Blogs

December 7, 2018Alaska Earthquake: YWCA Update

As you might have heard, the state of Alaska experienced a magnitude 7 earthquake last Friday, November 30. YWCA Alaska is headquartered in Anchorage, just 7 miles south of the center of the earthquake. YWCA Alaska CEO Barbara Swenson indicates that the association experienced minimal damage, but major highways in the area experienced severe damage. Thankfully, there was no serious injury nor loss of life from this event. The association’s outreach programs have been closed the last few days, disrupting those services. The area continues to have ongoing aftershocks—2,000 in the week since the earthquake. Barbara is confident the association is equipped to replace broken items and repair minor building issues, and she’ll keep us posted on the community’s recovery.

Save the Date: 2019 YWCA USA National Conference

Mark your calendars for June 5-8, 2019, for our national conference in Washington, DC! This biennial conference is a time for our organization to gather together, learn with and from one another, and identify opportunities that will allow us to unleash and leverage our collective power as a national movement. As we being to plan for this gathering, we want YOUR input! Tell us what you want to see at our upcoming National Conference by filling out this survey.

Join WNBA and NBA National Grassroots Initiative: Her Time to Play!

WNBA and NBA are currently registering local organizations for their new national grassroots initiative, “Her Time to Play.” This initiative is designed to inspire elementary and middle school girls to play basketball in a positive and healthy way and gain crucial life skills such as teamwork, leadership, and self-confidence. Further, the WNBA and NBA recognize the importance of women mentors for young girls and thus seek to support women in coaching and athletic leadership as well as connect the curriculum to WNBA stars. This COMPLETELY FREE program includes: curriculum, Jr. NBA size 5 and 6 basketballs, WNBA posters, headbands, workbooks, and wristbands. Learn more about how your organization can register to join “Her Time to Play”! Registration closes on December 31.

Bipartisan VAWA Health Bill Sets the Standard

On Monday, Rep Debbie Dingell (D-MI-12) and Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA-06), along with 8 other original cosponsors, introduced legislation to strengthen the Violence Against Women Act’s (VAWA’s) health title. This bill would connect VAWA to the behavioral health system by making mental health treatment more readily available for survivors, training health care professionals to effectively evaluate patients for signs of domestic violence and shedding light on the lifetime impact of early childhood trauma and abuse later in life. Since its initial implementation, VAWA Health Programs have trained over 13,000 health care providers in best practices for assessing and responding to domestic violence and sexual assault. YWCA USA applauds the introduction of the bipartisan VAWA Health Bill and looks forward to moving it within the larger VAWA Reauthorization.

Share Your GOTV Success!

Thank you to the over 120 YWCAs in 37 states and D.C who mobilized their communities to get to the polls last month! Through months engaging in GOTV efforts, including voter registration, candidate forums, voter protection work, phone banking and providing election day support, we collectively empowered thousands of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities to use their voice and their vote to influence change in this country. However, our work is not done yet, we are excited to learn more about just how each of you supported your communities this election season. We will report back early next year with a summary of our collective work as well as highlights from our Nationwide GOTV Initiative! Please take a moment to fill out this feedback survey by Friday, December 14, so that we can continue to celebrate your success and measure our collective power.

Advocacy Actions of the Week

• ACA Open Enrollment for 2019 Ends Soon — Let’s Get Our Communities Enrolled! The 2019 annual Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period will end in one week, on December 15, 2018. Community members can visit healthcare.gov to sign up for an individual marketplace plan, or Get Covered America to find a local, in-person assister to answer questions and help them enroll.
• Join us in Protecting Immigrant Women, Children, and Families: YWCA USA is calling for the complete withdrawal of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency’s (USCIS) proposed changes to the immigration regulation “Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds.” As an organization serving families, women, and children often in our most vulnerable communities, YWCA is concerned that the regulation changes in this proposed rule would cause major harm to immigrants, their families, and communities. Please join YWCA USA in submitting public comments using our YWCA Comment Template by December 10th.
• Three things you can do NOW to oppose changes to Title IX Regulations:
  • Take 3 minutes to read this primer on your current Title IX rights
  • Take 5 minutes to watch this video on the notice and comment process
  • Tweet @BetsyDeVos to tell her that you support strong #TitleIX regulations that protect all students and a fair process that doesn’t give special rights to accused students. Ask her to withdraw the Title IX Proposed Rules in their entirety.

Stay tuned for sample comments from YWCA USA.

Phishing Emails

We're aware that YWCA's are facing an increase in risks to their financial and data security. A common threat to an association comes in the form of "phishing emails." Phishing attacks are emails that appears to be from someone in authority, IT, or a trusted business attempting to trick you into revealing your password or other personal information - often in order to fix a problem or verify an account. One common email ruse takes the form of an senior staff member such as a CEO emailing another staff member to complete a financial transaction such as a wire transfer or the purchase of gift cards.

One key step to determining if the email you are viewing is really from the person it appears to be is to review the sender's email address (separate from the display name, this can often be accessed by clicking on the sender's name in the email). If the actual email address of the person appears to be foreign to you, it's likely this is a phishing attack. Please contact your IT department or vendor if you have any questions about an email you've received.

Important Dates

• December 14: Deadline to fill out GOTV feedback survey
• December 15: Affordable Care Act open enrollment period ends
• December 18 at 2:00 p.m. ET: Governance Fundamentals webinar for board members
• January 10 at 2:00 p.m. ET: YW Connect (rescheduled from November 28)
• April 25-28: Stand Against Racism 2019
• Questions about what you read today? Contact communications@ywca.org.