How to Stay Connected After Reproductive Freedom Week

Originally posted at California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom

As Reproductive Freedom Week comes to a close, we want to thank everyone who joined us–in person and online–to take action and create change in support of reproductive freedom.  You did such amazing work!   Thank you for your time and energy, and it’s been a pleasure to share this week with you.

While this particular advocacy event is over, the many individuals and organizations who work on reproductive freedom need your support year-round.  There are always new opportunities to get involved!  Read on for some ideas on how to stay connected to the reproductive freedom movement going forward.

Get to know the members of the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom

Many of CCRF’s 40+ member organizations helped organize Reproductive Freedom Week, and they all do great work on a wide spectrum of reproductive health, rights and justice issues here in California.   Please check out their websites, blogs, twitter feeds and more–they’re great resources!   You can also sign up with many of our members for newsletters and action alerts, which will keep you in the loop on current and future reproductive freedom issues.

CCRF also regularly posts events, news items, and job openings on our website,reproductivefreedomca.org.  You can subscribe to an RSS feed to see live updates to the site, or just add us to your bookmarks.   You can also use our website to contact us throughout the year–if you want to know more about a specific topic or issue, we’re always happy to put you in touch with CCRF member organizations who can help.

Sign up for live updates on this year’s bills

It’s easy to track the progress of the two bills that you supported as part of Reproductive Freedom Week, SB 138 and AB 154, as they make their way through the California legislature.  Our state government allows you to “subscribe” to bills, meaning you’ll get automatic updates, via the Legislative Counsel of California.  Follow this link to subscribe to SB 138, and this link to subscribe to AB 154.

Keep the conversation going in your community

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is share your Reproductive Freedom Week experience with your friends and family.  Tell them what you learned and why it’s important, and start new conversations about reproductive freedom in your community.  You never know who might be excited to join you as an advocate for change!

There were a lot of great conversation starters in Thursday’s twitter chat, “What does reproductive freedom mean to you + your community?”  If you missed the chat you can still check out everything that was posted via storify (thanks to our friends at the Bay Area Doula Project for archiving the convo!).  Thanks to all who joined us on twitter!

Help support future Reproductive Freedom advocacy events

We have big ideas for next year’s Reproductive Freedom Week!  It’s a long ways off, but we’re already working to make sure that this great event will be within reach for all who want to participate. CCRF is committed to ensuring that grassroots and community-based organizations are able to participate fully in state level policy work and advocacy, and we dedicate a significant amount of our resources to keeping participation in coalition events low or no-cost for our members and their constituents.  If you’d like to help support this work, you can use this link to donate to CCRF.  We are a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, so your donation is tax deductible.

Thanks again to everyone who shared Reproductive Freedom Week with us!  We can’t wait to see you again next year.