MobilizeHer 2019

Program.

General

Achieving Gender Equity in Tech

Achieving gender equity in tech requires progress on many fronts, from mainstreaming inclusive hiring to closing the #GapTable to building tools and companies that center and uplift self-identified women/girls and their communities, rather than perpetuating systems of oppression. This panel will discuss the current state of the industry and concrete ways we can work toward these goals.

Speakers: Anita Darden Gardyne (Onēva), Elisa Camahort Page (BlogHer), Tiffany Shumate (AI4ALL), and Alisha Woo (Women’s March Oakland)

General

Census 2020: Getting a Complete Count in Alameda County to Defend Democracy

The US Constitution requires the nation to conduct a Census every 10 years and the Census Bureau has been doing so since 1790. The Census is so much more than a questionnaire. Its data influences our daily lives in innumerable ways: it computes our political representation, determines funding for countless programs and services, and is evaluated to make an incalculable number of decisions in both the public and private sectors. At this session, participants will learn what’s at stake for our community, how Alameda County is preparing to ensure a complete and accurate count of our diverse and historically undercounted populations, and how to get involved in this once-in-a-decade exercise of democracy!

Speaker: Casey Farmer (Alameda County Complete Count Committee)

General

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth and the Abuse Continuum

The objectives of this workshop are to engage and educate community members about the commercial exploitation of youth. The workshop will provide an overview of the scope of the issue as well information on how Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth works with youth from a survivor-informed perspective. Participants will come away with an increased understanding of what youth are experiencing, best practices on how we engage with youth, and what members of the community can do to end the exploitation of children.

Speaker: Andrea Diaz (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth)

General

Community-Based Healing: An Intersectional Perspective

We are angry, exhausted and in mourning for the ways in which the world seems to be changing for the worse every day. We are in need of healing and self-care. Join us in a hands-on, interactive exploration to redefine for ourselves what self-care means and how community-based healing matters. Panelists comprise activists with experiences and identities at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, class, education, sexuality and immigrant experience, willing and wanting to learn from the audience to do better intersectional justice work.

Speakers: Dyan Ludeña Ferraris, Amy Lam and Wendy Lau-Ozawa (National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, Bay Area)

General

Enough!: How to Combat Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Education

While the federal Educational Amendment known as Title IX requires schools to respond to allegations of sexual violence, many institutions are failing to meet their obligations under the law. Survivors of color, as well as queer and trans students, are the most vulnerable to being pushed out of school when administrations don't have equitable practices in place to address campus sexual and gender-based violence. At this session, learn more about sexual and gender-based violence in education: what it looks like, who it affects, and how to combat it, especially in California. Together, we can promote equal access to education for people of all genders. While this conversation will focus on higher education, aspects will also touch on K-12 education. By the time the session ends, participants will know how they can help, be allies or get help themselves with the resources available.

Speakers: Brenda Adams, Maha Ibrahim, Harjit Kaur and Kel O’Hara (Equal Rights Advocates)

Youth

Fight Like a Girl: Young Women Leading the Charge for Change

This panel of young self-identifying women will share their work within their communities and talk about tools they have used to become successful leaders. Additionally, they will discuss issues such as voting, climate change and common sense gun reform and how these issues affect them and the world around them. Finally, the panelists will provide advice on how to balance activism and school.

Speakers: Daijah Conerly, Abril Fonseca (Latinos Unidos, Women’s March Oakland), Kira Galbraith (Bay Area Student Activists, Women’s March Oakland), Arianna Nassiri (San Francisco Youth Commission, Vote16USA), Sarah Schecter (Bay Area Student Activists, March for Our Lives California) and Lexie Tesch (Generation Citizen)

General

From Resistance to Power: Community Organizing to Win

Since 2016, Bay Resistance has built a strong community response to this political moment, rooted in racial, economic, climate and gender justice. Led by the most impacted groups, Bay Resistance has a coalition of more than 50 organizations and over 16,000 people in our larger network. We have focused largely on rapid response—helping people show up in moments of crisis—while also trying to answer big questions: How can we center racial justice in our resistance? How do we keep up momentum when attacks are happening every day? What does it look like to effectively connect different movements to one another, new activists to existing grassroots organizations led by frontline communities, and current federal issues to local, long-term social justice movements? This interactive discussion will cover how our model has worked over the past 2.5 years, including the central leadership of women of color as well as what we have learned and how we are preparing for 2020.

Speakers: Kimi Lee and Rose Mendelsohn (Bay Resistance)

General

No Profits From Pain: How to Stop the Financing of Private Prisons Behind Family Detention Centers

Participants will learn about the current state of the private prison industry behind family detention centers, how banks are complicit in and profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration, and key opportunities to stop financing private prisons. They will come away with tips to authentically, effectively engage their communities to take action, with stats and stories about what's working now.

Speaker: Xochitl Oseguera (MomsRising)

General

Nothing About Us, Without Us: Developing Policies from the Ground

This workshop will walk participants through multiple strategies to ensure that those most impacted by injustice are the ones leading policy work and shifting the narrative in culture. Participants will learn how this has been done, what happens when those most impacted are not at the center, and how good intentions can actually cause more harm, specifically around mass incarceration and the criminalization of poor women of color, and how this impacts us all. We will also touch on the role of nonprofits in supporting and/or building movement.

Speaker: Christina "Krea" Gomez and Jessica Nowlan (Young Women’s Freedom Center)

General

Silence Feeds Violence

Women living with STIs including HIV/AIDs are 3 times more likely to encounter intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to the rest of the population. Stigma and the acceptance of male toxicity and misogyny within communities of color regarding STIs/HIV/AIDS further silence women, keeping them in solitude and isolation. Open conversations about the truths of IPV need to occur in communities of color so that solutions can be developed jointly.

This interactive panel is designed to increase participants' knowledge and awareness of the impact that STIs including HIV/AIDS have on IPV. It will highlight personal stories of survivors who have experienced IPV, and provide resources and recommendations to normalize the conversation about STIs including HIV/AIDS in relation to IPV. In small and large groups, participants will discuss scenarios and how to transform learned principles into action steps that can be implemented in the community and impact policy.

Speakers: Demisha Burns, Thandi Harris and Carla Dillard Smith (Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases)

General

That’s What She Said: Political Narratives and Campaign Strategies for Electing Women of Color

“The Telling is Political” — Maylei Blackwell

Women of color tend to be excluded from political leadership and narratives. We’ll share our leadership stories as a way to fracture dominant narratives and create collaborative knowledge to make political leadership possible for us. The second half will share best practices for starting your campaign to run for office!

Speakers: LaNiece Jones (Black Women Organized for Political Action) and Holly Raña Lim

General

Who Decides? The Status of Reproductive Rights in California and the Bay Area

The state of reproductive healthcare access in the United States is alarming, with Roe v. Wade hanging on by a thread and recent Title X restrictions. Due to the dearth of access in many regions, the nationwide status is “restricted access” according to NARAL Pro-Choice America. While a handful of states, including California, have made great strides in expanding and protecting access to reproductive healthcare, no state has achieved total access. In fact, 5% of California women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Immigrants, working class and poor women, women of color, young women, rural communities, gender non-conforming people and trans men, and marginalized women often face unique barriers to access the reproductive healthcare that they need. Leaders in reproductive health will discuss the status of reproductive rights in California and the Bay Area and provide attendees with concrete actions they can take to widen and defend access for all people at this critical juncture.

Speakers: Jill Adams (If/When/How), Lauren Babb (Planned Parenthood Northern California), Allie Lahey (NARAL Pro-Choice California), Layidua Salazar (ACCESS Women’s Health Justice), and Sbeydeh Viveros-Walton (East Bay Women's Political Alliance)

Youth

Youth Caucus

This caucus is an opportunity for youth activists to meet and learn from peers involved in different causes or organizations. Participants grouped by age will discuss today’s most pressing problems and how to tackle them, leaving with new connections and concrete next steps to take toward solving some of society’s biggest issues.

Facilitator: Arianna Nassiri (San Francisco Youth Commission, Vote16USA)