Organizing for Reproductive Justice: A Student Perspective

This is a guest post from Courtney Hooks and Anna Saeger as part of our collaboration with the 2010 CLPP Conference.

On April 9-11, 2010, people from all over the world and will gather at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts to unite for reproductive justice. As Jos mentioned in her post, students are very valued organizers of this conference. We hale from various colleges and universities in the area and work together with the Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) staff to plan the conference as intentionally as possible and make sure it runs smoothly over the weekend. The CLPP student group meets for about 2 hours every week. The work is broken down into seven committees, which are led by co-chairs. Committee chairs and other members of the student group carry out the planning and follow through with the tasks. As conference student co-coordinators, Anna and I are point people for the student group and act as liaisons between the group and CLPP staff. For more about the conference from our perspective, check out our video below:

The conference couldn’t happen without a really organized and dedicated student group. Want a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into conference planning? Read more about the student group committees and watch our video after the jump!

Transcripts for video after the jump as well

Abortion Speakout:
The Speakout Committee organizes, staffs, and provides a safe environment for the Abortion Speakout event and related discussion groups on Friday night of the conference. The Speakout is an event for sharing personal stories, not a political rally, and the Speakout Committee communicates this to potential speakers. They are advertising the Speakout through flyering (that they create), emailing, conducting community outreach, and finding about ten planned speakers with diverse ages, backgrounds, and experiences. They also find facilitators for pre and post-Speakout discussion groups. On the Friday of the conference, this committee hosts the Speakout, preps the location where the Speakout will be held, and makes sure speakers are present and organized. Contact us at speakout@hampshire.edu if you are interested in speaking or have any questinos.
Accessibility:
This committee aims to ensure the greatest accessibility (in its broadest meaning) at Hampshire for conference participants and speakers as possible. They survey the extent of physical accessibility on campus, advertise the extent of accessibility of physical spaces and gender designations of bathrooms, and advertise accessibility efforts and services. This is a new committee that is really pushing for new ways of thinking about accessibility and making the conference the best it can be.
Childcare Committee:
The Childcare Committee organizes and provides safe and stimulating care for conference participants’ children during the weekend of the conference. The committee comes up with programming for children, finds and trains babysitters, and determines special needs and set up. Committee members stay in touch with parents before and during the event and staff the registration table to provide information on childcare. This year the committee is designing age-appropriate reproductive justice activities, and working to connect children to the movement by making sure the reproductive justice related art they create over the weekend is displayed at Sunday’s plenary.
Entertainment Committee:
This committee organizes the Friday night Open Mic and Saturday night entertainment. Committee members find a line up of performers, secure equipment, plan decorations and refreshment, oversee setup and cleanup, and advertise the events.
Hospitality and Evaluation:
Committee chairs and members act as “hosts” during the conference for participants and during workshops. The committee sets up the Wellness Room–a space for conference attendees to get a massage, eat good food, relax, and take a break from the conference. Before the conference, the committee set up an online ride and housing board so that conference attendees can find a ride or a place to stay or offer transportation or a place to stay. The committee coordinates the room monitors for workshops and also distributes and collects workshop evaluations. Committee members staff the registration table with information they gather about local restaurants, public transit and local attractions.
Outreach Committee:
This committee promotes the conference online and throughout the surrounding communities, distributes flyers, and attempts to draw as large and diverse group of attendees as possible. They create flip camera pre-conference promo videos, record workshops, speeches, and interviews with participants at the conference, and will be live blogging throughout the conference with Feministing!
Transportation:
This committee transports conference speakers and attendees to and from hotels and prepares campus parking lot logistics for the conference weekend. They develop a van schedule and train drivers during the semester.
If you have questions about the student group or want to contact Anna, Courtney, or CLPP staff, please email clpp@hampshire.edu and visit our website. We hope to see you at the conference!

Transcripts:
2010 Conference with Anna and Courtney:
Courtney: Hi I’m Courtney Hooks and I am the 2010 Student Conference Co-Coordinator.
Anna: Hi my name is Anna Saeger and I am one of the 2010 CLPP Conference Student Co-Coordinators. The great thing about this conference is the energy. Our campus almost doubles in size and there are a ton of new, amazing, incredible, talented speakers and participants that come and that can all share their ideas and organizing tips and listen and learn from each other.
Courtney: It’s great. We have people coming from all over the world and all over the country to little old Hampshire, to talk about reproductive justice and social justice. We have workshops about just about everything under the sun and it’s great.
Anna: Through the workshops we have the great opportunity to get into small groups and hear from people who have been working in the movement for years and also hear from people who are new to the movement and have new and fresh ideas to bring to the movement.
Courtney: We have a speakout where people who have had abortions can talk about their personal experiences with that.
Anna: The Abortion Speakout is really key for me. To hear people tell their stories. And less, almost less about the space of hearing and more about creating the space to tell and creating the space just to get it out for people, you know, for people to hear–but also just to have your voice. Whatever your experience may have been like, everybody has their stories to share and their own experiences. And it’s valuable for them to be heard.
Courtney: The reason that reproductive justice movement building is so important is because it allows us to recognize that all the issues that we’re facing are inextricably connected and to bring our whole selves to the table, to recognize our common interests, to pool our resources, to work together. So racial justice and LGBTQ liberation are connected. The rights of immigrants, and economic justice and food justice are interconnected. The rights of women, men, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people are equally valued and seen as connected. The right of people to have children, to parent the children that they have, and to not have children are all seen as equally valuable. And within that, the rights of children and the rights of youth matter. Families in all their shapes, sizes, and millions of possible configurations are all seen as equally valuable and honored. In a time of single issue, narrowly focused, and oftentimes divisive politics that’s a pretty radical and forward thinking stance to take. And yeah, I basically think reproductive justice is the future. We’re the future. You should come to the CLPP conference. We’ll be really happy to have you and you’ll be glad you came–trust me. I love it. [Laughs].
Anna & Courtney: I’m Anna. And I’m Courtney. And from all of us here at CLPP–we really look forward to seeing you in April.
[music].
CLPP Student Group:
[music] So, what does the CLPP student group do?
We Play!
[Chanting] Noah, Noah, Noah. Rebeca, Rebeca, Rebeca. [Clapping]
[Music] We Work.
We’re talking about changing the language on the website and also making a map of accessible buildings and gender-neutral bathrooms.
So, what committee is this?
This is the Abortion Speakout Committee. We are planning and organizing the abortion speakout that happens every year on the Friday night of the CLPP conference.
Cool. So, what part of the planning process are you in right now?
Right now we’re trying to decide what kind of discussion groups we want to have before and after the speakout.
We Teach & Learn.
This activity is you’re creating an advertisement that’s going to go up on Feministing–theoretically. Or on TV. NBC is gonna play it on the next superbowl. [Laughter].
And so, the problem again is to clarify what the conference is, convince them why it’s important to come and then appeal to your target audience. So those are all your problems that you’re trying to work out.
So, we’re just gonna go right into it.
Hi, I’m Youth Rights!
I’m Racial Justice!
Hi, I’m Environmental and Climate Justice!
I’m Disability Rights!
I’m Support for Mothers!
What do we have in common?
We’re all reproductive justices!
Why do we come together?
Because of intersecting dialogues among activists.
When and where does that happen?
At the CLPP Conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Hey Mom! We were wondering if you would take us to this conference this coming month. [Laughter].
From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom? Is this just about abortion?
No! It’s about so much more. Social Justice is a huge title that encompasses issues like the environment, economic and racial justice.
Health care, LGBTQ and sexual health.
Disability rights. It’s really, really cool. It’s a conference all weekend where there are workshops and other things going on.
Yeah. During the night there’s gonna be an abortion speakout and also live entertainment.
Wow.
It’s really cool. You should totally come with us!
Well what am I gonna do with your little sister?
There’s childcare provided.
[Laughter].
Free childcare!
[Laughter]
And Dad can come, too because it’s really about social justice for everybody.
Ok, girls.
[Music]