Advocacy

Our Advocacy team presented a series of panel discussions with local and national experts exploring the pandemic’s economic impacts on women, particularly women of color.  Sign up for our newsletter to hear about upcoming sessions!

Videos of previous sessions are available on our YouTube channel:

Closing the Inequity Gap for Women in the Workplace

Advocacy in the Time of the “Shecession”

Tell Your Senators to Co-sponsor and Pass the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act

Today we know that one in three women will experience domestic violence and more than three women are murdered by their partners each day. Domestic violence occurs across all races, ages, incomes, and ethnic backgrounds with disproportionate impacts for women of color and other marginalized communities.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) of 2021 (H.R. 1620) is critical and lifesaving legislation that maintains safety protections important to all survivors, particularly women of color and other marginalized communities. This bill also makes modest, but vital, improvements to provide the resources critical to supporting all survivors and their needs.

Advocate to Pass the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Act

The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) is the largest source of federal funding for domestic and sexual violence services in the country, funding support services to over 6 million victims through more than 6,000 direct service organizations. Since the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, domestic violence service providers have seen a significant increase in demand for services across the country – and YWCAs have been no exception. Between March through June 2020, 57 YWCAs in 36 states reported an increased demand for domestic violence housing services.

Unfortunately, the rise in services have failed to keep pace with finances. Federal grants to victim services through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) decreased by 25% last year, and further drastic cuts are expected. Tell your Senators to support critical victims’ services facing catastrophic cuts by passing the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Act (S. 611/H.R. 1652) today!

New! SB21-176 Protecting Opportunities And Workers’ Rights Act

• Concerning protections for Colorado workers against discriminatory employment practices.

New! HB21-1255 Protection order Against Domestic Abusers

• Removes firearms from the possession of domestic abusers

New! SB21-087 Agricultural Worker’s Rights

• Supporting agricultural workers (specifically women and young families) to ensure they have protections and human rights, including the right to work in a safe workplace free of harassment.

New! SB21-199 Removing Barriers to Certain Public Opportunities

HB21-1108 Gender Identity Expression Anti-discrimination

• Adds “gender expression” and “gender identity” to list of protected classes for employment, public accommodation and other areas where discrimination is prohibited by law.
• Protected classes include race, religion, sex, and age, etc.
• Amends the definition of “sexual orientation” and add definitions of the terms “gender expression” and “gender identity”.  Track bill HB21-1108 here.

SB21-027 Emergency Supplies for Colorado Babies & Families

• Provides diapers through trusted community partners.
• 520,000 diaper packs = 50 extra diapers and wipes, for 12 months for 43,000 families in need
• It can help families over the hump they face each month in this hard time.
• Diaper banks have seen a 300% increase in need during COVID; WeeCycle increased from 300,000 to 1.2 million diapers.
• $2 million budget item.  Track SB21-027 here.
• Read more:  There’s A “Hidden Need” for Diapers in Colorado, and the Pandemic Only Made It Worse, Colorado Public Radio, April 27, 2021

SB21-009 Reproductive Health Care Program

Expands access to family planning services through:

• Medicaid to include undocumented Coloradans who are income eligible.
• Improving access to contraceptives for all who are eligible for family planning services through Medicaid.  Track SB21-009 here.

SB21-073 Civil Action Statute of Limitations Sexual Assault

• Eliminates statute of limitations for child sexual assault survivors to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators. (Currently must file by age 24).
• Removes several restrictions on filing damage claims.
• Makes persons and organizations that didn’t directly participate in abuse potentially liable.  Track SB21-073 here.

SB21-182 School Discipline Reform

• Limit ticketing and arrests for low-level offenses in Colorado schools.
• Raise standard for suspensions, improve discipline data reporting, create clear criteria for selection and evaluation of Student Resource Officers in schools.
• Modernize code of conduct policies to be more transparent and equitable, and ban handcuffing elementary school students.  Track SB21-182 here.

Early Childhood Education Budget Items

• Support for Early Childhood Educator Workforce:  $1.2 million to create and fund a recruitment and retention grant and scholarship program for ECE educators
• Early Childhood Educator Salary Increase:  $3 million to create and implement a pilot program studying the impact of subsidized wages for ECE educators

BVSD School Board discusses school discipline bill details. Daily Camera. March 18, 2021.

BVSD commits to community conversation on police officers in schools. Broomfield Enterprise. June 12, 2020.

Interested in how YOU can TAKE ACTION and make positive change in our community? Here are some ideas:

• Get involved with YWCA Boulder County and your local community!
  • Sign up to be a volunteer for our Reading to End Racism program in local elementary schools. This is easier than ever in our current, virtual format!
  • If you are involved in the STEM industry, become a STEM E3 partner and host a Intro to STEM Jam Session (virtually) at your company.
  • Sign up for one of our upcoming “Being an Anti-racist” Virtual Trainings.  We offer community trainings and trainings for organizations.
  • Participate in our events to help fundraise for our affordable, high-quality child care program, Persimmon Early Learning, and our Racial Justice & Equity programs.
    • Volunteer on an event committee.
    • Be a “Celebrity Dancer” for YWCA’s Dancing with Boulder Stars event (just like the TV show – no dance experience required).  To learn more, please contact Brittny Wilson at bwilson@ywcaboulder.org.
    • Be a Team Captain for our Dash & Bash 5K Fun Run in the fall. To learn more, please contact Robyn Hazlitt at rhazlitt@ywcaboulder.org.
  • Join our annual Stand Against Racism Week activities each April.
  • Join our annual Week Without Violence activities each October.
• Stay up to date on legislative issues on the local, state and national levels through online resources.
  • League of Women Voters of Colorado
  • Colorado General Assembly
  • LegiScan Legislative Tracking Service – Colorado
• Make your voice heard!
  • Contact your legislators, on the local, state and national levels, about the issues that are important to you to inform their actions. Calls, emails, and written letters or postcards all make an impact. See our Advocacy Contacts section below for contact information for your representatives. Make it a regular family activity!
  • Write a Letter to the Editor to add your voice to community conversations about important issues. Learn some basics and tips here.
  • Attend a Day at the Capitol event, meet with legislators and learn how to testify for or against a bill.
• Advocate in your organizations and groups for programs that benefit everyone.
  • Learn about Colorado’s historic Family & Medical Leave Act passed last year, the Pay Equity Act that went into effect this year, and the 2016 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. 
  • Understand more about Family & Medical Leave policies at your company:  if it is available to all employees, how it has been implemented in the past, and how it could be improved in the future.
  • Study, develop, and improve equitable hiring and promotion practices to ensure there are not inequitable pay wage gaps.
  • Be mindful of who is or who is not typically at the decision-making table, and how you can create a more inclusive and diverse group.
• Visit YWCA Boulder County’s website for education resources to get started.
  • Expand the kind of media you consume and be intentional in reading, listening, and watching media made by and about people of all genders, races, creeds, sexualities, abilities and more.
  • Learn more about the history of our community, state and country, including the history and experiences of people not represented in mainstream history.
  • Discover how issues today impact discrete groups differently and the history behind why these disparities exist.

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