Transformation_v13.no1.1998.Winter.pdf
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10n
Vol. 13 Issue 1
Winter 1998
1997 YearEnd Report
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Betty Cole - Colt
Freddie Nixon - Little Rock
Amy Edgington - Little Rock
Celia Wildroot - Hot Springs
Annette Shead - Little Rock
Carol Nokes - Little Rock
Precious Williams - Ogden
Sarah Facen - Little Rock
Sandra Mitchell - Little Rock
Tammy Roberson - Little Rock
DeeDee Green - Little Rock
STAFF
Felicia Davidson
Lynn Frost
Suzanne Pharr
OR THE FIRST TIME in
our 16 year history, we at the Women's Project are
presenting a public annual report.
In 1997, as in other years, we wish we
could have done more to fight off the
punitive effect of selfish right-wing
conservatism, have created more lasting and extraordinary social change,
but we are also proud we have done
strong, solid work and made the small
changes that move us toward a world
of greater justice and equality. Our
three full-time and two part-time staff
members and our 50 volunteers have
given the best of their time and creative energy to ensure that the often
silenced are heard, that violence never
goes unacknowledged and sanctioned,
that people move from exclusion to
inclusion, and that we all build the
relationships that sustain our deepest
and most humane connections.
Judy Matsuoka
Janet Perkins
Suzanne Pharr
WOMEN'SWATCHCARE
NETWORK
OF ALL THE WORK WE DO, it is the
workoftheWomen'sWatchcareNetwork that most intimately touches the
lives of every woman, man, and child
in Arkansas-across race, class, gender, sexualidentity, physical and mental ability. We monitor biased violence against religious minorities,
women, people of color, sexual minorities and people with disabilities
as well as the activities of the religious
right and far right groups such as the
Klan and neo-Nazis. In addition to
our public education about violence,
we work with communities to respond
to violence and work with public officials to change policy.
In 1997, we have logged the murders of over 60 women and 35 children
under the age of 21 and tracked racist,
homophobic, and anti-Semitic incidents. This is our first full year of
gathering information about biased
violence against people with disabilities. We are currently establishing an
accumulative database of women
murdered since 1989 which will list
not only the circumstances of death
but also the original charge, final conviction, and sentencing. This database
will make our information more
readily accessible for research and
public policy work.
When Promise Keepers came to
Little Rock to recruit African Americans, we sent out information to pastors and the press, helping them to
understand the politics of the rightwing organizations that back this organization. We also attended a na(continuedon page2)
1997 Year End Report
from page 1
tional meeting of political activists
and people of faith to create strategies to counter the organizing of
Promise Keepers. In Arkansas, we
tried to introduce a progressive
voice by focusing on churches for
training concerning biased crime
and holding workshops for their
adult educators.
Wespokeatthepostmarchrally
at the National March of Solidarity
Against Hate Crimes, which was
heldinSouthCarolina, worked with
parents in Fayetteville whose children experienced homophobic violence, supported an environmentalist who was brutally attacked,
and held a town meeting on hate
crimes at the UALR Law School.
Our anti-violence work stalled
in the Arkansas Legislature. We
worked with a coalition to work
against a same sex marriage billand lost; tried to tack on an amendment to another bill that called for
employment nondiscrimination
against lesbians and gay men-and
lost; tried to move a bill to establish
schools as hostility-free zones so all
kids can be safe-and lost our sponsor. However, we did have a small
success in the Medicaid debate with
our attempt to get public officials to
consider community-based services
for people with disabilities.
Because there is only one staff
member and a corps of volunteers
working on the Women's Watchcare
Network, we have to find ways to
help as many people as we can in as
efficient manner as possible. We
spent a good portion of this year
working on the revision of two of
our important publications which
we provide for women who need
assistance.
The Handbook on Legal Rights
for Women in Arkansas covers common legalissues women callus about:
divorce, child protection, abuse of
children,adoption, domesticviolence,
sexual harassment, discrimination in
employment, etc. We have updated
it to reflect changes in the law.
TheResourceManualfor Women
is particularly for Arkansas women
in crisis caused by such things as
violence, coming off welfare, etc. It
provides local information about
resources such as domestic violence
services, continuing education for
literacy and vocational training, attorneys willing to go
against the system in employment cases, support
groups, hate crimes, rape
andincest,HIV / AIDS,government assistance, housing
and homelessness, medical
and dental assistance, mental health, legal assistance,
crisis hotlines, programs related to
aging, disabled persons, lesbians
and gay men, incarcerated women,
and youth.
PROGRESSIVE
AGENDA
OuR IDEA FORDEVELOPING
a progressive agenda and network came
from our daily encounter with violence and discrimination in the
Women's Watchcare Network. Because facing the grim accounts of
murders and abuse each day exacts
such an emotional toll, staff members are usually assigned to this
work for no more than two years.
Also, it is clear that monitoring and
Page 2 • Transformation• Winter 1998
teaching about violence is not
enough: we have to find some way
to change the world_that creates it.
This thinking led us to recognize
that we need more bodies, more
organizing, more strategies for creating a progressive agenda that is
multi-issued and multi-cultural,
built on justice and equality.
We set a goal to establish a network of individuals and organizations in Arkansas that promote a
progressive agenda, that will support each other on issues, and will
work collectively to make progressive social change. A half-dozen
meetings have been held to organize the Arkansas network, to re-
cruit new members, and to grow
the organization slowly and deeply.
It has taken on a "Hate-free Zone"
project which invites individuals,
schools, businesses, and towns to
create hate-free zones. The project
had its kick-off at World Fest, a
multi-culturalfestival sponsored by
the city of Little Rock. Members
gave away signs and stickers which
read "Hate-free Zone: Create One."
The theme was taken on-stage of
the festival, and the sign was the
opening graphic for television coverage that night. The Network is
currently working on a television
public service announcement promoting the idea.
Building on the work we are
doing in Arkansas, we also called a
meeting of representatives of Southern states to discuss the idea of erea ting a progressive network in each
state, with the ultimate plan to connect all of these groups in the region. People from seven states attended and agreed to work together
to create a directory of progressive
organizations in the South, to initiate networks in three states for
each of the next three years, to share
information, and to participate in
each other's work.
At the Women's Project, we try
to promote a progressive agenda
through workshops, consultations,
and technical assistance to people
who are working to end discrimination and to promote inclusion and
democratic participation. In 1997,
we worked with a wide variety of
groups on a broad spectrum of issues. We presented two eight-week
classes on ethnic and gender dynamics at UALR; a workshop and
panel on economics and lesbians
and gay men; a training for white
women working with women of
color; organized a white women's
reading group focusing on African
American literature; organized an
African American women's reading group; led a two-day queer institute for Western States Center;
gave four workshops on adults/
youth, power & sex; provided training on the Women's Project's organizational model for the Center for
the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence; training for the
Western State's Center's Advanced
Leadership & Mentorship Program;
anti-racist training for Oregon State
University; homophobia work-
shops for Volunteers of America;
an 8-hour intensive on white privilege for the National Gay & Lesbian
Task Force's Creating Change Conference; workshops on coalition
building for Montana Human
Rights Network in three towns; motivation and confidence building
It is the work of the
Women's Watchcare
Network that most
intimately touches the
lives of every woman,
man, and child in
Arkansas.
workshops for the Good Faith Fund
in Pine Bluff; racism workshops for
the Foundation of the Mid South;
organizational and board
development for Advocates
for Battered Women; a
workshop on economics for
teenage girls. Speeches were
given at the Men and Masculinity Conference; Oregon
State University, Western ,
States Center's annual conference; Deshutes Co. Human Rights Coalition; William Patterson College; St.
Paul Companies; Red and
Black Books; Gay Lesbian Straight
Teachers Network conference;
Page 3 •Transformation• Winter 1998
Winona State University; Outfront
Conference in Willmar, MN; In
Other Words Bookstore; and the
Atlanta Book Club. •
OREGON
OFFICE
IN PORTLAND,
we organized a
group to advise and support the
work of the Women's Project in
Oregon. A multi-racial group of 19
women, the Women's Project Working Group, meets quarterly to discuss politics, the activities of the
Women's Project, and to plan
events. Its focus this year has been
on economics.
Much of our work over the last
16 years has been to support the
formation and well-being of other
organizations so that a progressive
movement is built to bring about
social and economic change. Therefore, we incubate some organizations and provide technical assistance and support to others. This
yearweprovided20hours per week
staff time to Oregon's Lesbian Community Project which was $35,000
in debt and facing closure. We
thought that its 10year history made
it a strategic organization
that
showed
much
promise, and we
were interested in
providing a year's
support toward its
reorganization
and renewal. We
were particularly
interested in the
idea of a longterm organization
that has been based in identity
politics and service provision
transitioning to an organization that
maintains much of its identity but
includes a multi-racial, multi-issued
organizing approach to social
change. Since LCPhad already been
doing much of this work, we wanted
to help expand its organizing focus
and take on new challenges. Such
an organization could be a model
for others across the country who
are struggling to meet the political
demands of the present moment.
In the 10 months we have provided staff support, LCP has accomplished these things:
• paid off $30,000 in past debts
• developed a leadership team
• hosted 11 dinners which served
both as fund-raisers and opportunities for dialogue
• sponsored forums on gender,
cross-generational lesbian( queer)
realities and a forum on gender as
seen by those under 25
• sponsored and supported the
Amazon Dragon Boat team
• greeted hundreds of well-wishers
from the LCP Pride Day Float
• organized the annual Tournament
of Choice Softball Extravaganza
(450 participants)
• organized the Women in the
Woods retreat with 149 women
attending
• sponsored a week-end retreat for
lesbians under the age of 30 (35
participants)
• held three dances
• published four newsletters.
The organization is now prepared to hire a full-time staff person,
and the Women's Project's assistance
will end April 1998.
PRISONPROJECT
SINCE
1988,we have been workingwith women in prison. This year
we continued our weekly domestic
violence group that runs for eightweek cycles. It is open to 20 women
each session, and out of any group
of 18-20, at least half of them are
usually survivors of rape, physical
abuse or incest. Then there are 7-8
women who are in prison for having killed their batterer. In almost
Out of any domestic
violence group of 1820, at least half of
them are usually
survivors of rape,
physical abuse or
incest.
every case, they have had restraining orders, called upon police and
family, and still have not been able
to get adequate protection. These
women share their stories with one
another, learn to identify domestic
violence, and learn ways to live lives
without violence.
We devoted two issues of Transformation to our prison work, and
for one of those, women prisoners
wrote about their experiences.
Our deepest concern this year
has been about the plan to move
women from their state-operated
Page 4 • Transformation• Winter 1998
prison in Tucker to a privately-operated prison in Newport. This
move triples their distance from us,
places the prison in a white community rather than a racially mixed
community, and isolates most of
the women even more from their
families, due to distance. It will be
very difficult for us to offer services
now. However, we are planning to
provide training for the Newport
battered women's shelter to continue the domestic violence work in
the prison.
We began offering domestic violence classes for men in prison because incarcerated women told us
that they wanted their male partners to learn the same things they
have learned. They said that maybe
such understanding would lead
them to be able to have healthy
relationships when they got out of
prison. That request led us to offer
sessions with men at Tucker and
Wrightsville prisons as well as at
the Benton Service Center. We work
withmen toidentifywhatdomestic
violence is. The men are open to this
information and often say they
knew something was wrong with
their relationship, but they just did
not know what. They welcome the
chancetotalk. Wetalkabouthealthy
vs. unhealthy relationships, the effect of abuse on children, denial,
women as property, and women as
equals. Recently, we have begun
working with men in the Little Rock
community to develop a group to
address domestic violence.
Additionally, we provide HIV/
AIDS education for the men once a
month. In the women's prison, we
give this training twice a month,
Property of the Center
and once a year, we give a 19-hour
course for 20 women to train them
to be peered ucators. With this training, they can do not only the work
in prison while they are there but
also in their communities once they
are released.
M1wATOH
SINCE1990, we have worked
with United Methodist Women to
transport the children of incarcerated women to visit their mothers
once a month. Since its beginning,
there have been over 100 volunteers involved in the project. This
year we transported 73 children to
see 28 incarcerated mothers. An
example of this work is a group of
young couples from a United Methodist Sunday School class in
Blytheville who transport children
of five families on a long trip to
Tucker, provide two meals on the
road, develop relationships with the
children and their caregivers, and
provide holiday presents for them.
United Methodist Women from all
over the state collect personal hygiene articles (shampoo, deodorant,
etc.) that many women do not have
the money to purchase in prison.
Thousands of these articles are distributed each year.
Anewdevelopmentin 1997was
that we began working with the
Central Arkansas Community Punishment Center in addition to the
women's prison.
The biggest problem that
MIWATCH faces is when prisoners
have children living in towns where
we do not have volunteers to provide transportation. Some of the
women have not seen their children
in three or four years. It is a constant struggle to develop and maintain volunteers in rural areas who
can commit to a Saturday or Sunday a month as well as an ongoing
relationship with families and children.
Another problem MIWATCH
faces now is the new private prison
in Newport where the women will
be moved in January. It requires a
new system of relationships with
We advocated for
recipients of welfare
to be at the table to
help make the
decisions that would
affect their lives.
authorities, new rules, and new distances to travel.
EooNoM10PROJECT
OUR ECONOMICS
WORK
focused on two issues: trying
to slow and shape the repeal of welfare, and advocating for and working with
women who are losing their
welfare benefits.
We worked with the
Kids Count Coalition which
is made up of 14 organizations that
Page 5 • Transformation • Winter 1998
monitor the welfare laws and their
changes and hold strategy sessions
to create ideas to improve the work
of the Department of Human Services. We tried to get the legislature
to postpone the two year limits imposed on welfare recipients. To do
this, we provided testimony to the
legislature-personal
stories, accompanied by real facts about what
it costs a family of three to live. We
advocated for recipients of welfare
to be at the table to help make the
decisions that would affect their
lives. To shape opinion on this issue, we did press work and wrote
articles.
As part of the Welfare Working
Group, we looked at the results of
changes in the law. One of our tasks
has been totrytotracethewomen who
are coming off Transitional Employment Assistance to see the impact on
them as they are living today.
For three years we have been
workingwithwomenlivinginpublic housing in Marianna, preparing
for the demolition of welfare. This
year Women for Social Change celebrated the first anniversary of the
food bank they created together.
Five women work
at the food bank
which feeds 68
families in this
small town. This
year they set up a
library with books
donated by individuals and the
Central Arkansas
Library. Whenone
family lost everything in a fire, they
were inspired to establish a perma-
nent clothes closet for emergency
use. The goal of this project is to
teach job and leadership skills such
as bookkeeping, inventory, team
building, communication with the
public. As each_woman is trained,
she is expected to train another.
Pharr, as well as books from our
traveling bookstore. The funds from
the latter are used to support our
lending library. Chain stores have
cut into our business but we continue to sell alternative books that
are hard to find in book stores. We
maintain the store in our office but
FUNDRAISING
THISYEAR WE RECEIVED funding
from our membership and pledgers, major donors, book sales, fees
for service, special events as well as
from these churches and foundations: Public Welfare, Astrea, Gill
Foundation, Ralph L. Smith Foundation, Bert and Mary Meyer Foundation, Veatch, Levi-Strauss, United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries, Chicago Resource Center,
Share Our Strength, Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor,
Fund of the Four Directions, and
Threshold. Our 1997 budget was
$236,600.
We have created a fundraising
group, "Friends of the Women's
Project." Its purpose is to diversify
and increase our sources of funding. It is made up of board and
community members. Currently it
is working on setting up house parties, membership renewals, strategies for a major donor campaign,
and more visibility for the work of
the Women's Project.
A significant part of our
fundraising comes from the sale of
books. We sell Homophobia: A
Weapon of Sexism (expanded this
year and printed in a newly designed second edition) and In the
Time of the Right: Reflections on
Liberation by staff member Suzanne
Many of our library
users are high school
and college students
doing research, and
we have many African
Americans and
lesbians who check
out books for pleasure
reading.
alsotakeiton the road to events that
allow people from rural areas to
purchase books.
PueuoATIONS,
EVENTS,GR0UPS,ET0.
FOUR
TIMESTHISYEARwe pub-.
lished Transformation, a newsletter of political analysis and
ideas.
We sponsored ten coffee
houses which featured national
and local artists performing music
that ranged from folk to country to
Page 6 • Transformation• Winter 1998
rock and poetry, comedy, and short
stories.
The Lesbian Network met
monthly enjoying such events as
the second annual butch-femme
potluck, a Valentine's Day party, 2
camping trips, a homemade ice
cream social, a film, a Thanksgiving
potluck-as
well as discussions
about job discrimination, safer sex,
transgender issues, holiday stress
("the birth family blues"), legal issues, and creative writing.
Women continued to visit our
office to use our lending library of
over 4200 books, 200 videos, 20 periodicals, and 50 audiotapes. Many
of our users are high school and
college students doing research, and
we have many African Americans
and lesbians who check out books
for pleasure reading. To our surprise this year, we learned that we
have one of the country's best collections of articles on lesbian battering.
We sponsored "A Piece of My
Heart," a play about women's experiences in Vietnam, and a reading by Shelly Roberts, the
"lesbian Erma Bombeck,"
and of course, held our
16th annual women's
retreat which drew
90 women. At our
annual meeting in
June we gave the
Evangeline K. Brown
award
to
the
MIWATCH volunteers, and we finished
the year with our annual holiday party. ■
Property of the Center
Our goal is social change or, as the poet Adrienne
Rich writes, "the transformation of the world." We
believe this world can be changed to become a place
of peace and justice for all women.
We take i:isks in our work; we take unpopular
stands. We work for all women and against all forms
of discrimination and oppression. We believe that
we cannot work for all women and against sexism
unless we also work against racism, classism, ageism, anti-Semitism, ableism, heterosexism and homophobia. We see the connection among these oppressions as the context for violence against women
in this society.
We are concerned in particular about issues of
Published four times a year
by the
Women's Project,
2224 Main Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72206.
Phone: 501-372-5113
.. Printed
on recycled paper . ..
importance to traditionally underrepresented
women: poor women, aged worn.en, women of
color, teenage mothers, lesbians, women in prisons, etc. All are women who experience discrimination and violence against their lives.
We are committed to working multi-culturally, multi-racially, and to making our work and
cultural events accessible to low income women.
We believe that women will not know equality
until they know economic justice.
We believe that a few committed women
working in coalition and in consensus with other
women can make significant change in the quality of life for all women.
Transformation
Letters to the editor are
welcome.
Editor & Report Author
Suzanne Pharr
Judy Matsuoka
Copy Editor
Production
Lynn Frost
Art Director
Melissa Britton James
©1998 The Women's Project
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