September 5, 2003

Women’s Fund of Rhode Island focuses second-year grants on leadership development, economic autonomy for state’s women

Total of $74,770 awarded to eight organizations empowering women

Leadership development and economic autonomy for women are the themes of eight projects that recently received funding from the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI) at The Rhode Island Foundation. In its second round of grantmaking, the Fund – established just two years ago – awarded a total of $74,770 to eight projects that “wish to be part of the solution for change in Rhode Island’s women and girls,” explained Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE, WFRI’s founder and first chairwoman.

The Foundation has pledged $2.5 million in challenge dollars to the Women’s Fund, which already has raised more than $300,000.

The WFRI also has released a major study, entitled “The Status of Women in Rhode Island,” measuring women’s achievements in several areas.

The Cranston-based Ocean State Action Fund (OSAF) garnered the largest of the new awards, $15,000, for “Rebuilding the Rhode Island Women’s Movement,” a project to restore women’s political voice in Rhode Island. Noting in its application, “We believe that this is the way to achieve permanent policy changes for women and girls,” the OSAF is spearheading a statewide leadership development endeavor with six women-centered organizations in the state: Rhode Island NOW, Million Mom March, 2:1 Coalition to Preserve Choice, Women’s Health and Education Foundation, Parents for Progress, and the Latino Political Action Committee.

Other organizations receiving funds for projects promoting women’s leadership development include:

• Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), Providence, $10,000, for “Women at Work,” a program that engages women to develop their skills as leaders, to spread their learning through popular education, and to increase their role in the local labor movement. Project organizers argue, “The work that women and people of color traditionally do is low wage work precisely because systems of patriarchy and white supremacy keep society from equally valuing the work of women and people of color.”
• English for Action, Providence, $5,000, for second-year support of “¡VozMujer!,” an educational empowerment program for Latina immigrants to help them transform their own lives and the future of their communities. Project coordinators note, “Through ¡VozMujer!, Latina immigrant learners gain the language and leadership skills they need to rise up as community leaders, and link their local issues to women’s global struggles.”
• The Haven of Grace, Woonsocket, $10,000, to publish and market a book written by sexual abuse survivors and to create a speakers’ bureau to educate young women about sexual abuse. The project will allow survivors to reflect on their abuse and how they overcame it. At the same time, their stories will promote community education and understanding. Books will be marketed to service providers in Rhode Island and New England.
• Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships (SOAR), Warwick, $10,000, for “Project STRIVE” which will train female survivors of abuse as advocates for social change through policy-making forums. Program organizers explain, “Project STRIVE will empower women who have experienced domestic violence to discover and use their powerful voices both individually and collectively.”
• Sojourner House, Providence, $9,270, for second-year support of the “WomenCARES Policy Advocacy Project.” The WomenCARES Program addresses violence/abuse and HIV/AIDS risks in the state’s women and girls, and its Policy Advocates Project enables five policy advocates “to represent WomenCARES clients in policy forums, carry news and information on policy change efforts back to clients, and empower women and girls to participate in policy change efforts,” according to project planners.

Addressing Economic Autonomy

The second theme of the Women’s Fund grants, economic autonomy for women, is being carried out by projects being undertaken by two Rhode Island nonprofit organizations, as follows:

• Day Care Justice Co-Op, Providence, $7,500, for second-year support of “The Cost of
  Care Campaign,” an organizing campaign to win a collective bargaining agreement for family child-care providers who serve the state’s low-income children. Project organizers note, “It is a fight for respect and dignity, to overcome the exploitation of women’s work.”
• The Providence Plan, Providence, $8,000, for “YouthBuild Providence,” a program to research and develop a pre-apprenticeship program model for Rhode Island women interested in construction careers. Based on successful programs in Seattle and San
  Francisco, project designers share that the project “will take aim at the social, cultural, and gender barriers that women face in the construction industry.”

Additional information on the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island is available at index.htm. With a mission “to advance equity and social justice for women and girls,” the Women’s Fund works to “level the playing field” for women and girls – to champion fairness, impartiality, shared power and responsibility in all spheres of personal and community life – economic, cultural, social and political, notes Joyaux.