Wanderlust

Links

March 10, 2007 at 11:01 pm gvblog Leave a comment

This is the page in which I will attempt to provide a SUPER uncomprehensive listing of all the people I meet, talk to, am inspired by, and consort with along the way.  If you are on the list and don’t want to be, let me know and I’ll  take you off. If you’re NOT and you should be, let me know that too! All information is best relayed through wanderlustwithrhonda@gmail.com, otherwise it tends to get lost in the ether.

In chronological, not necessarily geographic order.

HiTops – HiTOPS is a twenty-year-old 501(c)3 non-profit organization, located in Mercer County, New Jersey whose mission is to promote adolescent health and well-being. HiTOPS helps adolescents clarify their values and make responsible decisions regarding their health and actions, and gives parents, teachers and caregivers of adolescents the tools they need to best support and guide the young people they nurture.

Nan Wise - is a licensed psychotherapist with 25 years experience in individual, group, marital and family therapy. A Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association, Certified Relationship Specialist, Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work, Ms. Wise has spent the past decade specializing in relationship coaching and psychotherapy for those practicing alternative lifestyles. 

Ms. Foundation for women has been creating opportunities for women and girls for 30 years. We know that when we invest in women and girls, helping them develop their voices and skills, everyone benefits—men, boys, families, and communities.

As the country’s first national, multi-issue women’s fund, the Ms. Foundation directs resources of all kinds to cutting-edge projects that nurture girls’ leadership skills, protect the health and safety of women, and provide low-income women with the tools to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

FemSex is a De-Cal (a class taught by students for students), based out of the top rated public university in the nation, UC Berkeley. FemSex is a long running course whose roots reach all the way back to 1994. While the course is constantly changing to adapt to the current events constantly making their way to the fore, the original basis for the course — Women’s Empowerment — is still the focus.

Female Sexuality is a course designed by women for women to create a safe environment where women can discuss various issues surrounding sexuality, learning from the diverse viewpoints of their peers. It is our hope that by the end of this class that people will leave the class with a newfound sense of empowerment, and a greater understanding of the diverse ways in which empowerment can be felt.

Topics in class cover a broad spectrum of topics including: anatomy and physiology, women’s health, media and cultural influence on female sexuality, power and privilege, body image, contraception and STIs, reproductive choices, solo sex, partner sex, orgasm and orgasm inhibitors, sex work, communication, relationships, violence against women, and women’s empowerment.

We utilize discussion, assignments, guest speakers, introspection, and class readings, as medium by which to look at these topics. We have a reader which is researched, composed, and updated by facilitators every semester.

 
The Conneticut Bicycle Coalition promotes bicycling and walking through education and advocacy.

Miko‘s mission is to change the way people think and feel about sexuality, whether by themselves or with a partner. We know that building skills for better communication leads to more romance, better sex, fun, increased self-esteem, and all-around happiness and well being—in and out of the bedroom.

Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program is a reproductive rights organization that trains, educates, and inspires new leaders, organizers, and supporters nationwide.

CLPP is located at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and works with new generations of activists to advance their leadership and strengthen the reproductive rights movement. Since our beginnings in 1981, CLPP has been training students and young people as reproductive rights activists. CLPP also is expanding the reach and impact of the movement by connecting reproductive rights to women’s health, safety and empowerment, economic and racial justice, youth liberation, queer rights, environmental justice, peace and security, disability rights, and immigrants’ rights.

Project Prevention offers cash incentives to women that are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to use long-term or permanent birth control.

Project Prevention is a national, 501(c)3 organization that has paid clients in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

Our mission is to reduce the number of substance exposed births to zero.

Because every baby deserves a sober start!

Choice USA mobilizes and provides ongoing support to the diverse, upcoming generation of leaders who promote and protect reproductive choice both now and in the future.

Casa Tierra Comun: We are a multicultural, grassroots community empowerment organization that seeks, working alongside Latino immigran and underheard community members as well as with the wider Berkshire community through shared resources, participatory education, and living arts. We will construct a culture of community that crosses borders of class, race, culture and geography. "Think globally, Act locally"

The Albany Free School : We are a community far more than a school – a safe, nurturing, open space where daily fifty-five kids ages three through fourteen, eight full-time teachers, a cook, a steady stream of interns, volunteers and visitors, as well as myriad goats, chickens, rabbits, pet rats, lizards and goldfish work, play, learn and eat together. Yes, there are certain traditional school trappings: Some rooms have desks and blackboards; there are lots of shelves with books and teaching materials of all kinds in others; and throughout the building there is a state of the art computer network, thanks to Times Warner Cable and a very generous local business. In addition, students are organized into homeroom groups more or less by age in order for them to have a space to call their own and a specific teacher to check in with during the day.

However, the resemblance to "school" pretty much ends here. Noise overshadows quiet. Kids are moving about constantly and play is rampant. We do not have a curriculum, or any compulsory classes. Classroom sessions that do take place are usually informal and last as long as the interest holds.

There are not any tests or grades either, because we have discovered by trial and error over the years that learning happens best when it happens for its own sake. Again and again, our experience has confirmed that a child’s innate desire to learn is a far more powerful motivating force than any external reward – or threat.

For a long time our unofficial motto has been: "Never a dull moment, always a dull roar." But perhaps we should also borrow the Stork Family School in the Ukraine’s motto, "First love, then teach." For we have always placed the greatest emphasis on the fostering of loving, caring relationships. Observant visitors frequently comment on how closely connected the students seem, how carefully they look out for each other. The visitors note the brightness in the kids’ eyes, the spontaneous joy, the natural exuberance. This is how children appear who are secure in knowing they are loved, and who are free at all times to return that love.

A companion motto would then be: "Trust children and they will learn." Because when you entrust kids with their own so-called "education" – which is not a thing after all, but rather an ever-present action – they will learn continually, each in their own way and rhythm. There is absolutely no need to push and prod and fret over when a given child will master reading, the mainstream dictum notwithstanding. Children who truly possess the responsibility for their own learning always handle that responsibility in a sensible and mature fashion. Adult fear and anxiety – oh so understandable in these days of heightened hype over standards – only slow the process down.

Family Life Center (FLC) is a partnership between Albany State University and Dougherty Middle School (DMS), along with Albany area community parnters.  The other community partners include the Albany Police Department, Americorps, Center for African American Males, Network of Trust, Flint River Water Planning and Policy Center, and Weldon Springs Missionary Baptist Church.  The Family Life Center (FLC) program model builds on the many existing propfessional counseling, mentoring, tutoring, and other youth services that are available at ASU as well as at DMS.  The ultimate goal is to prevent and reduce violence among at-risk youth in the community.  The ASU Family Life Center was established through a FCVP grant written by Dr . George Thomas and Dr. Rani George.  FCVP is a program that is funded by the Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Birth Net is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public about maternity care in order to improve it. Childbirth is a normal, natural and profound event in a woman’s life. BirthNet’s goal is to encourage all women and families to learn about their rights and options. Our primary programs include education in the classroom (high school or college classes), community forums or workshops, and media outreach. 

STARS Program at Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood  works to promote healthy sexuality and reproductive choice through exceptional services, honest education and fearless advocacy.

Family Planning Advocates of New York State work to advance public policies that fulfill the rights of individuals to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and education that are consistent with principles of justice and fairness and respect diversity, personal dignity and privacy.

Planned Parenthood of the Rochester/Syracuse Region protects and supports every person’s right to make voluntary, informed decisions about sexuality and reproduction in order to lead a healthy and fulfilling life. To do this, Planned Parenthood of the Rochester/Syracuse Region provides health care, education, counseling, and leadership in preserving the right to reproductive freedom. Special emphasis is given to women who have limited access to services.

The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation is dedicated to educating current and future generations about Gage’s work and its power to drive contemporary social change.

At the heart of our mission is the story of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a progressive visionary of women’s rights and human liberation and an often unacknowledged leader who, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony wrote the arguments, inspired the passions and organized the political action of the 19th century woman suffrage movement in the United States.

Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) is dedicated to ensuring that women receive the full range of reproductive healthcare choices. MSFC recognizes that one of the greatest obstacles to safe and legal abortion is the absence of trained providers. As medical students and residents, we work to make reproductive health care, including abortion, a part of standard medical education and residency training.

Feminists for Life  recognizes that abortion is a reflection that our society has failed to meet the needs of women. We are dedicated to systematically eliminating the root causes that drive women to abortion – primarily lack of practical resources and support – through holistic, woman-centered  solutions. Women deserve better than abortion.

Planned Parenthood of the Southern Fingerlakes  PPSFL promotes healthy sexuality and reproductive choice through exceptional services, honest education, and fearless advocacy.

SisterSong: The SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective is made up of 76 local, regional and national grassroots organizations and more than 400 individuals, as well as white and male allies who support our goal of improving the lives of indigenous women and women of color in the United States through Reproductive Justice.  We represent five primary ethnic populations/indigenous nations in the United States:

• Native American/Indigenous             
• Asian/Pacific Islander
• Middle Eastern/Arab American
• Latina
• Black/African American

SisterSong lifts the voices of indigenous women and women of color to have an impact on Reproductive Justice issues that affect indigenous nations and communities of color. The Collective was formed in 1997 with the shared recognition that as indigenous women and women of color we have the right and responsibility to represent ourselves and our communities. SisterSong is committed to educating indigenous women and women of color on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights, and working towards the access of health services, information and resources that are culturally and linguistically appropriate through the integration of the disciplines of community organizing, Self-Help and human rights education, all components of Reproductive Justice.

American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) is a not-for-profit, interdisciplinary professional organization. In addition to sexuality educators, sex counselors and sex therapists, AASECT members include physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, allied health professionals, clergy members, lawyers, sociologists, marriage and family counselors and therapists, family planning specialists and researchers, as well as students in relevant professional disciplines. These individuals share an interest in promoting understanding of human sexuality and healthy sexual behavior.

CHOICE (Philadelphia)  is a community-based organization dedicated to increasing awareness of and access to sexual health services, especially among underserved populations who traditionally experience barriers to care. CHOICE is the most often-used resource for sexual health information in the region, serving more than 60,000 people each year, the overwhelming majority of whom are teens and low-income women.

ACCESS: Since 1993, Access has used a combination of direct services, community education and policy advocacy to combat these barriers and make reproductive health and choice a reality for ALL women. We provide free and nonjudgmental information, referrals, advocacy, peer counseling, transportation, housing and financial assistance to women seeking all types of reproductive health care. We are also advocates and defenders of every woman’s right to make the reproductive and sexual decisions that are right for her. No other organization in California provides the same range of support and advocacy for women who are seeking or considering abortion.

Planned Parenthood of Southern Pennsylvannia believes that every child should be a wanted child. A wanted child allows women and men to achieve self-determination which results in a stronger family unit and a stronger society. Our Mission is to protect and enhance reproductive freedom, to increase access to reproductive health care services and information, and to promote sexual health. This mission drives the comprehensive programs and services that PPSP provides, reaching over 43,000 women, men and teens throughout the Philadelphia area.

Youth First Program: Young people today are faced with many confusing and mixed messages about sexuality.  Yet there are very few places where they can get the honest facts and a chance to discuss their real feelings.  The result: children often lack the skills and information they need to avoid the serious risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

Youth First is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional program designed in partnership with Philadelphia area middle and high schools to help young people make responsible decisions about their sexuality and health. Youth First consists of six specific components: long-term, comprehensive, age-specific, sexuality education; leadership development; social services/counseling; youth-friendly, accessible health services; professional development; and parental education and support.

NARAL For more than 30 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has been the nation’s leading advocate for privacy and a woman’s right to choose. With more than one million members and supporters, NARAL Pro-Choice America is fighting to protect the pro-choice values of freedom and privacy. With the far right in control of the White House and many state legislatures, our work has never been more important.

The Kinsey Institute promotes interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the fields of human sexuality, gender and reproduction.

Illinois Caucus on Adolescent Health (ICAH)  promotes a positive approach to adolescent sexual health and comprehensive support for young parents.

Early to Bed is a retail and web store providing people with high quality sex toys at fair prices in a women-oriented, boy-friendly atmosphere. We strive to provide all our customers with exceptional, personalized service and work hard to give you up-to-date, honest information about sex and sex toys.

San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR) provides resources, support, advocacy and education to strengthen the work of all individuals, and communities in San Francisco that are responding to, healing from, and struggling to end sexual violence. At SFWAR, we believe that no single individual, organization, foundation, or business alone can stop the epidemic of sexual assault, but by responding as a whole community, we each bring our piece of the solution.

California Latinas for Reproductive Justice – website coming soon!

WORTH works to give poor women in communities around the world the opportunity to discover their inherent power and capacity to change their horizons. In their hearts women have a vision of how their stories could be different…where there is income enough to feed their families…HIV/AIDS and other diseases do not take away their husbands and children…and their daughters have access to education and promising futures.

A Woman’s Touch is a thriving woman-owned and operated sexuality boutique based in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. We are one of a small number of stores that focus on women’s perspectives on sex and sensuality in the Midwestern United States, and the only store that offers our unique combination of expertise in sexual health *and* pleasure.

Sista’s on the Rise (SOTR)  is a space for young women of color ages 13-21, to take ownership and power over their lives and create a healthy community. We acknowledge that young women of color need a safe space to develop their leadership skills, socio-political analysis and organize without being marginalized. We realize that many young women who became pregnant drop-out of existing youth programs because they do not receive the support necessary for their continued participation.

One of our goals is to build sisterhood among young women who have children and those who do not. Sistas on the Rise is a space where young mothers and women of color raise consciousness, build sisterhood and take action for social change.

We provide workshops, activities and trips that develop leadership skills and teach our young women to be critical and active members in the community.

Young Women’s Empowerment Project: Our mission as the Young Women’s Empowerment Project is to offer safe, respectful, free-of-judgment spaces for girls and young women impacted by the sex trade and street economies to recognize their goals, dreams and desires. We are run by girls and women with life experience in the sex trade and street economies. We are a youth leadership organization grounded in harm reduction and social justice organizing by and for girls and young women (ages 12-23) impacted by the sex trade and street economies.

Sex Worker’s Outreach Program: SWOP, at its most basic, is an anti-violence campaign. As a multi-state network of sex workers and advocates, we address locally and nationally the violence that sex workers experience because of their criminal status.

The Abstinence Clearinghouse  serves as an association for the abstinence community. The Clearinghouse is a non-profit educational organization that promotes the appreciation for and practice of sexual abstinence through distribution of age-appropriate, factual and medically-accurate materials. The Clearinghouse was founded to provide a central location where character, relationship and abstinence programs, curricula, speakers, and materials could be accessed. The Clearinghouse serves agencies and individuals on national, state and local level, as well as internationally.

Planned Parenthood of South Dakota has worked in our region to make sure all people have the information and the means to decide freely and responsibly whether and when to have children.

Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center at Yankton Sioux Reservation : In 1985, a group of Native Americans living on or near the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota formed the Native American Community Board (NACB) to address pertinent issues of health, education, land and water rights, and economic development of Native American people.

In 1986, the Native American Community Board incorporated under the laws of South Dakota as a non-profit tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 organization.

The first NACB project developed was "Women and Children in Alcohol," a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome program. This program defined the direction of subsequent health work. In February of 1988, the NACB opened the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, the first resource center located on a reservation in the US.

In October of 1991, after a long legal battle, the Domestic Violence Program of the Resource Center opened a shelter for battered women a few blocks away from the Resource Center. The shelter is a modern, spacious, four-bedroom home and is able to provide women and their children with a safe place to escape domestic violence and sexual assualt.

South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families  The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families is a coalition of concerned citizens and groups fighting the abortion ban in South Dakota. We are a political committee registered with the South Dakota Secretary of State and the IRS and formed in an effort to repeal HB 1215, the ban on abortions.

Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairman’s Health Board (AATCHB): The stated policy of the Indian Health Service is to encourage and increase Indian participation in every phase of the program; planning, operating, and evaluating service at all levels. The Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board is established in order to provide the Indian people of the Aberdeen Area with a formal representative Board as a means of communicating and participation with the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service and other health agencies and organizations on health matters.

 

 

 

 

 

Entry filed under: On the Road. Tags: .