Welcome to our new website! Our team is thrilled that you’re visiting and learning more about our mission to achieve social, economic and political justice for cis and trans girls and gender-expansive young people. The process of building out our new website and updating our brand began before COVID, the economic crisis, social uprisings, the election, the attempted insurrection, growing polarization, the assault on reproductive and voting rights and more. For all of us, individually and collectively the last two years has been a long and uphill road. Each turn of events has pushed us to deeply reflect on the road traveled, the lessons learned and the path forward. In the end, it has contributed with increasing clarity to who we are as individuals and as an organization. You will hear this in our bold and unapologetic voice and you will see it as you visit the website.
The launch of the new site comes at a time of turmoil in our nation and around the world. I am reminded that among war and international conflicts, it is always the most vulnerable who suffer the worst. The same is true right here in the U.S., where state legislation is being introduced at a frighteningly rapid pace in attempts to whitewash our history, dehumanize Trans youth, roll back reproductive and voting rights, and erase the truths of historically oppressed, excluded, and marginalized communities.
We, like many of you, wake up some days and wonder why we feel tired before the day or week has begun. But a more powerful force – our drive for justice, rises up to carry us through. National Crittenton was founded in 1883 (read more about our history here ) and many of the issues faced back then by girls and young women persist today. Through it all we have continuously evolved our strategies to highlight the needs and brilliance of cis and trans girls and gender-expansive young people. This new site presents a new strategy grounded in three interconnected focus areas of policy and system change, national organizing and collaborative research and innovative thought.
Everyday, we work alongside fierce young people committed to achieving social, economic and political justice for cis and trans girls and gender-expansive young people. As co-founders of Girls @ the Margin National Alliance (G@TM) along with members of the Steering Committee, we are launching the national policy platform of the G@TM, a connector of, and resource for, local, state, and national organizations and advocates working across sectors and systems to address root causes of the complex issues confronting marginalized girls, young women, and gender expansive youth. This platform is the result of collaboration and engagement across systems and fields, from local to national and across the generations. Stay tuned for coming opportunities to continue to build and exercise our collective power.We invite you to explore our website, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about our west coast In Solidarity gathering in fall 2023.
I cannot close without expressing my respect and admiration for the intergenerational dream team of women of color at National Crittenton. For us the work we do is personal, it is political, it is complex and it is the work to which we are dedicated. We will be unapologetic in our pursuit of justice and joy.
In solidarity,
Jeannette, President