Policy Wins

In 2010, SPARK Reproductive Justice Now and SisterSong worked together to lobby legislators and mobilize an effective grassroots campaign to defeat Georgia's S.B. 529, the "Race and Sex Selection" bill. As reproductive justice organizations led by women of color in Georgia, they were uniquely positioned to challenge the frightening premise of the bill -- that abortion providers "solicit" African American women for eugenics-like race and sex selection -- and express the voices of women within these targeted communities whose lives depend on access to comprehensive reproductive health services.
During the 2008 election, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) led a coalition of progressive organizations in a successful campaign against Amendments 46 (anti-affirmative action measure) and 48 (a fetal-personhood measure). COLOR achieved success by using a unique strategic approach: they conducted grassroots outreach to Latina/o voters, launching the only Spanish-language media campaign addressing the initiative, and built partnerships with key labor and racial justice groups to expand the base of support for reproductive justice in this election and beyond.
La Voz Latina (LVL), a project of Migrant Health Promotion, works to ensure access to reproductive health, rights and justice for migrant women farmworkers in southern Texas. Between 2007 and 2008, LVL successfully partnered with Rio Transit, the local transportation authority, and the Brownsville Urban Transportation System to secure bus service for nine isolated colonias -- rural, isolated communities along the U.S.-Mexico border -- connecting thousands of women to reproductive and primary care they otherwise would have had to forgo.

In 2009, despite the introduction of over 40 anti-choice bills - including legislation aimed at eliminating Medicaid funding for abortions for West Virginia's most economically impoverished communities - the organizing efforts of grantee West Virginia Free and coalition partners ensured that all anti-choice legislation at the state level was defeated for the fourth year in a row.
After identifying abstinence-only curricula as a primary barrier to raising graduation rates and lowering teen pregnancy rates, New Mexico-based grantee Young Women United helped establish the New Mexico Coalition for Sexuality Education. In 2006, the Coalition convinced the State Departments of Health and Education to adopt standards calling for medically accurate comprehensive sexuality education and, in 2007, they successfully advocated for New Mexico's rejection of federal abstinence-only funding.

In Los Angeles, grantee partner Women Alive Coalition is assuming a leading role working with local government as a member of the Women at Sexual Risk HIV Testing Coalition. To date, the Coalition has successfully partnered with the Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Programs and Policy and the City of Los Angeles AIDS Coordinator's Office to change the process by which the city compiles statistical information on HIV/AIDS. As a result, local data will better reflect women's needs and thus expand women's care and treatment options.
In July 2009, the National Women and AIDS Collective, housed at the Ms. Foundation, became one of 14 organizations to submit a series of policy recommendations to guide the White House Office of National AIDS Policy in achieving better outcomes for women living with and affected by HIV. In 2007, NWAC hosted a Congressional briefing - sponsored by former Senator Hillary Clinton - to challenge CDC data collection of new HIV cases, which paints an inaccurate picture of the epidemic's impact on women and leads to scarce funding and resources to meet women's prevention, testing and treatment needs.

In 2003, Domestic Workers United persuaded the New York City Council to pass the first bill in the country to expand domestic workers' labor protections. Next, they wrote and began advocating for passage of state legislation, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. As of 2009, key protections outlined in the bill were passed by the State Assembly, and a more comprehensive version awaits passage in the Senate. Organizations across the U.S. are already using the bill as a model in their states, hoping to extend labor protections to the estimated 2 million domestic workers nationwide.
In Milwaukee, WI, the Multi-State Working Families Consortium succeeded in placing a paid sick days initiative on the ballot in November 2008 - and won. In the same year, the Consortium also secured passage of paid family leave in New Jersey and paid sick days in Washington, DC. They've seen bills move through key committees and legislative bodies in other states and have developed a "Valuing Families at Work" agenda for candidates and elected officials to help guide the design and implementation of an economic recovery plan for the entire nation.

The National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women, a coalition of over 3,000 immigrant women, advocates, survivors, attorneys, activists, and educators played a key role in securing passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008. Their advocacy with the Department of Homeland Security and Congress now ensures that when immigrants who are poor file a trafficking case, all costs and fees-from filing the case to obtaining lawful permanent residency-can be waived.
The ACLU's Women's Rights Project celebrated a major fair housing victory in February 2009 when a large residential management company in Michigan agreed to no longer evict or discriminate against survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The settlement is the first of its kind that applies to private housing and has been lauded as an exemplary model for private housing policies throughout the country.

Grantee partner Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) played a critical role in the passage of Louisiana's Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003, and forced the state to shutter two legendarily abusive juvenile detention facilities: the Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth and, through the passage of the Youth Justice Act of 2008, the Jetson Center for Youth. FFLIC continues to push Louisiana's Office of Juvenile Justice to shift the culture in its existing juvenile prisons from a punitive to a community-based, rehabilitative model.
Formed in response to the needs of a rapidly growing, largely Latina/o immigrant population, the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance (MIRA) helped nearly 600 Latino hospitality and construction workers recover more than $1.5 million in back wages denied them in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. MIRA's organizers have also confronted landlords attempting to evict immigrant tenants, advocated for benefits from FEMA, the Red Cross and other agencies, and challenged workplace raids and abuse of Latina/os across the state.