Eliminate policies and practices that criminalize people of color

YWCA is committed to ensuring that everyone is afforded equal opportunity and equal protection under the law. Too often, however, stereotypes, biases, and racial power dynamics are embedded in our laws and public policies. They are also reflected in the use of racial profiling, heightened surveillance tactics, targeted enforcement strategies, and other practices that increase policing of certain racial and ethnic communities (but not others) and criminalize people of color.

What we support:

• Ending racial and religious profiling
• Creating safe, equitable educational environments that support learning for all students, especially those most impacted by school discipline and sexual harassment policies and practices
• Reforming laws, policies, and practices to safeguard people of color from police violence
• Passing laws, resolutions, and ordinances that declare racism to be a public health crisis

Download these resources to learn more:

YWCA Racial Justice and Police Accountability Policy Statement

We Still Deserve Safety: Renewing the Call to End the Criminalization of Women and Girls of Color

We Deserve Safety Report

Expand opportunities for women’s successful workplace participation

Equal pay, workplace fairness, and access to high-skill and high-wage jobs are essential to women’s economic advancement in the 21st century. As breadwinners, caretakers, and essential drivers of our nation’s economy, women should not have to choose between their livelihood and their health, their family, or their safety. Yet far too many women and families, particularly women and families of color, must make this choice every day.

What we support:

• Fair wages and equal pay
• Safe, fair, and inclusive workplaces free of discrimination and harassment
• Paid family leave, paid sick leave, and job-protected safe leave
• Access to training, career development, and educational opportunities in high-skilled, high wage, STEM, and other 21st century work opportunities

Increase access to quality, affordable child care and early education programs

Child care and early learning programs are essential for working women and for our nation’s economic future. The COVID-19 pandemic escalated already-existing barriers to women’s economic participation, inequities for women and families of color, and the capacity challenges that have plagued childcare providers for generations. Our nation’s post-COVID recovery requires that we build an equitable, sustainable childcare infrastructure that meets the needs of all women, families, and childcare providers.

What we support:

• Quality, affordable childcare and early education programs
• Strengthening early learning access for low-income families, including HeadStart, Early HeadStart, and CCDBG
• Training, professional development, and living wages / improved compensation for child care workforce
• Funding and support to safely reopen and expand childcare services impacted by the COVID-19 crisis

Prevent Gender-Based Violence and Support Survivors

Women and girls of all ages, income levels, racial and ethnic communities, sexual orientations, gender identities, and religious affiliations continue to experience violence in the form of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, and trafficking. As the largest network of domestic and sexual violence service providers in the United States, YWCA works for practical solutions to protect survivors, hold perpetrators accountable, and eradicate all forms of gender-based violence.

What we support:

• Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
• Reauthorization of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Reauthorization Act (FVPSA)
• Preserve and increase the cap on the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) fund
• Common-sense solutions that decrease the threat of domestic violence gun homicide
• Job-protected safe leave to enable survivors to seek medical and legal support
• Safe, inclusive school environments that are free from sexual violence, are supportive of survivors, and that respect and affirm gender identity and expression

Download these resources to learn more:

Preventing Gun Violence

VAWA Reauthorization: Preventing Firearm-Related Violence

Increase Federal Support for Nonprofit Services and Programs

YWCA is on the front lines of communities, strengthening the pillars of economic security for women and families and meeting their needs in moments of crisis. Every day, we see first-hand the critical difference that federal funding for housing, childcare, domestic violence, workforce development, and other services makes in communities served by YWCAs.

What we support:

• Full funding for the Family Violence Prevention & Services Act (FVPSA) and for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
• Transitional housing, Continuum of Care, and Emergency Solutions Grants
• Increasing federal funding for child care, workforce training and development, and STEM careers
• Programs like SNAP, WIC, LIHEAP that help families meet basic human needs when economic challenges arise
• Emergency support for nonprofits during public health crises and natural disasters

Download these resources to learn more:

Block-Granting Low-Income Programs Leads to Large Funding Declines Over Time, History Shows

Strengthen the health and vitality of the YWCA network

YWCA is a national leader along with other charitable partners in supporting policies that contribute to a strong civic society and culture of giving so that we can better serve women, girls, and their families. We support policies such as tax incentives that promote charitable giving and efforts to strengthen our democratic society.

What we support:

• Emergency support for nonprofits during public health crises and natural disasters
• Protection of the Johnson Amendment, which maintains nonpartisanship among nonprofit organizations
• Incentivizing charitable giving
• Including nonprofit sector services as an essential component of national infrastructure policy

Protect the Rights and Safety of Marginalized Communities

YWCA’s intersectional mission to eliminate racism and empower women demands that we show up to advocate against the oppression that historically marginalized groups and individuals endure. We recognize the interconnected experiences of discrimination and disadvantage that women face from their overlapping identities.

What we support:

• A full, fair, and transparent census and redistricting process
• Restoration of the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Legal protections for LGTBQ+ people
• Equal Rights Amendment

Ensure health care for women, girls, and marginalized people

Quality, affordable, culturally-competent health care is critical to everyone. But for many women, children, people of color, and trauma survivors, getting the medical care and insurance coverage they need is a struggle. Moreover, unequal access to health care is a driving factor in racial disparities in maternal and other health outcomes in the U.S.

What we support:

• Protecting and expanding healthcare coverage for women
• Trauma-informed care
• Comprehensive reproductive health services
• Improved maternal health outcomes for women of color
• Elimination of health disparities
• Addressing racism as a public health crisis

Protect Immigrant Women, Children, and Families

YWCA is committed to ensuring that those seeking safety and opportunity in the U.S. can arrive and live without fear, harm, or discrimination. Current immigration policies, however, have retraumatized survivors of violence, heightened fears, and exacerbated discrimination against immigrant communities. Any discussion of immigration must prioritize the safety of immigrant women, children, and families who often have experienced violence, trafficking, extreme poverty, and other threats to their safety and health.

What we support:

• A path to citizenship for undocumented individuals brought to the U.S. as children
• An end to family separation and family detention
• Asylum for survivors of violence
• Full and fair immigration and asylum proceedings

Download these resources to learn more:

Families Belong Together and Free Briefing Paper

Families Belong Together and Free Briefing Video