Last week our staff spent the day participating in a Gender Justice training in our office led by Western States Center. This was the first run of a new training being developed for our inaugural Gender Justice Giving Project, starting in just a month. 

I left the workshop inspired by the transformative potential of a Gender Justice framework and proud of our decision to prioritize this project. We started with this definition:

Gender justice exists when all people — especially women, girls, and gender-variant people — are able to identify and express their gender and sexual orientation without fear, discrimination or harm, and have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions for themselves, their families and their communities in all areas of their lives.

This concept is inclusive of all the victories the feminist and LGBTQ movements have brought us (and describes many of the organizations we've funded) while challenging us to think beyond traditional boundaries. Too often groups have been put against each other, and people (like transgender people and women of color) have been left behind even as we make progress.

Our Gender Justice Giving Project will allow our grantees to frame their work in a more holistic way and will help us deepen our understanding of how transformative, cross-identity movements are built.

Please take the time to learn more about the Project here. We're working hard to recruit for this and our other Giving Projects now–please consider joining and spread the word!
 

~ Zeke
Social Justice Fund NW