THE STORY OF THE WWA AND ITS VISION MOVING FOWARD · The Westchester Women’s Agenda began almost 20 years ago with a small group of women who met at the YWCA in White Plains to

The Westchester Women’s Agenda:

A Brief HistoryTHE STORY OF THE WWA AND ITS VISION MOVING FOWARD

By Sheila Klatzkyfor the Westchester Women’s Agenda

WWA: The Early Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Growth of the WWA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1998-2008: A Period of Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2008-2009: A New Set of Realities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2009 to the Present: The WWA Fights Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WWA’s Current Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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WWA: The Early YearsThe Westchester Women’s Agenda began almost 20 years ago with a small group of women who met at the YWCA in White Plains to discuss the impact of budget cuts by the O’Rourke administration on services for women and children. Camille Murphy, who at that time was working in government as the head of the County’s Office for Women, had suggested the meeting. Inspired by the New York Women’s Agenda, they formed a public-private partnership to advocate on behalf of women and children, with the intention of working initially to influence the County budget and moving beyond that focus if possible. The first co-chairs were Rita Brown and Anne Janiak.1

The ContextBy 1994 Andrew O’Rourke, a Republican, had been the County Executive for 11 years. His administration was known for tightening eligibility for welfare, keeping tax revenues stable, and requiring home relief recipients to work; along with building a new airport terminal, a new jail and a recycling plant.2 In 1983, shortly after O’Rourke took office, the Republican-dominated Board of Legislators had also disbanded the Women’s Council, an advisory group to the County Executive’s office, on the grounds that it did not

adequately represent all the women in Westchester.3 The Women’s Council was replaced by a 39-member Women’s Advisory Board, a move which some women’s rights advocates believed was motivated by government officials unhappiness with the Women’s Council’s support for the “pro-choice” position on abortion.4 This belief was not unreasonable, given that “the creation of the new Women’s Advisory Board came at the end of a year in which the Women's Council had supported the decision of the Women's Equality Day Committee to select the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion as the project of the year.”5

As a result of the restructuring of the Women’s Council the Women’s Equality Day Committee, a group of 22 county organizations which supported legal abortion and passage of an equal rights amendment for women, began holding separate Women’s Equality Day ceremonies, each year naming a woman of the year and a project of the year.6

The Westchester Women’s Agenda:A Brief Historyby Sheila Klatzky

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1 Thank you to Camille Murphy and Amy Paulin for their oral contributions to the history of the founding and early years of the WWA.2 http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/04/nyregion/executive-in-westchester-leaving-post-after-14-years.html

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3 http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/10/nyregion/women-s-board-has-first-meeting.html4 Ibid.

5 http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/nyregion/women-s-equality-day-a-step-toward-unity.html

6 Its early membership included the Association for Women in Psychology, B'nai B'rith Women, the Black Women's Political Caucus, Catholics for a Free Choice, the Child Care Council of Westchester, the Council on Women and the Church (Hudson River Presbytery), the Gray Panthers of Westchester, the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Council of Negro Women, the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Political Caucus, Planned Parenthood of Westchester and Rockland, Professional Women in Construction, the Victims' Assistance Services, the Westchester Association of Women Business Owners, the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion, the Westchester Women's Bar Association, Women in Self-Help, Women of Westchester, the Yonkers Women's Task Force, and the Y.W.C.A. of White Plains and Central Westchester. See http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/23/nyregion/2-events-to-mark-equality-day.html

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For the next four years the Women’s Equality Day Committee and the Women’s Advisory Board held competing celebrations of Women’s Equality Day, creating a rift which lasted until 1991 when the Women’s Advisory Board suspended its own celebration of Women’s Equality Day; a decision fostered by a study it conducted and which documented the deteriorating condition of women and children in the county.

This report, titled “Women in Westchester : The Devastating Truth,” drew on the resources of 99 county agencies to outline the impact of government budget cuts on programs for women and children. It described how “women in Westchester in greater and greater numbers are being ‘pushed down,’ often into poverty.”7

"Whether they are employed, pregnant, minority, abused, alone, healthy, there is one common denominator that exists for all women in Westchester," the report says. "Budget cuts have created a grim reality: The ax is destined to fall on the quality of their lives."8

While the County Executive O’Rourke welcomed the report, he declined to offer any new money from the county, saying “don’t expect Westchester to pick up burdens which have been assumed by other levels of government.”9

Growth of the WWAIt was in this context that the WWA came into existence; and the Women’s Equality Day Committee—which by 1991 had become a “35-member coalition of feminist groups in the county”10-- acted as a catalyst for its growth. In 1995 the Women’s Equality Day Committee-- which still met just once a year to choose a project and a woman of the year--honored Amy Paulin, then President of the League of Women Voters, as its Woman of the Year.

The group brought her into contact with other women leaders throughout the County and sparked a conversation with Rita Brown, the Executive Director of the YWCA of White Plains, to discuss the YWCA’s role in the community. They began talking about taking a more active role in advocating for women in the county and using the WWA as the vehicle for this purpose. Amy and Rita became co-chairs of the WWA and launched it as a PAC, or 501(c)(4)

organization in August of 1995. Under their leadership the organization made a one-time effort to endorse a political candidate. Amy had more time to devote to the project, and she recalls that the process was so demanding that they vowed never to do it again. Instead they focused the organization’s energies on County budget issues and efforts to act as a watchdog for government on issues related to women and children.

In the years of Amy and Rita’s leadership (1995-2000) the WWA tried each year to retain and get funding restored to programs that had been defunded. They also tried each year to get one addition to county funding. In the year before the WWA was launched as a PAC, the organization focused on the issue of supervised visitation. The next year Barbara Finkelstein brought the issue of housing to the organization’s attention, and they lobbied for eviction prevention. The following year they picked nonresidential domestic violence as the issue.

By August of 1998 the organization had a number of successes to report. These included:

• The supervised visitation program (a safe place for parent-child contact when a child or custodial parent is at risk of physical, sexual or other abuse from the non-custodial parent).

• The SANE program (a comprehensive response by local medical facilities to the emergency needs of sexual assault survivors).

• Increased County funding for child care, the Invest in Kids program and nonresidential services for survivors of domestic violence.

• Assistance in shaping the County’s policies on the renewal of handgun licenses, the provision of preventive services for children, banning smoking in restaurants and the creation of a needle exchange program to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

A fundraising letter to the membership noted that “In recognition of our contributions to bettering the lives of women and children in the County, we were selected as the 1998 Women’s Equality Day Project of the Year. And the

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7 http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/nyregion/women-s-equality-day-a-step-toward-unity.html8 Ibid.9 Ibid.10 Ibid.

They began talking about taking a more

active role in advocating women in the county and using

the WWA as the vehicle for this

purpose.

Westchester Section of the New York Times recently quoted elected officials as saying that we ‘had become a lobbying force to be reckoned with.’”11

1998-2008: A Period of ProsperityOver the next decade, under the Democratic administration of County Executive Andrew Spano and a Democratic-controlled Board of Legislators and in the context of a thriving local, state and national economy, the WWA met with considerable success in increasing funding for core programs including health care for the uninsured and victims of rape, eviction prevention, child care services, fair housing education, micro loans and financial counseling and others; as well as obtaining new funding for special initiatives such as supportive services for immigrants, support for shelters for undocumented victims of domestic violence, and other safety net services.

2008-2009: A New Set of RealitiesBy September of 2008 a new set of economic and political realities was sinking in. Since 2006 the agencies which contracted with the County had either been level-funded or forced to restructure their programs. Faced with a looming New York state budget deficit and an impending recession, the WWA executive committee decided that one of the

main goals for the Board should be to monitor potential fiscal cuts to programs affecting women and children.12

The recession that began in 2008 took its toll on women and children in Westchester County. R i s i n g p o v e r t y a n d unemployment h i t hard in suburbs across the nation, and Westchester was no exception. B y O c t o b e r o f 2 0 0 8 , i n anticipation of further budget

cuts and service constraints, the board realized the need for a proactive public relations strategy as well as opinion pieces in the press to make the plight of women and children more visible. They also decided to expand membership on the Board. Advocacy positions for 2009, under the WWA leadership of Kathy Halas and May Krukiel, included funding

at 2008 levels for WWA contract agencies delivering vital services to vulnerable residents as well as the continuation of projects previously funded. Meetings were held with the County Executive and the Board of legislators, in which no new funds were requested, only the continuation of long-term contracts and recent initiatives.

2009 to the Present: The WWA Fights BackIn 2009, in the context of a deepening recession, an upcoming election for County Executive, and amidst a growing recognition of the importance of new forms of communication including social media in influencing the political and sociocultural agenda, a WWA strategic planning retreat laid the groundwork for the organization’s expansion. It expressed intentions to invigorate the organization, strengthen its impact, and make connections to its grassroots constituencies. It also created working committees including the Communications and Community Engagement committee, which began functioning in September of 2009 and organized the first Women’s Café in November of 2009. These Cafes followed up on the intentions expressed at the 2009 retreat to “tap into our power and dynamism on behalf of the women we represent,” “get better at telling [their] stories,” and “find more women to join and connect to our grassroots.”13

Nonbudget items began to take up increasing space on the organization’s agenda. These included source of income legislation, pay equity, the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the hate crimes bill, and the establishment of a central databank on sexual assault.14

In 2010 the Republican-controlled County Administration cut back by 10% county support for agencies that contract with Westchester County. This came at a time of cutbacks in state funding and dwindling corporate donations which, combined with rising operating costs and increasing demand for services, put women and children further at risk. The WWA, under the leadership of Rosemarie Noonan and May Krukiel, lobbied for funding to remain level in the 2011 budget, dating back to levels approved in 2010 by the County Board of Legislators. The organization also lobbied against the County’s plan to eliminate support from public-private partnerships that provide preventive services and treatment to Westchester county residents.

By January of 2010 limits to the organization’s capacity began to show. Tensions arose between the organization’s primary emphasis on legislative policy and county budget issues vs. its

The WWA executive committee decided that one of the main goals for the Board should be to monitor potential fiscal cuts to programs affecting women and children.

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11 Unpublished letter to WWA membership dated August 1, 1998.12 Unpublished WWA minutes of September 15, 2008.

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intention to broaden its scope and impact. A note in the minutes reads “We are all reminded of our continuing intention to broaden the scope of WWA activities and our use of monthly meetings, but we also recognize the ‘special circumstances’ that cause us to focus primary energy on budget issues & strategies.”15 In the context of a shrinking pool of available funding tensions also surfaced about agencies lobbying on their own behalf.

Yet the organization took proactive steps to grow and expand to better serve the needs of women in Westchester County. In January of 2010 a WWA website was proposed and created later that year by members Antoinette Klatzky and Zoe Colon. Early in 2011 the organization published its first newsletter, edited by Sheila Klatzky, one of its members. Quarterly newsletters followed over the next few years, featuring articles on the upcoming county elections, domestic violence awareness, the value of safety net services, the WWA-sponsored women’s cafes, fair and affordable housing updates, sexual assault awareness and services for victims of sexual assault, the birth control debate, the unraveling of child care in Westchester County, reporting on the women’s summits, the possibility for enactment of family leave insurance in New York, the DREAM act, affordable health care and news from member agencies.

Themes of the 2010 strategic planning retreat included extending grassroots organization and visibility and educating the electorate, taking on an increased activist role, and increasing inclusion and diversity, along with an extensive discussion of committee structure and functioning. Discussion continued on the core ideas of feminism and advocacy. The organization recognized as a problem the lack of administrative capacity to handle the growth and diversity of its intentions, and the idea of “partnering” with an allied agency to help solve the administrative capacity problem came under discussion. The retreat report notes: “County and local agendas only one part of our focus and all projects should receive attention in monthly meetings.”16

A strategic planning meeting in September of 2012 expressed the focus for the coming 12 months as twofold—“a short term concern about the County Budget and a slightly longer term concern about the 2013 election and how we can educate and mobilize those who share our concern for women.” Lack of technology skills on the part

of many of the members was noted as a problem. A decision was made to hold a women’s summit in 2013.

Under the leadership of Rose Noonan and Kim Jacobs, the WWA held its first-ever Westchester Women’s Summit on March 4, 2013 at the Yonkers Riverfront Library. Planners and participants alike considered it to be a success, with 300 people registered for the sold-out event. The Summit generated publicity and created higher visibility for the WWA as a strong voice for women in Westchester County. It led to the creation of task forces to carry out actions growing out of the issues raised by participants at the Summit. These task forces met with limited success due to competing demands on the time and energy of participants.

The second Westchester Women’s Summit, held on March 29, 2014 on the campus of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, NY, under the leadership of chair Antoinette Klatzky and vice-chair Rose Noonan brought together 150 participants around the theme of “Exploring Feminist Leadership for Social Change.” It helped to broaden awareness of the concerns of women in Westchester County, created potentially fruitful collaborative relationships, brought in a younger group of women activists who share the concerns of the WWA, and improved the financial position of the organization.

WWA’s Current SituationOver the last 5 years, since its first strategic planning retreat in July of 2009, the WWA has grown rapidly. Its scope and ambition has expanded. Its membership has broadened. I t s g r a s s root s i n i t i a t i ve s including several Women’s Cafes and the 2013 and 2014 Westchester Women’s Summits have been successful in creating public awareness for the concerns of women in Westchester, and its outreach efforts have created potentially productive relationships with like-minded organizations and individuals throughout Westchester County

Membership is now at a peak, and the WWA treasury is more robust than at any time in its history. The WWA has a website, recently updated; with the capacity for members to pay dues online. Its Facebook page has 167 “likes”, and its

The Summit generated publicity and created

higher visibility for the WWA as a strong

voice for women in Westchester County.

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13 Unpublished WWA notes on the WWA 2009 Strategic Planning Retreat.14 Unpublished minutes of September 1, 2009 WWA meeting.15 Unpublished minutes of January, 2010 WWA meeting.

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16 Unpublished WWA 2010 Retreat Report

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automated mailing list has 786 subscribers. The WWA is poised for a bright future.

However, both of the summits have made heavy demands on the time and energy of WWA members, creating stress within the organization regarding issues of focus and capacity.

Tensions have surfaced—some of them intergenerational-- along fault lines of differences of g o a l s , p r i o r i t i e s a n d communication styles. These tensions, while potential ly productive, have led to the realization that the organization needs to come to terms with its mission, its direction and its structure in order to build on the strength of its successes and continue to act as a strong v o i c e f o r w o m e n i n Westchester.

The organization needs to come to terms with its mission, its direction and its structure in order to build on the strength of its successes and continue to act as a strong voice for women in Westchester.

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