In this issue:
- Meet Our Shero of the Month
- Help Get Out the Vote in Georgia
- Webinars You Won’t Want to Miss
- Join Us on Facebook Live Today to Celebrate & Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement
- Join a PWN Support Pod
- PWN’s Gender Justice Trainers Are Available to Train Your Team
- PWN Policy Fellowship Application Process Coming Soon
- PWN Comments on the Draft HIV National Strategic Plan
- PWN Is Hiring
Meet Our Shero of the Month:
LaDawn Tate
Our December 2020 Shero of the Month is LaDawn Tate of Detroit, Michigan. This mother of two is a tireless advocate at the local level, where she was elected co-chair of the Detroit Ryan White Planning Council this year.
“LaDawn has been by my side in this advocacy journey for over five years,” said PWN Board Member Chunnika Hodges, who nominated her. “From the start, she has been eager to learn and grow as a community leader. She is very passionate about women’s sexual health and full body autonomy. Since meeting this woman, I witnessed her growth from a newbie community advocate to a full force to be reckoned with.”
She says the PWN Policy Fellowship took her advocacy to the next level. “I took what I learned out of the fellowship, learning how to get involved and get connected with the right people. I needed to learn some things–what was this all about? What do we do? It wasn’t easy coming to the planning council. I was loud and ratchet. Once everyone got to know me, they appreciated the loud girl. They took away the ratchet and appreciated the loud girl because she’s got a statement to make and wants to make changes.”
| Read more about LaDawn here |
Downtime for the Holidays?
Help PWN Get Out the Vote in Georgia!
In Georgia, two senate races went into a runoff election. We are back at it and hoping you will come join us!
PWN is supporting GOTV efforts led by Women Engaged, an Atlanta-based, Black women-led 501(c)(3) organization that supports Black women and young adults to become impactful leaders, key decision-makers and effective agents for social change through voter engagement, reproductive justice advocacy, and leadership development.
Women Engaged is calling and texting folks in Georgia, helping them get all the info they need to vote. They need your help to call and text voters!
| Sign up to volunteer with PWN and Women Engaged here! |
Webinars You Won’t Want to Miss:
Wed., Jan. 13, at 3pm EST/12pm PST:
Messaging for Impact
The third webinar in our State Legislative Advocacy Training Series, hosted by PWN’s communications and policy departments, will cover the basics of messaging your issues or bill for different audiences, including: your community; fellow advocates; and lawmakers (or other key decision-makers).
| Register here! |
Celebrate & Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement: Join Us TODAY on Facebook Live
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PWN honors every Black woman who has committed any part of herself to our collective fight against HIV and its impacts.
Join PWN National Field Organizer Evany Turk and friends on Facebook Live on PWN’s Facebook page TODAY, Friday, Dec. 18, at 7pm EST/6pm CST/5pm MST/4pm PST,
We invite organizations to celebrate and honor Black women in the HIV movement with us.
| Sign the commitment here |
Don’t Go It Alone. Join a PWN Support Pod!
PWN Support Pods are a new initiative we originally developed leading up to the November election to make sure that folks could check on each other in case of any unrest. But they took on a life of their own, and we now have vibrant pods across the country. You are invited to join one!
What is a support pod?
They are groups set up on WhatsApp (a texting app you can download and use for free on any smartphone). Right now, some pods are within individual cities where we have numerous members; others are statewide or may include a few states, depending how many members there are in those places. We will create new pods or divide up pods that get too large as more folks join.
Who can be in a support pod?
The support pods are open to all self-identified women and people of trans experience living with HIV. There are also a few trusted allies in some pods.
What is the pod for?
The pods are basically a texting support network. Folks in pods say good morning and good night to each other; check in on each other; request support from and offer support to each other; discuss relevant things going on in their personal lives or in the world. In short, it’s a way to stay connected on a daily basis with other women living with HIV in your area.
| Sign up to join a pod here! |
PWN’s Gender Justice Trainers Are Available to Train Your Team!
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PWN graduated its first cohort of gender justice trainers this fall through The Resist Inspire Sustain Through Education (RISE) program. This program certifies trans women of color in the HIV movement as trainers following 16 months of training by the PWN Training Academy in partnership with the Transgender Strategy Center (TSC).
The graduates can lead trainings on topics such as quality health care access including transgender-specific services; transgender-inclusive sexual and reproductive health and justice for all; gender justice; how to talk about gender, gender expression, and sexuality; normalizing gender expression throughout history and in nature; meaningful involvement of marginalized groups including people living with HIV and transgender people; and transgender issues in politics and transgender elected officials.
Organizations working with people living with HIV must ensure a racial justice and gender justice lens in their work and training. Scheduling a training for your organization from one of our certified gender justice trainers is an excellent way to begin or continue to center the voices of women of trans experience of color living with HIV and support the leadership of people of trans experience.
To schedule a training, please contact PWN Training Director Barb Cardell at [email protected].
Read more about the graduates in this op-ed by PWN Communications and Training Tiommi Luckett here.
Ready to Take Your Advocacy to the Next Level?
The Next PWN Policy Fellowship Will Open Applications in January!
Are you a woman or person of trans experience and an advocate who’s ready to sharpen your skills, learn all the ins and outs of the legislative process, and make a bigger impact on the issues that affect you and your community?
If so, you just might be a good candidate for the PWN Policy Fellowship! 2021 will be the fifth year of PWN’s flagship program, and we will open the application process in January–stay tuned!
“Finding out how much policy played a role in my advocacy made me dig into my deeper self. The support, the knowledge, the love gave me a bigger insight into who I was as a woman, and as a black woman living with HIV. It gave me the freedom to fight…the value of that is priceless.”
– Meta Smith, PWN Policy Fellowship graduate, Baton Rouge, LA
“I recall one of the first assignments was to do research on my local representatives. I learned a lot… and from there to move over to the 86th legislative session, research bills, and speak to committee members regarding bills we supported or opposed was powerful! I would encourage all of our members to apply for the PWN Policy Fellowship.”
– Jessi Mona Cartwright-Biggs, PWN Policy Fellowship graduate, Houston, TX
PWN Comments on the Draft HIV National Strategic Plan 2021-2025
On December 1, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services released the draft HIV National Strategic Plan 2021-2025. Comments were due Monday, December 14.
In collaboration with many of our partners, including the networks of people living with HIV, PWN analyzed the draft plan and submitted a comment highlighting our feedback and concerns.
Overall, we have concerns about the lack of focus on needs and rights of people who are already living with HIV and a lack of attention to social and structural determinants of health. For example, quality of life and quality of care concerns for people living with HIV are notably absent in the draft plan, and there are no mentions whatsoever of sexual and reproductive health care needs of people living with HIV.
PWN believes that strong leadership by people living with HIV from communities most impacted by the epidemic will be necessary to ensure a rights-based response to HIV, grounded in racial justice, gender justice, and meaningful involvement of people living with HIV. We look forward to working with the Biden-Harris Administration to achieve these goals.
| Read PWN’s full comment here |
PWN Is Hiring!
Finance and Operations Manager
The Finance and Operations Manager (FOM) is the central administrative hub for PWN’s people (staff, board, and members), money (income, expenses, assets, and liabilities), and technology (systems and devices). The position holds a balance of big-picture and detail-level projects and responsibilities.
| View the full job description and instructions to apply here |