Email from Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice

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Loud & Clear

October 2023

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Welcome New Members

Kristin Groetsch

Jennifer Sauter

Become a Member!

Donate to WV here!

Up Next

Fighting Efforts to Dehumanize and Erase the LGBTQIA+ Community

Thurs., Oct. 12, 7 p.m.

#Transforming911 Short Film Screening + Q&A

Fri., Oct. 20, 7 p.m.

Words from Our President

Women's Voices Welcomes Friends and Neighbors

Thanks to the hard work of the WV Membership Committee, under Michele Steinberg’s dynamic leadership and with Laura Rose’s outstanding organizational support, Women’s Voices recently hosted over 50 members and friends at our first Welcome Neighbor STL Supper Club. Our gathering provided an opportunity for WV members and potential members to meet, get to know each other and invite those “not yet members” to join our wonderful WV community. Our other important goal was to support refugee families recently settled in St. Louis. Our new refugee neighbors prepared a delicious meal and shared their cooking skills by providing a table of traditional food from their countries of origin. We were also honored to hear a small part of their refugee stories as well as an inspiring overview of the Welcome Neighbor organization by their board member, Amy Cohen.

Welcome Neighbor STL suppers present an opportunity for people, especially women, who have been defined for too long as victims, to share knowledge and skills unique to them and to set them on a path of greater independence and confidence in their new lives here in the U.S. All of the proceeds from the WV supper club event will directly benefit the refugee cooks.

Support for our community’s refugees is entirely consistent with WV commitment to social justice and human rights, especially in a time when refugees and immigrants have increasingly been targeted with hatred and vitriol and unfairly blamed for U.S. social problems they had no role in creating. Welcome Neighbor demonstrates how much refugees and immigrants have to offer our communities when given the opportunity. Having overcome what in some cases are unimaginable obstacles, refugees demonstrate a level of courage and commitment to their families few of us will ever be required to demonstrate. I am so grateful to have these new neighbors who add so much to our community’s diversity and strength.

With this wonderful event we could eat well and do good at the same time! Please watch for more fun opportunities to get to know your fellow WV members, introduce potential new members, and strengthen our shared commitment to social justice work.

View our Welcome Neighbor Supper photo gallery here.

~ Liz Sondhaus

Support the Women’s Voices Fall Fundraising Campaign

Women’s Voices relies heavily on individual contributions to support our work. Contributions of any amount make a difference. Here are some ways your contributions are put to work:

$100 - Hosting a Lock It for Love table at a community event

$300 - Hosting a member dinner with Welcome Neighbor

$500 - Sponsoring an event with a community partner

$1000 - Strategic planning facilitator

$1500 - Facility rental for our Thursday evening programs for the year

We encourage you to consider a gift to Women’s Voices to help support the work that we are doing in the community. Thank you!

Support the Women's Voices Fall Campaign

Fighting Efforts to Dehumanize and Erase the LGBTQIA+ Community

Thursday, October 12, 7 p.m.

In-person program at The Center of Clayton

50 Gay Ave.

St. Louis, MO 63105

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., program begins at 7 p.m.

In our divided country, news reports of violence, fake news, and hate speech against LGBTQIA+ people are our everyday experiences. Many of us are personally impacted by these relentless challenges to our freedoms or those of our families and friends.

Distinguished academics and noted local activists will cover the gamut of political actions that erase LGBTQIA+ civil and human rights. Panelists will engage in a discussion of the psychological and relational impacts of discrimination and stress that affect the LGBTQIA+ community, including children and our elders. There will be opportunities for audience interaction and involvement in the struggle for LGBTQIA+ equality.

Speakers:

Elizabeth J. Fuchs, MSW, Field Unit Director, Office of Field Education, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis

M. Paz Galupo, PhD, Audre Lorde Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health & Education, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis

Jeremy Goldbach, PhD, Masters & Johnson Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health and Education, Fellow, Provost Office of Faculty Affairs and Diversity, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis

Michaela Joy Kraemer, Executive Director, Metro Trans Umbrella Group

Co-sponsors:

#Transforming911: Short Film Screening + Q&A

Friday, October 20, 7 p.m.

Eliot Unitarian Chapel

100 S. Taylor

Kirkwood, MO 63122

Let us know you're coming here.

Suggested donation: $5

Please join us for a screening of the three-film series, Transforming 911: Reimagining Public Safety in St. Louis. The short films explore what it’s like to live within St. Louis’s current 911 system, what’s at stake, and what it takes to move our region toward community-based safety responses. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A featuring the films’ executive producer, Jia Lian Yang (she/they), and director, Cami Thomas (she/her). Jia Lian Yang is the director of Storytelling & Communications at Forward Through Ferguson and Cami Thomas is the founder of My Friends And I. Attendees will receive a copy of the #Transforming911 report.

The Transforming 911: Reimagining Public Safety in St. Louis series is based on Forward Through Ferguson's #Transforming911 project, a community accountability and advocacy tool which examines St. Louis’ 911 system and serves as a call to reimagine public safety. Visit transforming911.org to learn more about how 911 works in St. Louis, and to understand why if we want to reimagine public safety, we have to transform 911.

There will be a suggested donation of $5, which will go to Forward Through Ferguson and to My Friends and I Production Company.

Criminal Legal System Reform Task Force to Work for Passage of a Clean Slate Act

Clean Slate. Two Words. Big Impact.

Those two words are about fairness, second chances and safer communities.

Those two words describe legislation (a Clean Slate Act) that would make criminal record clearing automatic for certain nonviolent convictions, and would create an automated process to do so.

Those two words can have life-changing impacts for thousands of Missourians and their families.

Put yourself in the place of Missourians who have committed various nonviolent or nonsexual misdemeanors and felonies. Maybe you wrote a bad check, or, when you were 17, you could not resist taking those CDs you had been wanting for a long time. Maybe you were arrested for an incident, but were never convicted. (Yes, that can result in a criminal record.)

You have served your time.

You have had no other criminal incidents in the three years since your release.

Despite that, you cannot get a job in your field, or maybe any job at all. Landlords will not rent to you. Access to education is limited. All because of a mistake you made at one point in your life.

The fictitious you is not alone. There are an estimated half-million Missourians right now who are eligible under current Missouri law to have their records expunged. So why don’t they? The current process requires a costly and time-consuming process, so difficult that only 1-2% of eligible people are successful each year.

Women’s Voices is a partner in the Missouri Clean Slate Campaign. The Racial Justice Committee’s task force on criminal legal system reform is focused on making 2024 the year the Missouri Legislature passes a Clean Slate Act. Look for monthly updates in this newsletter with more information on the proposed legislation and on its progress.

Visit our website for information about our support for this initiative. And for more information about joining the task force, contact Mary Schuman or Susan Glassman, co-chairs, at criminaljustice@womensvoicesraised.org.

Being Cherokee in St. Louis: Personal Stories & Hidden Truths

Galen Gritts, registered member of the Cherokee nation, joined us for the WV September Thursday evening program. Gritts provided historical context for the story of Native Americans living in what is now the U.S. and shared stories about his own life and experiences growing up in St. Louis.

Watch the recorded presentation here.

Lunch & Learn: Consumers Council of MO

Sandra Padgett, executive director and Jacqueline Hutchinson, director of Advocacy for the Consumers Council of Missouri discussed their work to level the playing field for Missouri consumers. This includes scrutinizing utilities’ rate increase proposals and advocating for customer assistance programs that meet the needs of people who have low income.

Watch the recorded presentation here.

Women's Voices Members Respond to Injustice!

Ellen Wentz, in her letter to the Webster-Kirkwood Times, writes that by working together Kirkwood can have housing that will allow "our parents to age in place, our children to live near us and our civil servants to live close to work."

Have something to submit for Loud & Clear?

Loud & Clear is the official monthly e-newsletter of Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice and is usually distributed on the first Monday or Tuesday of the month. The general deadline for article submission is the Wednesday prior to publication. Click here to contact editor Laura Rose.

Membership Info

Even if you can’t come to meetings or become personally involved, your membership is important…and greatly appreciated.

Benefits of Membership

When you join Women’s Voices you:

Make our voice stronger when we advocate with elected officials.
Provide support to the organization by adding your name to our advocacy efforts.
Provide ideas and suggestions to help determine how to define our positions and choose our causes.
Participate in advocacy activities in any way that you want or is possible for you.
Take pride in your affiliation with a strong, progressive group of women working for social justice.
Help cover our administrative and outreach costs through your dues.

Annual Dues:

$60 (Regular Membership)

$100 (Silver Level)

$150 (Gold Level)

$20 (Student Membership)

New members join here

Renewing members renew here or

Send a check (payable to Women's Voices) to:

Women's Voices

7401 Delmar Blvd.

University City, MO 63130

womensvoicesraised.org

﻿#Transforming911 Short Film Screening + Q&A

#Transforming911 Short Film Screening + Q&A