Category: Health Care

How Could Biden Enhance Effectiveness of New Gender Policy Council?

A call to action has been issued by the Center for American Progress to the White House Gender Policy Council.

The Center for American Progress put out a report that includes several strong and worthwhile suggestions for the Biden administration. The goal of the report is focused on how the current administration can advance gender equality on both U.S soil and abroad. 

Image Credit: Lindsay Lamont on Unsplash

The crux of the report is focused on the White House Gender Policy council and how it can expand the pre-existing Women, Peace and Security Act (WPS) of 2017. 

WPS has actually existed since 2000, starting after being recognized by the U.N Security Council. Since the implementation of WPS in the United States, a requirement is in place that every four years specific governmental departments and agencies must incorporate WPS  into their work. Further, they are required to host WPS-specific training for personnel, to track the progress of implementation, and to report to Congress on this progress. 

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HRC Fdn Survey Results: LGBTQ+ and POC Leading in Vaccinations

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation released data from a survey of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. to find high COVID-19 vaccination rates.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation most recent survey has uncovered the effect COVID-19 had on LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S., and how they responded. (Image credit: Human Rights Campaign)
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation most recent survey has uncovered the effect COVID-19 had on LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S., and how they responded. (Image credit: Human Rights Campaign)

On August 12th, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, released new data finding that the vast majority – 92% – of LGBTQ+ adults surveyed in the United States had received at least one vaccination for COVID-19. Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, this first-of-its-kind LGBTQ+-focused vaccination data is provided through the Community Marketing & Insights’ (CMI) 15th annual LGBTQ Community Survey of over 15,000 LGBTQ+ adult respondents.

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Kamala Harris: “We’re Gonna Get It Done.”

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on August 18, 2020, before Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President of the United States.

“We’re gonna get it done.” These were some of the first words spoken by Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris in her phenomenal half-hour interview with Errin Haines, Editor-at-Large for the 19th, during the 19th Represents Summit on Friday. Harris’s plans to “get it done” refer to the upcoming Presidential election, and her goal to join Joe Biden in leading the U.S. out of one of its worst crisis periods in history.

Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke with Errin Haines of The 19th on Friday, August 14th, giving details of her experience becoming the first woman of color nominated to the U.S. Presidential ticket. (Image Credit: The 19th video, Youtube)

Haines began the interview by asking what it was like for Kamala Harris to be in competition with women she respected and worked with, other candidates who were running for President and were in the lead to be asked to fill Biden’s ticket for the Vice President spot.

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Equal Rights Amendment Can’t Wait in Time of COVID

Editor’s Note: This post urging passage of the Equal Rights Amendment was originally published on September 3, 2020.

Three weeks ago, I was elected as Board Chair of the Equal Rights Amendment Fund for Women’s Equality. As a funder and champion of women’s rights and economic justice, this call to step up could not have come at a more urgent time. 

equal rights amendment
The ERA Coalition is the sister organization to the Equal Rights Amendment Fund for Women’s Equality. (Image Credit: ERA Coalition)

Each one of us has had many moments of reckoning during COVID-19. But as women of color, we have seen that COVID has treated us differently from the rest. Race has been identified as a co-morbidity and a risk factor, just like diabetes or heart disease. Our healthcare systems, our educational systems, and our systems for protecting essential workers are all struggling mightily against a dangerous and mysterious disease. Basic rights and systems have been demolished for women, and women of color are being particularly hard-hit, facing higher rates of job loss while also being expected to bear more responsibility for caregiving and educating children.

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WDN Presents New Seminar Series on Uplifting Birth Justice

WDN has launched a three-part seminar series covering reproductive justice and its relationships to feminism and anti-racist movements.

WDN's three-part series will be spread across three separate dates: June 1st, June 16th, and July 14th. (Image credit: WDN)
WDN’s three-part series will be spread across three separate dates: June 1st, June 16th, and July 14th. (Image credit: WDN)

For the last ten years, birth justice service providers, advocates and funders have been pushing to improve US maternal health. Join WDN for a three-part series on birth justice and come away with an understanding of what the birth justice movement is, how it connects to the reproductive justice movement, and what it means to invest in it with an anti-racist, feminist lens.

Each session will cover a distinct topic with a panel of leaders from the birth justice movement. You can choose to go to as many or as few of the sessions as you’d like, in any order. Click “register” to select the sessions you’d like to attend.

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How Susan G. Komen and Telemundo Will Partner on Breast Cancer

Susan G. Komen and Telemundo have announced a new partnership that will finance breast cancer initiatives for Latino communities.

Susan G. Komen and Telemundo have agreed to a two-year partnership to improve breast care initiatives and education for Hispanic women in the U.S. (Image credit: Susan G. Komen)
Susan G. Komen and Telemundo have agreed to a two-year partnership to improve breast care initiatives and education for Hispanic women in the U.S. (Image credit: Susan G. Komen)

Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, and Telemundo, the leading media network for Hispanics in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, announced today a two-year partnership to reach Hispanic women with trustworthy information and resources to take control of their breast health.  As breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among Hispanic women in the U.S., this integrated partnership will seek to overcome barriers to care for this key community by providing culturally competent breast health information across Telemundo’s platforms and access to key Komen resources.  The two organizations will work together to help raise funds in support of education and other critical breast cancer initiatives benefiting the Latino community.

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Ray of Hope for Women-Led Small Businesses

The funding platform Kickfurther has awarded a considerable amount of funding to Spinster Sisters, a women-led small business.

Funding for women led small businesses has often had a gender gap that has proven to be detrimental to them. In recent years, large strides have been made to close this gap and more funding has been allocated for women run businesses. 

Spinster Sisters founder Kelly Perkins (Image credit: Spinster Sisters)

Recently, a no-cost financing giveaway held by Kickfurther was awarded to a women owned business called Spinster Sisters. This win for one small business signals the progress being made for all women owned businesses. 

Kickfurther aims to help small businesses through the pandemic

Kickfurther is a platform for inventory funding that is supported by investors behind Robinhood, Tesla, Twitter and other investors. The platform allows for small businesses to be supported by those who like their product while allowing these supporters to make a profit when the inventory is sold. 

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Voix EssentiELLES Partnership to Support Women’s Health in Africa

The Global Fund and Fondation CHANEL are launching Voix EssentiELLES, a partnership to support women’s health care in central and western Africa.

This partnership of The Global Fund and Fondation CHANEL will work with and for women in central and western Africa to advance their health care systems. (Image credit: The Global Fund and Fondation CHANEL)
This partnership of The Global Fund and Fondation CHANEL will work with and for women in central and western Africa to advance their health care systems. (Image credit: The Global Fund and Fondation CHANEL)

(March, 2021) The Global Fund and Fondation CHANEL have signed a new agreement to set up a civil society-led fund to strengthen women’s and girls’ engagement in developing health policies, including Global Fund-related processes, in western and central Africa. The partnership, worth US $1.5 million, will run for three years starting in Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire.

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FRIDA Commits to Flexibility with 93 New Participatory Grants

FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund is on a roll, and they’re not letting up anytime soon. Shortly after finishing their 10th anniversary celebrations, the FRIDA team announced the next round of grants to 93 organizations, bringing their total grantee cohort to 252 activist groups in 115 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, the Asian continent, Caucasus, Central and Eastern Europe, and the African continent.

FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund recently announced the next 93 grantee partners in its latest cohort, representing the largest grant-making cohort in the organization’s 10-year history. (Image Credit: FRIDA)

This marks FRIDA’s largest grantee cohort since the organization’s founding, and the next step in FRIDA’s robust five-year plan.

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Felecia Lucky: Without Us, Rural Communities Had No Access to COVID Funds

Recently I had the opportunity to talk with Felecia Lucky, President of the Black Belt Community Foundation in Selma, Alabama, which serves Alabama’s 12 most financially distressed counties. 

Felecia Lucky, President, Black Belt Community Foundation (Image Credit: Felecia Lucky)

Black Belt Community Foundation was officially formed in December 2003 after several years of community advocacy for such an institution. It was established to strengthen these 12 rural Alabama communities and enrich them with more community goods like health care, education, youth programs, and economic development. 

As President of the Foundation, Lucky shared with me some of the story of the foundation’s growth and evolution. She traced the origins of the foundation back to another woman leader, Dr. Carol Zippert, who had a vision of how to build community resources through a foundation, bringing philanthropy to an area of the country that hadn’t experienced much of it.

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