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Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund

The Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund is a nonprofit corporation registered in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund is to conduct educational programs to advance the full equality and well being of women and girls in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  The PA NOW Education Fund is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 corporation and, in accordance with Internal Revenue Service regulations, contributions to the Education Fund are tax deductible. You can make a tax deductible contribution to the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund in support of its activities.

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Accomplishments

May 2001 & May 2000
York Area Scholarship Fund, established by Peg and Delma Welch of York, Pennsylvania, raised $2,000 in scholarship money.  Scholarships were awarded to women in the York area in need of assistance to achieve educational goals. Local committee interviews and awards scholarships.

June-August 2000
Unity 2000 March and Rally and the Republican National Convention. We received a $4,800 grant from Bread & Roses Community Fund to increase women’s participation in the events abfitzsimons@touchstonepartners.comround the Republican National Convention.  We joined the Unity 2000 coalition and the Independent Media Center to tap into the coalitions in existence.  We also worked with the R2K network locally to support some of the actions being taken by youth in regards to economic issues.  Through a series of  educational meetings and outreach to women’s organizations across the state, the PA NOW Education Fund:

  • helped to construct a women’s platform on  key issues with talking points
  • held a day long media training, skills building session that included materials for local activists
  • assisted with the permits required by the City of Philadelphia for the Unity 2000 Rally
  • organized pro-choice women to be a visible force during the Unity 2000 March & Rally (women were at front of march and had yellow pro-choice armbands)
  • arranged for Patricia Ireland to come to the Unity 2000 Rally to address the crowd
  • organized local volunteers to be Human Rights Monitors during the Poor People’s March arranged by Kensington Welfare Rights on July 30,2000 and arranged for Patricia Ireland to speak at rally kickoff at City Hall
  • worked with the Independent Media Center providing resources for interviews
  • produced a 4 minute spot for IMC television broadcast on the impact of the Republican National Convention on Latinas in North Philadelphia (IMC provided camera person and editor)
  • participated in interviews with the media (one was a broadcast from Drexel University TV which was uplinked to over 70 cities; we were instrumental in coordinating interviews with other women leaders
April 2000
A Gathering of Women was a day-long conference organized by members of the Delaware County National Organization for Women in conjunction with the Women Studies Department at Widener University, Chester, Pennsylvania.  Money was raised through sponsorships, tabling, and fees to attend the conference.  This event was profitable.

March 18, 2000
Women of Color & Allies Summit, Community College, Philadelphia, PA
Received a small grant from Bread & Roses Community Fund toward the Summit.  Fees charged for the one-day event helped to offset costs.  We made a profit on this event mostly because it was well attended. Over 300 women turned out for the workshops and general sessions.  Feedback was excellent, and many participants wanted the conference to be longer, possibly a weekend event next time.  Students for Women’s Equality at Community College sponsored this event, thereby providing all the space at the college for free.  The only cost at the college was rental of audio equipment for the general sessions and the closing.  Many women from the Mid-Atlantic Region of the National Organization for Women participated in organizing this event.

September 2000 & September 1999
Love Your Body Day Campaign launched by PA NOW Education Fund and the Office of Maternal and Child Health, Philadelphia Department of Public Health.  Held joint press conference with the Department of Public Health to show the NOW Foundation video, Redefining Liberation: Warning, Advertising May be Hazardous to Your Health.  The Office of Maternal and Child Health announced it was using the video as part of their workshop  materials presented to middle and high school girls in the Philadelphia School District.

February - November 1999
Self-Esteem and Body Image and Know Your Employment Rights workshops were presented during 1999 to community groups and NOW chapters in the greater Philadelphia region.  Presenters donated their services for both these workshops to support the PA NOW Education Fund.  No fees were charged for these workshops.

October 1999 to Spring 2000
We Are Family workshops were sponsored by the PA NOW Education Fund, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, and the Women’s Law Project .  This was a series of workshops presented across the state, which dealt with same-sex/couples’ rights.  This was paid for in part by a small grant from the Gill Foundation which the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights administered.  This series concluded in the spring of 2000.

November 1998
Young women Taking Power was a day-long conference held at Temple University Law School and sponsored by the student’s law group and the PA NOW Education Fund.  This conference targeted middle and high-school aged girls.  A small grant from Bread & Roses Community Fund was received for this event.  Space was provided free because it was sponsored by the students’ group.  The Student Action Committee Organizing Handbook was created by Erica Bacich and presented to all attendees (see Attachment E).  Financially we broke even.

April 1998
Essay Contest for Young Women and Men, Grades 8-12 (see Attachment F).  Prize money was awarded to the top two winners, plus a book to the third place winner.  Awards were given to the copy essay in each grade.  Awards were presented to the winners at the Young Women Taking Power conference in November 1998.  We received about 40 essays.  It was difficult to distribute the word widely to attract more essays.  Second attempt at this yielded 6 essays only, so we cancelled this project until we can study reasons for low response rate.
 

February 1998
The Women’s Leadership Development Project  produced a series of civic/community workshops for low-income women entitled, “Understanding Politics” and “How Your Government Works” which were held at Community College of Philadelphia.  These workshops helped to demystify the political process by providing information about topics ranging from getting involved in local community issues to how people get elected to office.  This was supported in part by a small grant from Bread & Roses Community Fund.

February 1998
Scholarships were provided to women of color and young feminists to attend the Women of Color & Allies Summit in Washington, DC.  As an outgrowth of that event, a network of women formed, which eventually led to the successful planning and implementation of the Women of Color & Allies Summit in Philadelphia (February 2000).

April 4, 1997
Envisioning Our Future:  Feminism Across the Generations
The Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund, along with the Greater Philadelphia Women’s Studies Consortium (includes Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, Haverford College, LaSalle University, Pennsylvania State University - Delaware County Campus, Rosemont College, St. Joseph’s University, Swarthmore College, Temple University, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University and West Chester University) presented an intergenerational conference at Temple University.  We received a small grant from Bread & Roses that we contributed to the Greater Philadelphia Women’s Studies Consortium toward printing costs.

March 1997
Public Hearings for Welfare Recipients:  Past & Present was a forum held at the Roberto Clemente School in North Philadelphia.  It was organized and sponsored by Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and the Coalition for the Welfare of Women and Children.  Welfare recipients provided testimony about the effects of recent cutbacks in welfare programs.  Hearings were promoted to take place in other counties, but they did not materialize.

April 1996
Women’s Vote Project ’96:  The Deciding Vote, was a nonpartisan, non-candidate based project initiated by the Council of Women Presidents, a coalition of 118 national women’s organizations in reaction to the steady decline of women’s voting participation in recent years.  The goal of the project was to registered more women in Pennsylvania, and to remove any barriers to participation that women may experience on election day.  Due to the fact that the majority of women non-voters tend to be low and lower-middle income status, special focus was placed on reaching out to these women.  PA NOW Education Fund received $5,000 from the National Women’s Vote Project which was half of a $10,000 grant awarded to Women’s Association for Women’s Alternatives for coordinating this project.