Our Voice Our Time: Black Women’s Advocacy Day at the Capital
On April 26, 2017, Women With a Vision, Inc. will undertake the amazing task of bringing together Black Women from across the state of Louisiana to Baton Rouge for an advocacy day focused on Black Women’s issues. Women With A Vision, Inc. (WWAV) is a New Orleans-based non-profit, founded in 1989 by a grassroots collective of African-American women in response to the spread of HIV/AIDS in communities of color.
Today WWAV works to improve the lives of marginalized women, their families, and communities by addressing the social conditions that hinder their health and well-being. We accomplish this through relentless advocacy, health education, supportive services, and community-based participatory research.
Why Our Voice Our Time?
Black women across the state of Louisiana have always been at the cornerstone in the fight for equity and justice for our communities and our children. We have advocated from every position available and we have fought hard. However, it has been a struggle to have a place where the intersection of our communal and familial responsibilities and commitments can coexist with the interpersonal issues we face by being women.
Reproductive Justice hinges on the ability to focus on everything that we hold dear while advocating for our own health, safety, and well-being. Although each of our life experiences are unique, there are some issues that we collectively agree are fundamental rights that we all have as members of this community:
- All women are deserving of access to quality healthcare, and to provide it is not only a commitment to the individual, but to families across Louisiana.
- All women have the right to economic freedom and equity so that they are not forced into making unhealthy decisions about their personal well-being or the well-being of their families.
- The criminal justice system should not treat any member of the community differently than the other. To do so based on race or gender identity has a disparaging impact on the discriminated parties, their family members and families across Louisiana as a whole.
- Universal access to quality education is a community commitment to sustainable households.
- Strong voter engagement allows all members of the city and state to be represented and heard in an effort to ensure that all of our Constitutional guarantees are safeguarded.
As an organization, WWAV continues to have conversations with Black women across the state to hear their voices and needs. We have put together a campaign that not only discusses the issues surrounding Black womanhood in Louisiana, but will culminate in this advocacy day. On April 26th, Black Women will gather and tell our legislative body that they must prioritize our access to health care, support pathways to economic equity, commit to criminal justice reform, and encourage our ability to peacefully and successfully care for our families and children.
We are asking as many Black Louisiana women as possible to join us!. To ensure that there is space and resources available to those that want to attend, we are asking allies and businesses that employ Black women to support by providing donations, transportation, or other resources. Day sponsored by: Karen Carter Peters.
Contact us at info@wwav-no.org for more information and to learn how to support the day!
Date and Time
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM CDT
Location
Louisiana State Capitol
900 North Third Street
Baton Rouge, LA. 70802
Please RSVP at the Eventbrite!
