Voices for Change: Immigrant Women & State Policy

New Report! Creating Successful Programs for Immigrant Youth

Report: The Changing Face of NYS: Immigrant Youth in Every Community (PDF)

Report: Building Bridges to Stop Violence Against Immigrant Women

View/Print the Voices for Change Information Sheet

View/Print Voices for Change Health Facts (PDF file)

Reports not available in html or other accessible formats are available via email at Dina Refki

The Center for Women in Government & Civil Society has developed a new, multi-year initiative to strengthen the voices of immigrant women in New York State's public policy arena. This program is based on the Center's commitment to equity, access, diversity and women's leadership development. Immigrant women's wisdom and experience is helping the state create policies responsive to the complex and often interrelated barriers of gender, race, and xenophobia. The Center links immigrant women with other advocates for women in the nonprofit world, government and academia.

Reaching out to Immigrant Women's organizations
During the Fall of 2001, the Center began the process of identifying immigrant women's organizations and local programs reaching immigrant women in rural areas, suburbia, and major cities.

Policy Roundtable on Immigrant Women: Assessing Needs, Building Allies
As a first step, the Center hosted a policy roundtable: Immigrant Women Assessing Needs, Building Allies on December 5, 2001. The roundtable brought together women representing immigrant organizations and potential allies among statewide advocacy groups. The roundtable identified major issues facing immigrant women that may be addressed by changes in policy at the state level; brainstormed strategies for building alliances between local immigrant women and statewide policy advocates; and considered useful programmatic roles for the Center that would strengthen immigrant women's voices in the state's public policy arena.

Program Components

• July 2002 Focus Group with NYS Office of the State Comptroller's program auditors on immigrant women's access to public assistance.
  
• September 2002 Statewide Symposium on Violence Against Women
  
• December 2002 Roundtable on Immigrant Women and Reproductive Health, and joint project with Family Planning Advocates.
  
• Focus groups with state health planners on access of immigrant women to Cancer and Heart Prevention Programs and Services.
  
• Creation of an Immigrant Women's State Policy Vision Paper.
  
• Network strengthening, including an IWNetwork listserv.
  Leadership development, including advocacy training.
  
• Web-based policy information, analysis and resources through the Policy Information Network of New York State (PIN-NY).
  
• Educational programs for potential allies.
  
• A mapping project, using 2000 census data for spatial analysis.
  
• Action research, linking academic researchers with local projects.
  
• A global networking project.
  

Contact Information

Dina Refki
Program Associate
518.442.5127
drefki@albany.edu