17 years ago, Gloria Steinem (famed author and activist) and other feminist leaders formed the non-profit organization, CHOICE USA, a group that mobilizes and empowers young people to lobby for reproductive choice and social justice.
Today, they stand in a unique position as the only youth-run national reproductive organization in the country. In that capacity, they provide youth leaders with the tools they need to organize, advocate, and to work with other organizations within the progressive movement to influence public policy and build lasting coalitions.
Earlier this summer, Campus Camp Wellstone helped put on a joint training at Choice USA's annual Gloria Steinem Membership Conference to prepare students to organize in the fall. This year, Choice USA will focus their efforts on building consensus support for the REAL Act (Responsible Education About Life Act), which would provide federal funding for comprehensive sex education programs in public schools. Currently, only abstinence-only programs are eligible for federal funding. The REAL Act would fund programs that include information about abstinence and contraceptives. Here are some specifics, according to one of their fact-sheets:
- Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA-9) introduced the Responsible Education About Life Act (REAL Act) (S. 611, H.R. 1551) that would provide young people with the tools to make informed decisions, build healthy relationships, and have the information to protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
- The REAL Act would set up the first-ever dedicated federal funding stream ($50 million) to provide federal grants to states for the purpose of conducting comprehensive sexuality education programs.
- This education would be evidence-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate, and provide full information about both abstinence and contraception, among other topics.
Choice USA's 40 chapters will spend the next year planning and hosting events to raise awareness and build support for the REAL Act. They'll be collecting signatures, organizing supporters, and lobbying their representatives for co-sponsorship. But that's not all; as a grassroots organization, they're also committed to working on local sex and reproductive issues--
Like last year, when the Choice USA Chapter at Mills College in California won their struggle to open a women's health center on campus. And at the University of Georgia, where the Women's Studies Student Organization (WSSO) and other student activists collaborated with their Women's Studies Department to lobby the administration to move the department from a dilapidated building to a better space on campus. And like what happened at Williamette University in Oregon where a resolution was passed to allow previously-removed condom posters to hang in Res-Halls.
All across the country, Choice USA chapters are organizing, and winning!
If these are issues you care about, get involved with CHOICE USA or start a chapter at your school.
COMMENTS
A Great Collaberation between two great Organizations
I enjoyed reading your blog post. I attended the Membership Conference in DC and had the pleasure of being trained by Mattie Weiss who is a native of Minneapolis like me! The Wellstone Action training is engaging and informative. I took away a lot of great idea's and would recommend the training to others. I've been a part of the Choice USA family for a year and a half and am blessed to have gotten involved with such a great organization. These two organizations focus on youth and help foster the leadership potential we all have and create grassroots social justice powerhouses that mobilize their communities. I'm happy to say that I'm becoming one of them and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for organizations like Wellstone Action and Choice USA. Thanks for writing about Choice USA! And I hope the collaboration between Choice and Wellstone continues!
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