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Honoring the inaugural graduating class of eight fellows of WOMEN’S WAY Change the Narrative Fellowship Program, an initiative of the Women’s Economic Security Initiative (WESI).
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WHEREAS, WOMEN’S WAY is the region’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of women, girls and gender equity; and
WHEREAS, The Women’s Economic Security Initiative (WESI) is a long-term, systems-level collaborative initiative centered around the shared vision that all women in the Philadelphia region attain financial well-being for themselves and their families; and
WHEREAS, The Change the Narrative Fellowship Program is a 6-month program that empowers women who are currently experiencing economic hardship to share their personal stories through professional-level audio, visual, and print production; and
WHEREAS, The purpose of the Fellowship Program is to generate awareness of racial and gender inequities in economic opportunity and spur actions among three target stakeholders-media, philanthropy and policymakers-that address the root and systemic causes of the gender wealth gap and improve the economic security of women in the region; and
WHEREAS, Changing the predominant narratives from ones that stigmatize and blame women for their economic status to ones that highlight the contributions and aspirations of women with lived experiences is critical to promoting systems-level change and achieving gender and racial equity; and
WHEREAS, The Fellowship Program provides the fellows with opportunities to build and strengthen their advocacy skills and deepen their knowledge of the many ways they can challenge and disrupt damaging narratives and create new empowering ones; and
WHEREAS, All of the graduating fellows will film short video versions of their stories which will be widely distributed so that our target audiences and the general public can learn from their first-hand experiences of economic hardship; and
WHEREAS, We recognize First Person Arts and Resolve Philadelphia for partnering with WOMEN’S WAY to deliver storytelling and media trainings to the fellows; and
WHEREAS, We recognize that women with lived experiences of economic hardship are subject matter experts and need to be heard and listened to. Those closest to the pain of injustices are closest to the solutions. This program seeks to “change the narrator” when it comes to conversations about economic insecurity; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby honor WOMEN’S WAY and the inaugural class of fellows-Devon Bessick, Kelley Burnett, Marina Dominguez Cifuentes, Taina Estremera, Nicole Heary, Kathryn Hoy, Barbie Izquierdo, and Tracey Wallington-on their achievement and the completion of this program.
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