Posts Tagged Nonprofits

By Jos Truitt • 12 years ago

Netroots Nation 2011: Power and privilege within movements

The LGBT pre-conference at Netroots Nation focused largely on issues excluded from the mainstream national gay agenda (ie: not marriage) and barriers to effective organizing. I have much more experience working in the reproductive health/rights/justice movement, which despite being full of queer and trans folks often fails to work intersectionally. So I was struck by the immense overlap with the problems and critiques myself and many others have brought up in regards to the mainstream national reproductive rights movement.

Problems raised included divisions along lines of identity and power. Folks spoke about predominantly white leadership in the larger, more well funded organizations and the exclusion of people of color’s voices and issues. Generational divisions and ...

The LGBT pre-conference at Netroots Nation focused largely on issues excluded from the mainstream national gay agenda (ie: not marriage) and barriers to effective organizing. I have much more experience working in the reproductive health/rights/justice movement, which ...
By Jos Truitt • 13 years ago

Are there alternatives to the failing national reproductive rights organizing model?

My post last week about how national organizations let abortion rights be used as a pawn in the budget fight has generated some interesting questions. Most important and challenging, I think: so what do we do? What’s the answer? If our current organizing model is failing us, what should we be doing instead?

I wish I knew. It’s clear to me the way national pro-choice organizations currently function – existing to exist, not to actually win on our issues – isn’t working. Critique is often easier than visioning something different, and I think it’s going to take a movement’s worth of visionaries to find better ways forward. I don’t know exactly what will work, but I do want to share ...

My post last week about how national organizations let abortion rights be used as a pawn in the budget fight has generated some interesting questions. Most important and challenging, I think: so what do we do? ...
By Courtney • 13 years ago

The dignifying power of design

I had the great fortune to go to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a newly constructed headquarters for GEMS last week. For those who don’t know, GEMS, which stands for Girls Educational & Mentoring Services, is an organization that serves girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. It was founded in 1998 by Rachel Lloyd, a survivor herself.

The space was designed, pro-bono, by an architecture firm called Perkins + Will. The firm has a robust Social Responsibility Initiative which means, according to their site, “Every year, Perkins+Will contributes the equivalent of a 15-person firm working full-time to provide pro bono services to organizations in our communities who would otherwise not have such access.”

While ...

I had the great fortune to go to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a newly constructed headquarters for GEMS last week. For those who don’t know, GEMS, which stands for Girls Educational & Mentoring Services, is an ...