[VIDEO] Voices From the Field: Jobs with Justice Talks Organizing, Immigration in KY

Since the 112th Congress convened in January, progressives have watched as the issues we care deeply about -- health care reform, immigrants' rights, reproductive justice, and workers' rights -- have come under attack from the new majority in the House, and in many statehouses across the country. This new reality leaves many of us profoundly concerned for our collective future, and wondering: what can be done to protect and promote social justice in an increasingly conservative environment? What strategies can social justice organizations best use to beat back the rising conservative tide?

To being to answer these questions, in early 2011 the Ms. Foundation brought together two grantees, Sarita Gupta of our National Jobs with Justice and Attica Woodson Scott of Kentucky Jobs with Justice, for a conversation about the future of progressive organizing. Their wide-ranging discussion addressed how the more conservative political landscape was affecting their own organizing -- as well as how it it affects the lives of the women, workers and families they represent.

We were pleased to be able to provide a special opportunity for Sarita and Attica -- who, because of their lives as organizers, rarely have time to connect at length -- to come together for an extended conversation in this way. And the powerful ideas that their dialogue produced underscore just how important it is that we connect the wisdom and power of both grassroots and national organizing in advocacy for social change.

In this first in a series of excerpts from their conversation, Sarita and Attica discuss KJwJ's recent victory in defeating harsh anti-immigrant legislation in the Bluegrass State -- and how legislating hate harms us all.

[VIDEO] Voices From the Field: Service Women's Action Network (SWAN)

Here's a statistic that'll run chills down your spine: at least one-third of all US women veterans have experienced rape or sexual assault during their service. You read that right: one-third.

The prevalence of sexual assault in our armed services is a national disgrace -- and Ms. Foundation grantee Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) is doing all it can to end to this epidemic. Through groundbreaking advocacy initiatives and innovative, community programs that focus on healing, SWAN supports, defends, and builds the power of today’s servicewomen and women veterans of all eras. The organization works to transform military culture by securing equal opportunity and the freedom to serve in uniform -- without threat of harassment, discrimination, intimidation or assault.

In recent months, SWAN has ratcheted up the fight to protect servicemembers from sexual assault -- and to improve the military's response when such events do occur -- to incredible new levels. The organization played a lead role in a groundbreaking lawsuit against the Department of Defense for its failure to investigate incidents of rape and sexual abuse, and served as a driving force behind legislation, recently introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar, that would require the DOD to establish a unified system to permanently retain digital records in all cases of military rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment, and allow lifetime access to these records by the survivor.

The following Ms. Foundation Voices From the Field video is one Marine's story of sexual assault in the military, as told to us by her mother. Her abuse at the hands of her attacker -- and the military's response to it -- make it all too clear how important SWAN's work is, and how desperately our armed services need the transformation SWAN seeks to bring about.

[Video] Voices From the Field: Hollaback! Confronts Street Harassment

Meet Hollaback! Executive Director Emily May, and learn how she and you can stand up to street harassment.



The Ms. Foundation is proud to support social justice trailblazers like Emily May and her Hollaback! crew. We were one of the first to fund Hollaback! -- an organization that uses online and mobile technology to crowd-source stories of street harassment, a daily occurrence for many women and LGBTQ individuals worldwide.

Noting that cat calls and other forms of sexual harassment in public places were often ignored or overlooked by law enforcement and policymakers, Emily May and some of her friends took the matter into their own hands. In 2005, they started a blog in New York City that aimed to track, catalog and report instances of street harassment -- a widespread phenomenon that in their minds helps create a "cultural environment that makes gender-based violence okay." That blog has grown into an international movement, with local chapters emerging from Egypt to Australia to Canada.

Ultimately Hollaback! aims to raise the profile of sexual harassment on the street, to bring it to the attention of law enforcement and policymakers, and to fight for a culture that does not allow street harassment to be the "'price you pay' for being a woman or for being gay."

VIDEO: Kirbie Platero: Champion for New Mexico's Youth

As we gear up for this week's Gloria Awards, where we have the privilege of honoring grassroots women activists and philanthropists who ignite change in communities nationwide, we wanted to share the inspiring story of one such awardee from last year's gala: Kirbie Platero.

At just 20 years of age, mother, artist, and full-time youth activist Kirbie is living proof that the future of the reproductive justice movement is alive and kicking – and in good hands.

The 2009 recipient of the Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award, Kirbie has played a leading role in the comprehensive sex ed movement in New Mexico. An outspoken member of Ms. Foundation grantee group Young Women United, Kirbie helped lobby the departments of health and education in her state, as well as the Albuquerque Public School Board, to adopt standards calling for medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education – leading the way for New Mexico to eventually become the 15th state to refuse federal abstinence-only funding.

A survivor of sexual assault as a child, and now raising a young son born in 2007, Kirbie’s life circumstances haven’t always been easy. But what this video below makes clear is how powerfully she’s translated her own experiences into a passion for providing others with the resources they need to make informed and safe decisions about their own lives.



Please join us in paying tribute to yet another amazing group of grassroots women activists like Kirbie at this week's Ms. Foundation's 22nd Annual Gloria Awards: A National Salute to Women of Vision, Thursday, May 20 in New York City. Purchase your seat online now! And stay tuned for more powerful stories to come as we share the voices of our 2010 awardees.