AMPLIFY & ADVOCATE
Help the Community - Change the Nation
Advocacy initiatives drive awareness, education, and social capital-building for women's empowerment, racial justice, and equity. Locally, this includes a community-driven focus on safe, healthy communities, fair school funding, and racial equity.
We carry on this long tradition of social action and advocacy to advance our mission — and you are a crucial part of this work. Your voice is critical as we advocate for policies that bring us closer to eliminating racism, empowering women, and ensuring peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.
Local Initiatives
At this pivotal moment, YWCA Tri-County Area, along with over 200 YWCA’s across the country, is poised to advance policies and legislation that are central to women’s health, safety, and economic opportunity, and that address the underlying gender equity and racial justice tensions that are so deeply embedded in our nation. Central to this moment is the broad support among women–across perceived differences of race, class, education, and political party affiliation—for the issues and priorities within YWCA Tri-County Area’s advocacy agenda.
Advocate Support:
- Increases public awareness
- Engages in knowledge mobilization through digital campaigns, newsletters and social media
- Expands our network of commited partners
- Deepens our impact with time, talent & treasure
- Attends programming, events & workshops
Support to Advocates
- Visible acknowledgement & recognition
- Training & professional development
- Tools, resources, and supportive services
- Networks of dedicated professionals
- Access to events, programming, volunteer opportunities
Questions?
Contact advocacy@ywcatricountyarea.org
State Initiatives
Unite to Heal PA
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 acknowledgment 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.
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.
Learn More!
Day of Listening
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.
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.
National Initiatives
YWCA Tri-County Area advocates for racial justice, civil rights, and women’s health and safety. On a local level, YWCA educates the community on topics such as racism and diversity. At the national level, YW3CA aligns with YWCA USA's legislative advocacy agenda and prioritizes issues that propel transformative change. We focus on the practical solutions that meet the needs of women, girls, and families in the marginalized communities we serve.
Federal Legislative Priorities: 118th Congress
We are calling on members of Congress to act on health, economic, safety, and racial justice priority areas
Strengthen YWCA programs and services
Prevent Gender-Based Violence and Support Survivors
Women and girls of all ages, income levels, racial and ethnic communities, sexual orientations, gender identities, and religious affiliations continue to experience violence in the form of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, and trafficking.
Against this backdrop, YWCA calls on all elected officials to act on the following issues:
- Reauthorization of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Reauthorization Act (FVPSA)
- Strengthen and maintain enforcement, oversight, accountability of Violence Against Women (VAWA) and Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) implementation
- Common-sense solutions that decrease the threat of domestic violence gun homicide
- Job-protected safe leave to enable survivors to seek medical and legal support
- Safe, inclusive school environments that are free from sexual violence, are supportive of survivors, and that respect and affirm gender identity and expression
TAKE ACTION
Tell Your Story: Gender Based Violence
Join the conversation: Share your story and advocate for safety from gender-based violence today!
Tell Your Member to Cosponsor FVPSA
Join the conversation: Share your story and advocate for safety from gender-based violence today!
Tell Us Your Story: VOCA Cut
Tell us: How has VOCA funding supported your work? How would cuts impact your programs?
Tell Congress: No Cuts to VOCA!
Your voice is critical. Join us today to tell Congress: A 40% cut to VOCA would be devastating!
Bills We Support/Oppose
- Family Violence Prevention Services Act (FVPSA)
- Victims of Crime Act (VOCA)
- Fair Housing for Survivors Act of 2023 (S.1293 / H.R.2918)
Increase access to quality, affordable childcare and early education programs
Child care and early learning programs are essential for working women and for our nation’s economic future. Unfortunately, systemic barriers have disproportionately impacted marginalized and non-traditional communities, leaving many without access to quality, affordable care. Without additional federal investments that include robust support to hire and retain the child care and early childhood education workforce, families will be left without option and our economy will be in peril. A sustainable childcare infrastructure is pivotal to meeting the needs of all women, families and child care providers.
Guided by the on-the-ground experience and voices of providers, we urge elected officials to:
- Stabilize and build the childcare workforce by increasing access to living wages and skills-based training for child care providers and educators
- Invest in the long-term stabilization of the child care sector to ensure accessible, quality, affordable childcare and early education programs
- Address the mental, behavioral, and emotional health needs of providers and children
- Ensure healthy, equitable, and supportive workplaces for teachers, staff, and the children in their care
TAKE ACTION
Tell us your story: Child Care Cliff
Join the conversation: Share your child care story today! Failure by Congress to provide emergency funding to avert this child care funding cliff could result in 3.2 million lost child care slots
Call on Your Member to Save Child Care!
Urge Congress to support childcare providers and the families they serve by ensuring that the $16 billion in the President's supplemental budget request is included in the FY 2024 supplemental budget!
Bills We Support/Oppose
- Child Care Stabilization Act (S.2574 / H.R.5433)
- Child Care for Working Families Act (S.1354, H.R.2976)
- Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act of 2023 (H.R.5569)
Increase Federal Support for Nonprofit Services and Programs
YWCA is on the front lines of communities, strengthening the pillars of economic security for women and families and meeting their needs in moments of crisis. Every day, we see first-hand the critical difference that federal funding for housing, childcare, domestic violence, workforce development, and other services makes in communities served by YWCAs.
Faced with ongoing and increased demand for services, YWCA urges Congress to provide robust levels of federal funding for programs and services that:
- Support survivors and prevent gender-based violence particularly through the:
- Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), particularly VAWA’s Transitional Housing program
- Family Violence Prevention & Services Act (FVPSA)
- Stabilize and increase child care accessibility specifically through the:
- Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG)
- Early Head Start and Head Start
- Increase access to emergency and transitional housing, specifically through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
- Continuum of Care program, including the Gender-based violence set-aside
- Emergency Solutions Grant
Strengthen the health and vitality of the YWCA network
The nonprofit sector is the backbone of our communities and continues to champion on-the-ground programs, human services, and educational activities for families across the country. YWCA is a national leader along with other charitable partners in supporting policies that contribute to a strong civic society and culture of giving so that we can better serve women, girls, and their families. The need to strengthen the nonprofit sector’s ability to respond and assist in any key recovery efforts – from pandemic to hurricane, power outage to flood – as well as hire and retain workers is more critical than ever.
We urge elected officials to provide relief and recovery for the nonprofit sector including:
- Strengthening and building an equitable nonprofit workforce with the ability to hire and retain a diverse workforce at family sustaining wages
- Restore and expand the above-the-line or universal charitable deduction and other tax policies that incentivize giving
Bills We Support/Oppose
- Streamlining Federal Grants Act of 2023 (S.2286 / H.R.5934)
- Charitable Act (H.R.3435)
Advance racial justice and gender equity
Eliminate policies and practices that criminalize people of color
YWCA is committed to ensuring that everyone is afforded equal opportunity and equal protection under the law. Too often, however, stereotypes, biases, and racial power dynamics are embedded in our laws and public policies impacting a broad range of issues across education, justice, civic engagement, health, and other sectors. YWCA’s intersectional mission to eliminate racism and empower women demands that we advocate against the oppression and inequities that many groups and individuals endure.
YWCA urges bold action by elected officials to advance racial justice to:
- Pass legislation that addresses racism as a public health crisis and marshal resources across sectors to promote health and well-being in communities of color
- Defend and protect equal access to the ballot box
- Enact laws that safeguard people of color from police violence and increase police accountability
- Create safe, equitable educational environments that support learning for all students, especially those most impacted by school discipline and sexual harassment policies and practices
- Increase access to comprehensive youth mental health services that is culturally response, trauma-informed, and recognizes the unique experiences and impacts of youth of color
Strengthen maternal health services and safe, legal abortion care
For more than fifty years, YWCA USA has supported the reproductive freedom of all people to make fundamental decisions about whether and when to have children. In issuing its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and with it more than 50 years of legal precedent, disproportionately impacting the lives of young women and people of color who are already marginalized in our healthcare system. While racial disparities in health care increase pregnancy concerns for Black women, they also face a maternal health crisis that leaves them at four times greater risk of dying due to a pregnancy-related death, deepening the impacts of the decision in Dobbs. Bodily autonomy and the right to have an abortion are fundamental rights of all persons.
YWCA urges immediate action by elected officials to:
- Codify equal access to safe, legal abortion care for all
- Strengthen maternal health and improve health outcomes for survivors of domestic and sexual violence as well as women of color
Expand opportunities for women’s success
Women are the primary source of financial support for many families and bear significant care-taking responsibilities at home. At YWCA, we believe no one should have to choose between their livelihoods and their health, their family, or their safety. Yet as a result of their dual roles as caregivers and primary breadwinners, many women in the workforce, particularly women of color, are often forced to choose between their family’s economic security and their health when they or their loved ones need care. Moreover, women continue to face the economic barriers of pay inequity, sexual harassment, and discrimination.
YWCA urges immediate action to:
- Work toward equal pay for equal work and pass legislation prohibiting the use of salary history in job interviews and negotiations
- Enact nondiscrimination laws, such as the Equality Act
- Prohibit sexual harassment on the basis of gender and gender identity in the workplace
- Codify paid family and medical leave, paid sick, and safe leave that are inclusive of all families, with strong accountability and job protection requirements
Take Action
It’s Time for Equal Pay for Equal Work!
Urge Your Member of Congress to cosponsor and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act
A National Paid Sick Days Standard is More Urgent Than Ever
We must take action to urge our elected leaders to pass the Healthy Families Act!
Bills We Support/Oppose
- Equality Act (S.5 / H.R.15)
- Healthy Families Act (S.1664 / H.R.3409)
- Paycheck Fairness Act (S.728 / H.R.17)
