Our Vision, Our Voice, Our Vote

On November 10, 2011, 9to5 Atlanta attended Georgia Women for a Change’s 21st Annual Georgia Women’s Assembly. Georgia State Director, Charmaine Davis and Organizer, Vanessa Faraj presented at one of the workshops about economic justice in our nation today.

The day started with an introduction from Stephanie Davis, Executive Director of Georgia Women for a Change. Board Chair of Georgia Women for a Change, Natosha Reid Rice spoke about what it means to have a vision. Representative Stacey Abrams spoke about voting, but she went further than just to say go out to vote. She told us we have to first speak up about the issues that matter to us to our legislators. Then we have to stand up and continue to keep holding our legislators accountable. Finally we must show up to vote!

Following introductions, we broke out into workshops for the next two hours. People chose between four workshops and attended one of them for an hour and then chose to attend another one hour workshop by a different set of presenters.

After the workshop portion of the day, we had a delicious lunch. During lunch, we got to hear from former mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin, author Pearl Cleage, and Vice President of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Deborah Richardson. They spoke about how to change things, where the need for change began, and advice for young people. It was a powerful presentation of well-respected women. 

We ended the day talking about the GA Legislative Agenda for 2012 and Project 2012. The key piece of legislation in the upcoming session is HB 432: Family Care Act which would give employees the option to use their own paid sick days on a spouse, child, or parent. Project 2012 focused on how women are disproportionately representative in elected government positions. Three female Georgia Representatives, Rep. Kathy Ashe, Rep. Judy Manning, and Rep. Simone Bell, talked about the struggles and the triumphs as an elected official. Ultimately, they encouraged us to decide to run as an elected official.

Overall, the day was empowering and makes me want to go out and change the world!

Amy Wilson, Jesuit Volunteer in the Atlanta Chapter