed an Arizona copycat anti-immigrant legislation into law on May 11. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Southerners on New Ground, in alliance as Somos Georgia, have announced a campaign of opposition including a Boycott Georgia effort. “We are calling on all businesses, conventions, and conferences to cancel your trips to the State of Georgia and pledge to not spend one dollar here until this law is repealed,” said Paulina Hernandez, Southerners on New Ground. [press release]

Take Action! ACT for Women and Girls is supporting a letter-writing campaign to Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in support of LBGTQ families’ legal rights, especially when facing deportation. Watch a video that explains one couple’s story.

Take Action! The National Day Laborer Organizing Network and National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights ask you to sign the petition and help put a freeze on Secure-Communities, which has dramatically increased deportations.

Learn More and Get Involved
The National Women's Law Center released state-by-state fact sheets showing the importance of Social Security for women and families. In April, the center released Making Care Less Taxing: Improving State Child and Dependent Care Tax Provisions and Promising State Child Care Quality and Infant/Toddler Initiatives, on the quality and shortage of infant and toddler care.

Get Involved! On June 1, 2011 New York City women are invited to join the National Council for Research on Women’s Emerging Leaders Network for a presentation and discussion about “Fine-Tuning Finances for Women.” Learn more.

Get Involved! On Thursday, June 2 National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health will host a virtual cafecito on the challenges and opportunities of defining birth control as a preventive service under the nation’s new health care law. Register to listen in at 11:00am EDT for English and 12:00pm EDT for Spanish.

Get Involved! For the past year, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Jobs with Justice, Family Values at Work Consortium, National Partnership for Women and Families and other partners have been developing a campaign to transform long-term care in the United States. They are holding a Care Congress in Washington, DC on July 11. For more information, or to RSVP contact Rachel Berger at rberger@jewishjustice.org