Womankind’s policy and advocacy efforts are rooted in the lived experiences of survivors of gender-based violence. In addition to promoting healing and safety through our services, we promote gender justice through research, coalition building, policy analysis, and community education and mobilization.Through advocacy, we work to mitigate barriers to services and resources for survivors, build the capacity of communities and families to recognize, prevent, address, and heal from violence, and transform systemic conditions that create vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
We believe that in order to achieve our vision, we must position and understand ourselves to be part of a bigger movement. In order for our community’s voices to truly be reflected – not simply as a standalone or silo-ed issue, but as issues inherently linked to gender justice for all – we actively seek to be in multiracial spaces that strive to operate from an anti-oppressive lens. Every part of our policy and advocacy work takes to heart the concept of intersectionality, how the layers of identities not just overlap, but intertwine and compound in ways where power dynamics, barriers, and oppression manifest in multiple ways.
The heart of our policy and advocacy work is to reflect, lift up, and amplify the realities of our community and the work of our advocates. Our vision is for individual experiences of trauma and healing to be embraced as collective wisdom, so that society as a whole can rise above violence.
