YWCA Tri-County Area’s mission-based advocacy programming raises awareness, offers issue education, and builds social capital around women’s empowerment, racial and social justice and inequities, and safe and healthy communities.
YWCA Tri-County Area advocates for racial justice, civil rights, and women’s health and safety. On a local level, YWCA provides important programs around these topics, educating the community on topics such as racism and diversity. On a national level, YW3CA participates in YWCA USA’s legislative advocacy agenda, and helps move forward legislation which supports our mission.
YW takes a program-informed approach to its advocacy, drawing on the expertise and resources of the national organization and focusing on the practical solutions that meet the needs of women, girls and families in the marginalized communities we serve.
-
Centering Women and Girls of Color:
YWCA advocates for legislation and policies that are important for all women, but that are specifically and particularly important for women and girls of color. We center women and girls of color in our advocacy by highlighting their needs and concerns in policy and systems-change discussions. We recognize that improving outcomes and enhancing opportunity for the most marginalized and vulnerable women and girls in our communities will benefit all women and girls.
-
Inclusive and Intersectional:
YWCA takes an inclusive and intersectional approach, recognizing that equity and opportunity for girls and women are directly impacted by the compounding impact of race, ethnicity, gender and socio-economic factors. Progress for women and girls must be in alliance with other marginalized communities.
-
Youth Focused:
Teen Dating Violence Awareness assemblies allow teens to ask questions about emotional, social, and physical abuse. Stand Against Racism takes the message of racial and social justice to area high schools.
Racial Healing Initiative
YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh, YWCA Tri-County Area, YWCA Lancaster, and YWCA York are partnering on an initiative to engage our respective communities in acts of racial healing. We define racial healing as the process by which the acknowledgement of past wrongs is necessary, as well as the recognition of the lasting effects racial trauma has had on us as individuals, within our institutions and communities. The work of racial healing requires truth telling, acknowledging one another’s humanity as we move forward to better our communities and society.
We acknowledge the healing journey can be arduous, but we believe we can transform our communities through collective impact leading us closer to healing and progress. We invite you to be a part of this initiative.
Our primary tenet is to facilitate healing conversations that will lead community residents to work together toward healing solutions and initiatives for their own communities. In active partnership with organizations and community residents we can begin to mitigate the lasting effects of racism and racial trauma. Acknowledging that racism is indeed a public health crisis our mission to engage with communities in healing conversations can serve as a catalyst to bring not only remediation to communities but to the individual as well.
Launching with a Day of Listening that will happen regionally across Pennsylvania in the Spring of 2022 our Pennsylvania YW’s, together with community partners will invite communities to:
- TRAIN to become volunteer Healing Ambassadors with a YWCA Host Organization.
- PARTICIPATE in a Day of Listening by taking a listening survey where we will assess the racial temperature of a community. The responses gathered will inform the way forward for communities healing conversations in the future.
- ORGANIZE a healing conversation event with colleagues, friends, neighbors, congregations, family members, or anyone in circles of influence.
- EXPLORE solutions with what will become your healing tribe and work toward unfolding the healing journey together.
- BUILD and mobilize actively with your healing tribe. Engage in activities that bring your community together. Keep open the dialogues of healing conversations by participating and creating restorative justice activities together.
Check out the Unite to Heal PA button below, to connect with others across PA & learn about this racial healing initiative.
YWCA is on a mission to eliminate racism. The Pennsylvania YWCA Equity Initiative team believes that by keeping our mission at the forefront of our collaboration we can begin the racial healing that is necessary across Pennsylvania.
Register Here!
Annual Events
The Stand Against Racism campaign is part of our larger national strategy to fulfill our mission of eliminating racism. The 2022 theme is We Can’t Wait: Equity and Justice Now!
Stand Against Racism takes place annually in April and is a signature campaign of YWCA USA to raise awareness about the negative impact of institutional and structural racism in our communities and to build community among those who work for racial justice.
Our country was founded on the idea of building a government of the people, by the people, for the people. More than two hundred years later, this vision has yet to be fully achieved. Though generations of civil rights activism have led to important gains in legal, political, social, educational, and other spheres, the forced displacement of indigenous peoples and the institution of slavery marked the beginnings of a system of racial injustice from which our country has yet to break free.
We say enough is enough! That’s why during YWCA’s annual Stand Against Racism, we are rallying across the nation to say We Can’t Wait: Equity and Justice Now!
The deep-seated systemic racism and inequities that disadvantage communities of color are still woven into the fabric of our institutions today—from civic engagement to economic development, from education to health care, and even the way people of color are portrayed in the media. We must work collectively to root out inequity in our communities and in the institutions that compose our society, and demand justice and equity.
Led by the Stand Against Racism Challenge, which provides folks the opportunity to dedicate 21 days to the pursuit of racial justice, this year’s theme merges five focus areas which will guide and inform our racial equity work. These focus areas include civic engagement, economic opportunity and security, education, health care, and representation in media.
Join us during this year’s Stand Against Racism campaign as we bring awareness to racism within our communities and connect with other activists and allies to build pathways toward racial equity and justice.
Join us, invite colleagues, friends, and family to sign up HERE!
Each October, YWCAs across the country take part in a global movement, Week Without Violence to raise awareness about the devastating effects of domestic violence across our nation and our world.
This year, YWCA Tri-County Area is focusing on an issue closer to home. A share experience across generations, gun violence has impacted countless members of our community. We demand a world of equity and human civility. We work every single day to build an educated community that is safe for our future generations to thrive and excel.
We work to raise awareness of the impacts that gun violence has had in our own community, by focusing on those working toward a better, brighter future for generations to come.
YWCA supports the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) in the fight to maintain the Federal School Discipline Guidance. The Federal School Discipline Guidance is a critical tool that can help schools and districts reduce the use of practices that push students out of school (e.g. suspensions and expulsions). Furthermore, it helps prevent them from disciplining in ways that discriminate against students of color. DSC is a national coalition of over 100 organizations in 29 states dedicated to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. DSC fights for the human right of every young person to a quality education and to be treated with dignity. To learn more about Dignity in Schools, Week of Action to Protect Federal Guidance visit: http://dignityinschools.org/protecttheguidance/