Micro-Enterprise, WWAV Style: Creating Beauty, Ending Poverty

Women With A Vision and Good Work Network are partnering to create pathways to economic opportunity for marginalized women in the New Orleans area.  Target groups will include HIV positive women, previously incarcerated women, female victims of domestic violence, and LGBT individuals.  Individual and group craft projects and goods, including jewelry and preserves, will be produced using recycled and repurposed items. These items will be created and marketed locally in a traditional microfinance model wherein those artisans/participants are the direct recipients of the income generated.

New Orleans retains one of the highest poverty rates (23.4%) in the state of Louisiana, which ranks the second worst in the nation on poverty indices. Marginalized women in the target groups typically face severe financial challenges, few economic opportunities, and no safety net.  Best efforts to live on a budget and save are undermined by financial emergencies that break budgets and, in some cases force people to be at the mercy of ruthless predatory lenders.  Through investment in programs that foster life skills, self-efficacy, and financial knowledge and understanding, we hope to reduce these vulnerabilities.

This project provides a unique opportunity for women of color, and other target populations in New Orleans, whom have been affected by or previously engaged in the street economy.  It aims to further individual skills and personal ability/self-efficacy to generate income independently while also creating a community of peer social and economic support.  Furthermore, this will enable those persons to make empowered choices about their health, communities, and personal/economic livelihoods.

WWAV Launches the Louisiana Women’s Advocacy Alliance

In 2012, WWAV is bringing our work to improve the health of women through advocacy statewide with the Louisiana Women’s Advocacy Alliance (LWAA). LWAA is the natural extension of the advocacy foundation built through our internationally renowned NO Justice project.  Working with women and advocates across the state, we will expand a base of support to target Louisiana policies that continue to hinder the health and human rights of women in the state.

One of WWAV’s core guiding principles is that people should not be criminalized for what they do with their own bodies and should be empowered to prevent disease and improve their overall well being in any way that is available, particularly if it is evidence based.  The women we work with often turn to sex work as a way to support substance use and have few options once involved in the criminal justice system to do anything different. WWAV’s success has come largely from a high impact service/advocacy model.  This model allows us to mobilize the communities affected most by social determinants of health, particularly policy, that are normally excluded from decision-making processes.

LWAA’s work will center around three interconnected objectives:

1. Policy analysis. Louisiana has consistently lagged behind other parts of the country in providing Harm Reduction services including syringe exchange programs and gender based modalities that take into account the specific needs of women, including their involvement in sex work. Through LWAA, we will detail specific policies affecting women, including those involved in sex work, craft rights-based policy recommendations at the local and state level.
2. Education and mobilization. The sustainability of social change is rooted in the involvement of the people.  We begin by meeting people where they are and providing services and referrals to address the immediate needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, that prevent community members from engaging in advocacy activities. WWAV is very visible in Louisiana communities with a presence at health fairs, neighborhood meetings and events conducted by other partners as well as at WWAV offices where we conduct outreach to community members, advocacy trainings and story circles. These activities will continue as an integral part of LWAA.
3. Alliance development. LWAA was launched in partnership with 10 core alliance partners, consisting of individual community members and organizations. Together, we share resources with other organizations engaged in social justice movements, service delivery and advocacy activities. By recruiting individuals as key alliance members, we further ensure the involvement of those most affected by harmful policies.

February 4 – Deon Haywood is the 2012 Krewe du Vieux Queen

Wearing a V for Victory and an A for the Apocalypse in carnival colors the 2012 Parade this year is on Saturday, February 4, 2012 and the Krewe will be rolling and stumbling through the Marigny Triangle and the Lower French Quarter. This year’s theme is Crimes Against Nature, a tribute to WWAV’s internationally renowned work through our NO Justice project, and the 2012 Krewe du Vieux Queen is our very own Deon Haywood.

What is Krewe du Vieux? The Krewe du Vieux is a New Orleans Mardi Gras or Carnival krewe, originally and more fully known as the Krewe du Vieux Carre (“Vieux Carre” being another term for the city’s French Quarter). It is one of the earliest parades of the New Orleans Carnival calendar, and is noted for wild satirical and adult themes, as well as for showcasing some of the best Brass and Jazz Bands in New Orleans.  For more information, visit the Krewe du Vieux website.

Expanding Access to Breast & Cervical Health Care with LSU

Starting January 2012, WWAV is a proud partner of LSU’s Louisiana Breast & Cervical Health Program (LBCHP). LBCHP is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP), which is active in all 50 US states, as well as US territories and tribal organizations. LBCHP’s goal is to prevent unnecessary disease, disability or premature death due to cancer of the breast and cervix in Louisianan women. To accomplish this goal, LBCHP provides quality, no-cost, breast and cervical cancer early detection services to un- or under-insured, low and moderate-income Louisianan women aged 40 or over. Special emphasis is given to reaching women who rarely or never receive screening services.

WWAV’s Story Circles with Wendi O’Neal – Monthly, 1st and Last Tuesdays

As a cultural worker, facilitator, and educator, Wendi O’Neal connects social and economic justice groups’ mission, vision and values with how everyday work gets done. She uses spiritually grounded practices, art, story circles and song sharing as tools for growing inspiration and sharing methodology for democratic process.

Born and raised in New Orleans, she has worked in local, regional and national organizations; but her heart’s work is rooted in the US South, especially the kind of organizing that happens around kitchen tables in the Deep South and Appalachia.

WWAV is truly blessed to be one of the organizations that Wendi shares her gifts with.  We are proud to be hosting weekly story circles EVERY 1^st and Last Tuesday in each month!