The New York Women's Foundation Doubles Down on Investment to Advance Reproductive Justice, Safety & Healing Through Summer 2023 Grantmaking Efforts

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In partnership with its Grants Advisory Committee, The Foundation awards more than $2.5 million focused on early investment in emerging organizations across New York City and beyond.

NEW YORK, July 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The New York Women's Foundation (NYWF) announced $2.57 million of grantmaking in support of 34 organizations, both new and renewals to existing grantee partners, with a focus on reproductive justice, safety and healing, and emerging organizations and movements. For its June grants, The Foundation is investing in the infrastructure and sustainability of our communities and shaping our stories, while advancing its early investment strategy to create a more equitable and just future. As backlash against the movement for gender, racial, and economic justice continues, The Foundation acts in solidarity with partners by stepping up its investment in those closest to the issues.

Early investment grantee partners included groups focused on economic justice as well as advancing justice for families and young people encountering the criminal legal system or the immigration system. These organizations center the leadership of program participants and work with populations most neglected systemically and often invisible to philanthropy, such as the trans community and Indigenous communities. The Foundation will provide a total disbursement of $1,040,000 across 13 organizations, including: Brooklyn GHOST Project Inc, Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective, Delgracia Corp, Girl Vow, LGBT Center Intercultural Collective, Mothers on the Move, New York Abortion Access Fund, New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives, New York State Youth Leadership Council, Red Canary Song, Survivors Justice Project, Translatina Network, and Urban Indigenous Collective.

"The moment we are in demands bold action. The grants announced today are essential to drive the impact and efficacy of our partners working tirelessly for reproductive justice, safety and healing to create long‐term security for women, girls, and gender-expansive people," said President and CEO Ana L. Oliveira. "We are proud to invest in people who continue to shape our stories by providing community solutions that advance justice and equity for all."

Navigating the Road to Reproductive Justice in a Post-Dobbs World

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Dobbs decision just over one year ago, The Foundation will increase focus on its reproductive justice efforts with three new grants totaling $130,000 to For the Gworls (FTG), Pregnancy Justice, and New York Birth Control Access Project. Funding to For the Gworls (FTG) will resource social and mutual aid support to Black trans people needing gender-affirming care and safe housing, and funding to Pregnancy Justice will support criminal defense litigation and defense lawyer training to represent parents impacted by forced family separation due to drug-related charges. Additionally, funding to New York Birth Control Access Project aims to build up the legislative advocacy and public speaking skills of the next generation of New York reproductive justice leaders to further expand birth control access, which is timely given the recent FDA approval of the first over-the-counter birth control pill.

This latest cycle of Early Investment funding will also award grants to several reproductive justice organizations over the next five years, including: Brooklyn GHOST Project Inc, an organization working for gender-affirming care and bodily autonomy, and both Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective and Delgracia Corp, whose work centers on birth justice and long-term support of families to prevent interactions with the child welfare system and risk of family separation. The Foundation will also renew a grant with If/When/How to further support the expansion of its Repro Legal Defense Fund (RLDF), which provides financial resources that strengthen legal defenses to clients criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes.

Shifting Narratives to Strengthen Cultural Change

Across all its strategies, The Foundation invests at a systems, community, and individual level to meet the needs of an ecosystem of partners working to advance justice and to uplift leaders often entrenched in the work but not given adequate resources to bring their ideas to fruition. The Foundation's investments support numerous groups serving as leadership hubs to populations with specific needs such as victims of child sexual abuse, women who were formerly incarcerated, as well as groups working to uplift the stories of this important work by amplifying these issues.

As an extension of The Foundation's efforts to push for narrative shift, two online and journalistic platforms, The Laura Flanders Show and The 19^th News, will receive a total investment of $150,000 to help amplify these topics and provide resources to those affected by these sociopolitical issues.

"We are proud to invest in organizations working collectively to build restorative and healing justice solutions outside racist, carceral systems to protect our fundamental human right to safety," said Guisela Marroquín, Senior Director of Programs for The New York Women's Foundation. "To advance that work and as a partner to our grantees, The Foundation invests in narrative shift and culture change to capture the stories and ideas directly from those impacted to reach broader audiences, increase awareness and activate our networks to mobilize with community."

For the first time since the pandemic began, The Foundation engaged in a participatory grantmaking process in partnership with its Grants Advisory Committee (GAC). The Foundation has a longstanding history of early investment as a core strategy, and these grants are a five-year commitment to these grassroots organizations. In alignment with its practice of trust-based philanthropy, The Foundation continues to utilize a streamlined application process, helping to reduce unnecessary barriers for grantee partners and reflect a community-centric approach to its grantmaking process.

About The New York Women's Foundation
The New York Women's Foundation is a voice for women and gender-expansive people and a force for change. The Foundation's mission is to create an equitable and just future for women and families. It achieves this goal by uniting cross-cultural and community alliances that ignite action. The Foundation invests in women-led, innovative, and bold community-based solutions that promote the economic security, safety, and health of the most underserved women. The Foundation has distributed more than $100 million in its 35-year existence to over 500 organizations, impacting millions of women and girls across New York City and beyond. To learn more about The New York Women's Foundation's work to transform lives, families, and communities, please visit www.nywf.org.

SOURCE The New York Women's Foundation