Rural Civic Engagement Initiative
More than 19 million women live in rural America, comprised of individuals of many diverse backgrounds, including Latina, Indigenous and Native, Black, and Asian women and women of other races and ethnicities. Most rural and migrant women in the United States live in poverty, face persistent inequality, and lack the services and the protections that they need to live healthy and whole lives. Political leaders often perceive rural America as white and monolithic, with blanket solutions that do not fix their complex issues.
This is why Justice for Migrant Women created a rural civic engagement initiative, aiming to increase the political representation and power of rural women and girls across the United States with a focus on elevating the leadership of women of color and other underrepresented community members.
Through this initiative, Justice for Migrant women is conducting innovative outreach efforts aimed at increasing civic participation, increasing voter registrations, and implementing get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts for mail-in ballots and in-person voting in rural communities in time for the upcoming elections, with a particular focus in 2020 on Sandusky County, Ohio, and Hillsborough County, Florida. The work is strengthened through collaboration with national, state-wide and local organizations serving rural women and girls and includes other tactics such as training, narrative and culture shift work as well as policy and advocacy initiatives.
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Sisters Rising
Co-founded by Return to the Heart, Justice for Migrant Women and We Stand United, Sisters Rising is a collaborative campaign that seeks to educate, empower and celebrate women at the 100-year anniversary of the ratification of the women’s right to vote, while uplifting the historic role Native American women had in inspiring the early suffragists as well. We launched Sisters Rising with a virtual celebration of the 19th amendment that included activists, artists and elected officials sharing the untold stories of Native American women. Sign our pledge to get involved and follow Sisters Rising on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram!
Rural Women Rising
Anchored by Justice for Migrant Women, the Rural Women Rising Coalition brings together non-profit organizations working in the areas of women’s rights, economic justice, civic engagement, immigrant and migrant community members’ rights, and civil rights and civil liberties, among other issue areas. Through the coalition, we are able to map the work currently being done to build rural women and girls’ political power and representation, with a focus of women and girls of color, with the goal of scaling projects through partnerships. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Steering Committee Members: (Pictured) 9to5 National Association of Working Women, Black Voters Matter, Down Home NC, IGNITE, Justice for Migrant Women, Return to the Heart Foundation, and Vote Run Lead; (Not Pictured) Equality North Carolina, Highlander Research & Education Center, New American Leaders, Rural Assembly and YWCA USA.