...to make Illinois the safest state for women and girls?
That's the question that the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) is going to be asking all year long with their What Will It Take? campaign. Thanks to a hefty grant from good ol' G-Rod, CFW has $2 million to spend to help ask that question. They kicked off their initiative on March 8th (International Women's Day in every country but the US) and have been going strong ever since, already having hosted seven town hall meetings around the state (including places like Champaign, Macomb, and the south side of Chicago) and doling out $1 million in grants to organizations helping ask and answer the question, "What will it take?"
There are many amazing things about this campaign, and I'd like to go through just a few of them. First of all, the idea of having an initiative that asks a question instead of giving an answer is amazing. They're stimulating dialogue throughout the state and really trying to get as much input as possible to answer that question. They hope to reach 4 million people by the end of the campaign, and with such a rigorous schedule, I'm confident they will. They launched an intense ad campaign, putting posters on public transportation, producing PSAs for both the radio and television, and taking out full-page ads in many of Chicago's print media. They're getting in our faces about it because it seems like such a silent question- everybody's complaining about it, but nobody's facing up to the fact that the answer to that question is us. We are what it will take to make Illinois the safest state for women and girls, and we are what will make this world safer for women and girls. We just need to own up to it.
Another amazing aspect of this initiative is that they have an entire Men's Initative included in it. CFW feels that men have not really been considered allies in the fight against gender-based violence, and they're right. We are such a victim-blaming society (What was she wearing? Was she drunk? Was she leading him on? Did she deserve it?), that the perpetrators, who are mostly men, are never considered. So, CFW wants to change that by taking the question to men and boys as well. They're asking men what will it take, and they're reaching out to boys to show them early on that gender-based violence is unacceptable. By reaching them earlier, it helps instill the message before they are bombarded by mainstream media and other forms of influence in this society.
I attended one of their town hall meetings the other night and was so impressed with the program. There were multiple performance artists there to speak about different issues in women's lives, such as body image, sexual assault, prostitution, and even men's views of women's issues. They then opened the floor up to everyone in the audience to voice their own concerns and comments about the issues in their lives regarding women's rights. It was great to hear so many men and women talk about what they see the biggest concern is in the fight for women's rights and to hear the different challenges and hopes that exist.
As Hannah Rosenthal, the fabulous executive director for Chicago Foundation for Women said, "Asking a question begs an answer." So, please check out the website for What Will It Take? . Attend a town hall, attend their events, give them your ideas and comments, get involved. Let's all start asking the question; to ourselves, to our friends, our family, our coworkers, strangers on the street, everyone around us. Let's start shouting the questions, screaming the question, until we start coming up with answers and actions that will help make Illinois the safest state in the country for women and girls. Because once we do that, the next step is the country, then the world.
That's the question that the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) is going to be asking all year long with their What Will It Take? campaign. Thanks to a hefty grant from good ol' G-Rod, CFW has $2 million to spend to help ask that question. They kicked off their initiative on March 8th (International Women's Day in every country but the US) and have been going strong ever since, already having hosted seven town hall meetings around the state (including places like Champaign, Macomb, and the south side of Chicago) and doling out $1 million in grants to organizations helping ask and answer the question, "What will it take?"
There are many amazing things about this campaign, and I'd like to go through just a few of them. First of all, the idea of having an initiative that asks a question instead of giving an answer is amazing. They're stimulating dialogue throughout the state and really trying to get as much input as possible to answer that question. They hope to reach 4 million people by the end of the campaign, and with such a rigorous schedule, I'm confident they will. They launched an intense ad campaign, putting posters on public transportation, producing PSAs for both the radio and television, and taking out full-page ads in many of Chicago's print media. They're getting in our faces about it because it seems like such a silent question- everybody's complaining about it, but nobody's facing up to the fact that the answer to that question is us. We are what it will take to make Illinois the safest state for women and girls, and we are what will make this world safer for women and girls. We just need to own up to it.
Another amazing aspect of this initiative is that they have an entire Men's Initative included in it. CFW feels that men have not really been considered allies in the fight against gender-based violence, and they're right. We are such a victim-blaming society (What was she wearing? Was she drunk? Was she leading him on? Did she deserve it?), that the perpetrators, who are mostly men, are never considered. So, CFW wants to change that by taking the question to men and boys as well. They're asking men what will it take, and they're reaching out to boys to show them early on that gender-based violence is unacceptable. By reaching them earlier, it helps instill the message before they are bombarded by mainstream media and other forms of influence in this society.
I attended one of their town hall meetings the other night and was so impressed with the program. There were multiple performance artists there to speak about different issues in women's lives, such as body image, sexual assault, prostitution, and even men's views of women's issues. They then opened the floor up to everyone in the audience to voice their own concerns and comments about the issues in their lives regarding women's rights. It was great to hear so many men and women talk about what they see the biggest concern is in the fight for women's rights and to hear the different challenges and hopes that exist.
As Hannah Rosenthal, the fabulous executive director for Chicago Foundation for Women said, "Asking a question begs an answer." So, please check out the website for What Will It Take? . Attend a town hall, attend their events, give them your ideas and comments, get involved. Let's all start asking the question; to ourselves, to our friends, our family, our coworkers, strangers on the street, everyone around us. Let's start shouting the questions, screaming the question, until we start coming up with answers and actions that will help make Illinois the safest state in the country for women and girls. Because once we do that, the next step is the country, then the world.
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