We had 13 entries in our Haiku Contest at Pride Winston-Salem! Help us choose the winner with your vote!
Voting closes on Nov. 10, 2018. The writer with the most votes will receive a Triad NOW t-shirt.
A Chapter of the National Organization for Women
ACTION ALERT:
The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2018 has been introduced in the U.S. House
Tell your Representative to Co-Sponsor VAWA NOW!!!
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), working closely with the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence and consulting with bipartisan Hill staff, has introduced legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. H.R. 6545, the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2018, is a very strong bill that goes the next step to address the needs of survivors and to support the community programs and services who serve them.
With each iteration of VAWA, Congress responds to emerging issues brought forward by advocates on the ground. Based on extensive conversations with local programs and advocates, the NTF suggested several key enhancements to leaders of both parties in both the House and Senate, and we are very pleased that Representative Jackson Lee’s legislation includes almost all of these. From increased investment in sexual violence prevention programs to provisions to hold offenders accountable on tribal lands to efforts to make our criminal justice system more responsive to survivors to updated definitions to protections for incarcerated survivors, this legislation includes the realistic enhancements survivors need and advocates have asked for.
While the NTF has been working hard over the past two years in the Senate and House to find bipartisan sponsors for VAWA reauthorization against a timeline of the September 30 expiration date, we can no longer afford to wait to begin pushing a bill. Representative Jackson Lee’s bill has all of the key components we’ve asked for, we wholeheartedly support it, and we need to act now to convey our support and secure as many co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle as possible.
We can’t stress enough how important it is for a groundswell of voices to demand that Congress reauthorize VAWA now.
In order to break through the noise, we will have to be strong, loud, persistent and determined.
Survivors deserve action on VAWA now!
Call your Representative today.
You can find your Representative and contact information at house.gov.
Check the sponsor list and thank your House member if they are an original cosponsor (104) and encourage them to urge their colleagues to join them.
If your Member is not a sponsor, please contact them with this message: We need the Violence Against Women Act reauthorized now. Survivors can’t wait for lifesaving responses to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee has introduced H.R. 6545, moderate legislation reauthorizing VAWA that Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle can support. Please co-sponsor this legislation today!
If a staff person acts like their Member might sponsor, please send their contact info to president@triadnow.org. let us know, but also advise them to contact Rep. Jackson Lee’s staff: Monalisa Dugué, (202) 225-6906 Monalisa.dugue@mail.house.gov.
We can’t stress enough how important it is for a groundswell of voices to demand that Congress reauthorize VAWA now. In order to break through the noise, we will have to be strong, loud, persistent and determined.
What does the bill do?
Know that as you’re making your phone calls, we’re meeting with leaders in both the House and Senate to find additional support and bipartisan sponsors for a VAWA bill that protects all survivors.
Together, we can insist Congress passes a strong, bipartisan bill that protects ALL survivors and prevents domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in our communities!
Join us on Social Media!
The hashtags for VAWA reauthorization are #VAWA4All and #VAWA18.
Congressional Twitter handles and Facebook accounts can be found here.
Example tweets with hashtag.
Tweets that already exist for VAWA 2018
New Sample Tweets
Program Specific
A few highlights from a very busy year!
2017 Women’s March – many of our members went to Washington, DC, others attended the march in Greensboro
Chapter visioning sessions revealed what we a yearning for in the way of information, education, sisterhood and action in the Triad, including the big idea of creating a women’s resource center in Winston-Salem
We took a large delegation (6 members!) from our chapter to the National NOW Conference in Orlando, FL, and elected new national leadership
We elected new chapter leadership for the first time since our chapter was ‘rebooted’ in late 2014, welcoming Programming VP Ana Tampanna, Fundraising VP Grashia Connelly, Secretary Charlotte Goodson and Treasurer Cindy Suerken!
Several chapter members headed to Fayetteville for the state NOW conference
We raised funds for NC NOW’s annual Roe v. Wade signature ad that was then distributed to all our legislators in Raleigh
We set up information tables at Wake Forest University, at the Women’s Summit at Bennett College, at the Pride Festival in downtown Winston-Salem
We arranged numerous screenings of the film, Equal Means Equal, raising awareness of the need for the Equal Rights Amendment
We got chapter t-shirts and pink pussy hats to show our commitment to women’s equality and resist efforts to roll back the clock on our hard-won rights
We wrote lots of letters and made lots of phone calls to our legislators in Raleigh and DC
And along the way we learned from amazing women in the Triad: immigrant women shared their experiences – positive and negative – in our community; college women shared how unsafe they often feel on their campuses; we heard about a new women’s shelter coming together in Winston-Salem; we had reproductive rights updates from Planned Parenthood and NARAL representatives, and legislative updates from our state NOW lobbyist; we celebrated women filmmakers and women-featured films at the RiverRun International Film Festival; we shared our own #MeToo moments and heard from the amazing young women of Authoring Action.
We started 2017 with 320 subscribers to our email list; we now have 521!
On January 1, 2017 Triad NOW had 59 dues-paying members; as of mid-December we have 120!
Thank you for all you do for women’s rights, and here’s to the promise of another busy year in 2018!
I thought this song (set to the tune of Hey Look Me Over) came from Florida after the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982, but in her book, Groundswell, Grassroots Feminist Activism in Postwar America, Stephanie Gilmore attributes the words to an activist in San Francisco. Whoever wrote them, I’m so glad she did, because it’s time to dust them off and sing them loudly again!
Every time I sing this song I get requests for the words – so here they are, along with a recording by yours truly:
You screwed us over, you voted nay
We’re gonna get you come election day
So don’t count your votes, boys, don’t feel secure
We’re gonna get you in the end of that you can be sure
We’ll be back by the millions, you know this is true
Hang on to your ass, boys, we’re coming after you
So here’s the lesson we learned that year, on this you can rely
When we’re screwed we multiply!
Audrey Muck
At the 2017 NOW Annual Conference in Orlando this summer, we passed resolutions in support of 5 national action programs:
The National Action Plan provides concrete steps for local activists and chapters to take. You can take a deep dive into what those programs include at www.now.org/nap.
As NOW President, Terry O’Neill wrote, “With women’s rights facing more severe threats than we have seen in decades, NOW is fighting back. We are standing up for the rights and well being of all women, in all our diversity and in all communities. We are showing up for our allies in Muslim communities, in immigrant communities, in LGBTQIA communities. We have a message for Donald Trump and every politician enabling his white male supremacist agenda: We are leading societal change and promoting feminist ideals — and you need to get out of our way.”