Our Mission:Women As Allies is an organization whose mission is to bring women and girls of Color together to create opportunities for education, dialogue, networking, healing and action. And to build relationships of compassion, trust and hope that will bring about an increase in individual, collective and universal consciousness on socio-economic and social justice issues as they relate to black women and girls and other women and girls of Color. We also invite those who are our allies to be involved in this process. Goals: Our goals are to create opportunities and space to affirm our individual selves and each other, and to share an understanding," that what happens to one of us happens to all of us," locally, nationally, and internationally. Objectives: Our objectives are to share our experiences, to express our concerns and challenges and to take actions that come from a place of heart and consciousness rather than from fear, separation or ignorance. |
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My mother carried me in her arms. She held me close to their breast. She knew what I would need to survive. She knew as many before her knew, mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers that to be a woman or girl in this time would take confidence, courage and hope. She knew nothing would be given to me, I would have to find my way alone and unprotected. She knew I would need her smell, her touch, her strength, her voice, and her look to keep me strong, because one day she would be gone and I would have to remember. |
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Overcoming Barriers That Separate Us American History is filled with many examples of our inhumanity to each other, where our actions of hate and violence have caused pain and death to others and, subsequently, to ourselves. But in many instances it has not been just men acting inhumanely: women perpetuate hate and violence, as well. This is evident today when black women and girls are invited to join organizations, groups, and movements, but are effectively silenced when concerns of race are brought to the table. I believe this scenario, as well as the following scenario is also true for other women and girls of Color. Black women and girls must have confidence in our abilities and actions in order to positively impact our lives. This means addressing and empowering the personal, interpersonal, and political parts of our lives. It also means taking stands that may not be popular, expressing anger, being willing to tell the truth, and being grounded, vulnerable, and courageous in the face of adversity. I have many times sat in board rooms, conference rooms, classrooms, and living rooms as a black woman and watched how words can impact a situation, influencing assumptions, intentions, and actions. In America too many of us have died with unanswered dreams of a better tomorrow, a tomorrow in which economic, political and social freedoms for all are realized. Many of us have attempted to embrace the American Dream, but in the process we have given up our identity and subsequently our souls, because we believed that was required to belong, to be an American. Little did we know that much, much more would be required of us and the American Dream would continue to elude us. In our history of the past and present we have chosen to forget the stories of those who struggled for acceptance in the face of fear, terror, and death. This struggle continues today with individual and group hate. We must not forget that before 9/11 mass numbers of people were killed and slaughtered on American soil and this was done by Americans. Is it possible that America could be called a terrorist country? I believe that arrogance and privilege can leave us all blind to the pain we inflict. I believe that we can not survive as a people or country if we believe that we are separate from each other, if we believe that one group holds the moral values for all of us, but continue to practice exclusion of other groups, where war and death is not seen as a racist act of supremacy in which we are all fatally wounded, but where we are seen as the liberators of an oppressed people forgetting that we have many times in our history been the oppressors. These facts continue to be very evident today, and women of Color must remember. Lorene Garrett-Browder |
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Our work is not to inflate or deflate ourselves. It is to shed what does not work in our lives, to balance the feminine, to release anger, fear and jealousy, to honor the right of each of us to be, to make space for others to enter our lives, to respect the children of others as much as our own, to believe that all accomplishments are important to society, to let go of what does not serve us, to acknowledge and to bear witness to what is real and not an illusion. Women As Allies believes that women can change the world, but we must also be willing to change ourselves.
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Building lasting alliances and relationships requires being a dependable ally.
A dependable ally is willing to listen, validate, support, trust, and respect someone else's experience or point of view without judgment or blame.
A dependable ally is open to learning from a variety of situations, both comfortable and uncomfortable.
A dependable ally is open to hearing and feeling the pain of another without needing to understand or defend against it.
A dependable ally is not adversarial and understands how privilege and unequal access impacts all our lives; women and girls in general and specifically women and girls of Color.
A dependable ally supports, respects and encourages expressions of individual traditions, histories, struggles, and accomplishments which are part of the tapestry that we weave, and will leave to the generations to come.
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Our Vision:Women As Allies believes if black women are to work together as allies on issues of mutual concern we must build relationships and create opportunities and space to affirm our individual selves and each other. This is necessary if there is to be education, dialogue, networking, healing and action in these areas of mutual concern. We believe it is important that those who are our allies be involved in the process of understanding the experiences, concerns, and history of black women and girls, and other women and girls of Color. |
Our History:Lorene Garrett-Browder, founder and director of Women As Allies, participated in the 1995 International Women's Conference in Beijing, China. She experienced first hand the power of diverse women working together to address social, economic and political problems confronting women all over the world. She returned to the United States inspired and committed to working with women and girls here, specifically women and girls of Color. "I realize that women and girls of Color must have confidence in our abilities and actions in order to positively impact our lives. This means addressing and empowering the personal, interpersonal and political parts of our lives. This also means taking stands that may not be popular, expressing our anger, telling our truth, being vulnerable, and courageous in the face of adversity. In 1995, I closed my private psychotherapy practice, founded Women As Allies and began to devote myself full time to the task of researching what must take place for women and girls of Color, multiracial and multicultural women and girls of Color, and those who are our allies to work together more effectively. What I have learned from this research is that women of Color must learn methods that change how we dominate and oppress each other. We must remove barriers between us to enable full participation of all women and girls of Color in our society. We must learn skills that encourage teamwork, partnership, and collaboration. We must learn personal and professional communication skills that actualize and celebrate all women's and girls' talents in our global communities so that we all succeed. The outcome is that we, as women of Color, find common ground from which to view our social, economic, political and personal differences, that we demonstrate the richness of individual cultures and languages, and finally that we support women and girls of Color and our allies in getting to know each other in spite of our fears and stereotypes." I believe that women and girls of Color must lead in our empowerment. We are the only ones who can. |
Why We Come Together:The problem Women As Allies is addressing is the prevalence of discrimination, racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia experienced in women's families, organizations, associations, groups, churches, workplaces, and schools. We believe women must hold accountable companies, and countries that claim to be working on issues of economic, and social justice as it relates to women and girls of Color, and women and girls in general. In addition, we must address the profound impact that racism, sexism, discrimination, classism and homophobia have on the lives of Women and girls of Color everyday. This impact is poverty, oppression, violence, invisibility and injustice. Women As Allies believes that this impact is being neglected and our goal is to address it. We can no longer ignore these challenges that touch so many women and girls’ lives no matter what their occupations or situations are. Our approach involves helping women and girls, specifically women and girls of Color, become better allies for each other. Women and girls of Color are not seen as competent and contributing members of our society. Negative images and stereotypes of women and girls of Color violate and exploit us. Women As Allies believes that the presence of women and girls of Color in our society is ignored along with our challenges, our concerns, and our histories. Our contributions are seen as marginal, or not seen at all. The women's movement has made life better for many women and girls in America, but much remains to be done to impact the lives of women and girls of Color in America, specifically in the areas of economics, racism, sexism, violence and poverty. The face of women's advancement and achievement in America continues to be predominately not women and girls of Color. |
Who We Are:As black women and girls we believe it is important that our history is known. The presence of women and girls of Color in history has not been one of invisibility, inactivity, denial or silence. Although methods of invisibility, inactivity, denial and silence have been used against us, this has not deterred us. Our traditions, our histories, our concerns, our struggles and our accomplishments are part of the tapestry that we, as women and girls of Color, will leave to the generations to come. This is our legacy; this is our oral history; this is our quilt. Women As Allies is open to developing alliances and collaborating with individuals, groups, associations, organizations, clubs and companies who are willing to be open to our histories, experiences, accomplishments, challenges, and our organizational mission, goals and objectives. This openness is necessary to be a dependable ally with positive intentions. |
What We Do:We are currently focusing on educational presentations, with dialogue groups. Through our educational presentations we explore the concept of “allies” and “isms”, and why it is important to women of Color, our families, and our communities. This focus operates from the stated goals and objectives of the organization's mission.Over the years, Women As Allies' main vehicles have been our educational conferences, workshops, kitchen parties, educational presentations, and healing retreats. The educational conferences, workshops, healing retreats, educational presentations, and kitchen parties were designed to bring women and girls of Color and our allies together to examine the relationships we have created with each other, and to explore how to become better allies for each other, by improving our knowledge, understanding and behavior with each other. Women As Allies believes that this improvement in knowledge, understanding and behavior has a direct impact on our children, our careers and our relationships.The goals are accomplished through experiential exercises, dialogue and developing strategies that address the issues of discrimination, racism, sexism, classism and homophobia and their impact on the lives of women and girls of Color. This focus puts women and girls of Color at the center of the discussion on what impacts us.
Since its founding in 1995 Women As Allies, Inc. has conducted workshops locally around the San Francisco Bay area, nationally in St. Louis, Mo., Portland, Or., Baltimore, Md., and Anchorage, Ak., and internationally in Sapporo, Japan and Singapore. Women As Allies' founder was a participant at the 1995 International Women's Conference in Beijing China, and the 1998 World Conference on International Cross-Cultural Black Women's Studies in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Women As Allies has also conducted local conference workshops; 2000 Conference, “Women, Racism, Violence and Immigration”, 2002 Conference, “In Our Own Voices, In Our Own Words”, and 2004 Conference, “Call To Action, Women, Racism and Activism”.
Since our beginning Women As Allies has come to realize more and more that in order to bring about change we must take responsibility for the problems that impact us, form relationships that are supportive and life affirming, make private and public choices for ourselves, and place trust in our abilities to change what hurts us as black women and girls, and as women and girls of Color.
What will be our decision? |
Our richness as a people is expressed in how well we see beyond our fears, how well we direct our young, and how well we listen to the wisdom of our elders. And how well we remember the achievements of our ancestors. |
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Women Overcoming Barriers that Separate Us Through Prevention, Wellness and Relationship Building Using the Richness of Our Differences and the Power of Our Commonalties |
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Women As Allies’ position is social, economic, and political justice for all women, but the words “all women” must include and recognize women and girls of Color our concerns, our experiences, and our history. |
