2011-12 Annual Report Judy Patrick President and Ceo Kathryn M
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2011-12 ANNUAL REPORT JUDY PATRICK PRESIDENT AND CEO KATHRYN M. DOWNING CHAIR OF THE BOARD Dear Friend, This year, we departed from our usual way of working. We took a good, hard look at the desperate economic situation California’s women find themselves in and we said, “Enough!” With California budget debates on the horizon, we decided to seize the moment. We leveraged our respected position in Sacramento and our expertise in public policy to launch a campaign—Stand with Women. This was a turning point for us. For years, we’ve based our work in strategic grantmaking and policy training. We tended to stay behind the scenes. But we knew we had to do more after we heard from our grant partners about the devastating impact five years of budget cuts have had on low-income women and families. After funding groundbreaking research that provided the data behind the stories we’d heard of mothers going hungry so that their children could eat, we launched a robust, multimedia and multifaceted campaign designed to protect three critical programs that support California’s mothers and families: Cal Grants, CalWORKs and subsidized childcare. We were deeply moved by the support and attention that the campaign mobilized. More than 7,000 of you joined us to advocate on behalf of women and families who have suffered LETTERS SENT TO LEGISLATORS disproportionally during the Great Recession and several rounds of crippling state budget cuts. Together, we helped influence the final budget that the Governor signed. While far from perfect, the final budget resulted in fewer cuts than originally proposed. It was bittersweet, but a victory nevertheless. The budgets we create demonstrate the values we hold. We believe that our state budget needs to plan for and enable a woman’s basic economic security—a safe place to live, quality food on her table, health care, a job that provides enough income for her family. By doing so, we will all benefit—not just women and their families. Our communities will flourish. And so will our state. In addition to our budget advocacy, this year we’re proud that: We supported 112 organizations with $2 million in grants Our grants are often the first time an organization is funded, so they help leverage funds from other GRANT PARTNERS foundations. In addition, we provide grants that support organizations over the long-term. We facilitated smart philanthropy Philanthropy belongs to everyone. One way that we both engage our supporters and fund powerful grassroots organizations is through donor circles. This year, we carried out an in-depth study of our donor circles. Then, during our biennial conference, Connecting California 2012, we brought circle members together to share best practices and envision new ways of doing strategic philanthropy that fuels social justice. We helped pass two bills into law This year, two bills championed by Women’s Policy Institute fellows were signed into law and we graduated our ninth class of fellows. These graduates are combining their subject matter expertise with the advocacy skills they acquired BILLS PASSED in our program to influence public policy in our state. We trust you will continue to Stand with Women and with us in the months to come. We need you. California’s women and children need you. Together we can create a California in which all women and their families are economically secure. In solidarity, WWW.WOMENSFOUNDCA.ORG 1 KHMER GIRLS IN ACTION he terror of the Cambodian Killing Fields Lian and KGA realized that they had to do Tlives on long past the end of the war. something to heal their community and address Forty years after leaving Cambodia, Khmer the staggering depression statistics. They had refugees still suffer the effects of the genocide. to intervene with the Cambodian youth where According to one 2005 study, 62 percent are they’re most likely to be found—at school. suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. As a result, KGA has taken on an impressive But the pain does not stop with the elders. organizing campaign they call Youth at Lian Cheun, executive director of Khmer Girls the CORE: Wellness Center Campaign. They In Action (KGA), explained that the research researched and wrote a resolution that aims they conducted last year shows that trauma to create school-based health clinics in high has been passed on to the next generation: schools and they decided to convince the 49 percent of Cambodian youth show signs Long Beach Unified School District to adopt it. of depression. “We want to help close the health gap so “The Khmer community is very silent and that teachers can have a chance to close there’s still a lot of healing that needs to be the academic gap,” Lian told us. done and there’s still a lot of pain that the They know they’re in for a long haul and they’re community carries. Part of the healing is to prepared. “The school board thinks that they train and develop young people to be more know what’s best for young people, but we active and to play a role in the political process.” believe that young people know what’s best for them. That’s why they need to be integrated 2 into the process,” said Lian. Also, KGA knows teenage girls who have gone, and that counseling and preventative services are are going through, the KGA first to go on the budget chopping block when leadership program. Every California is going through budget battles. But year, 60 girls go through they also know that schools that have wellness the program and, so far, GIRLS60 TRAINED centers have been able to decrease their 500 have been trained in IN LEADERSHIP absentee rates. One school with a wellness leadership, advocacy and clinic decreased its absentee rate by 20 percent, public policy. which ended up saving the school money. There is a KGA alumna behind the Wellness “On the west side of Long Beach, there’s one Center Campaign strategy and outreach; nurse for four schools, meaning that she spends there is a committee of Khmer high school just one day a week in each school. If a student students working on event planning and gets hurt on a Monday, she might not be able marketing; there is a group of high school to see the nurse until Thursday. That’s not seniors working on the resolution. And every enough,” Lian told us. KGA is proposing that the single KGA girl is meeting with elected officials district create wellness centers in three high and lobbying them for their support. schools—the same three that combined account They have no intention of stopping until all for 80 percent of teen pregnancies in Long Beach. young people in Long Beach are given a voice Most inspiring of all, this campaign is not just and an opportunity to thrive. run by the small KGA staff—it is run by the WWW.WOMENSFOUNDCA.ORG 3 EL PUEBLO PARA EL AIRE Y AGUA LIMPIA 4 any of us have been to Kettleman City at were born with a cleft lip and three of them Mone point or another. Located halfway soon died. One of the children who died was between Los Angeles and San Francisco on a little girl with a hopeful name—America. Interstate 5, this tiny town of 1,500 people is For six years, El Pueblo, Maricela and the a pit stop on our way north or south. We stop community have been resisting the expansion here to get gas, lunch at In-N-Out Burger or of the toxic waste facility. And in the process a cup of coffee at Starbucks. something miraculous has happened. What we may not realize is that Kettleman This predominantly poor, quiet, immigrant City is a community of Latino farm workers community transformed into a proud and who have seen more than their fair share of determined group of activists who know their hardship. The water in town is contaminated rights and demand their voices be heard. with benzene, a known carcinogen. The air Led by El Pueblo, they staged is contaminated with pesticides from the protests, trainings and surrounding farms and diesel emissions from workshops. They testified the trucks that pass daily through the nearby at their county board of I-5 junction with Highway 41. supervisors meetings. 40WOMEN & In fact, on average 1,000 trucks pass by They spoke to journalists, MEN VOLUNTEER EACH YEAR Kettleman City every 12 hours. Maricela Mares- scientists and politicians. Alatorre, executive director of our grant And the women took charge. partner, El Pueblo para el Aire y Agua Limpia, It took a lot for a shy, humble, immigrant mother has counted them one by one for months. like Maria Saucedo to go to Hanford and testify in Maricela has spent years struggling to clean front of the Kings County Board of Supervisors up the air and water in her town and to about the death of her infant child. Imagine protect the health of her neighbors, friends how her knees shook and how her voice and family. cracked. But she did it. The community did it. To add insult to injury, the community faces They’ve had many victories along the way. yet another environmental hazard—the giant El Pueblo got the EPA to fine the facility for toxic waste disposal facility located right polluting and not disposing of the toxic outside the town. Chemical Waste Management’s waste correctly. They advocated for a water Kettleman Hills facility is the largest toxic waste purification plan and, this year, the California landfill west of the Mississippi River.