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Throughout the year, the Commission on the Status of Women promotes policy recommendations and supports legislation to promote gender equity and the well-being of all women. Learn more about some of the projects and initiatives the Commission has supported.
As part of the 100th anniversary of women fighting for and obtaining the vote, the Commission is serving on the Women’s Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts. This project celebrated the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
The Commission co-sponsored a forum based on a report, Exploring Alternatives to Incarceration for Women in Massachusetts, released in the spring of 2011. As a result of the forum, the Massachusetts Women’s Justice Network (MWJN) was formed to develop initiatives and innovations that promote and support alternatives to incarceration for female offenders in Massachusetts. The MWJN conducts trainings in trauma-informed care for people working with women in the criminal justice system – probation officers, police officers, etc, – and strives to represent the needs of female offenders for the Governor’s Criminal Justice Commission and in the Department of Corrections “Master Plan.”
The Cambridge Women’s Commission is a founding member of the Massachusetts Women’s Justice Network (MWJN) run out of the Wellesley Centers for Women. Since 2010, the network, which includes policy makers, local and state government workers, non-profit leaders, formerly incarcerated women, and community activists, has worked to include the voice of women in statewide discussions of criminal justice reform.
The MWJN developed six Fact Sheets that have been widely distributed to agencies and policy makers. The Fact Sheets summarize critical concerns affecting women offenders in Massachusetts and the US: trauma-informed training; women centered screening instruments; implications of the MA Corrections Master Plan for Women; Lessons from Abroad; Effective Gender-responsive Programs; and examples of Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) for women.
The Immigrant Women’s Roundtable (IWR) was born out of the Women’s Data Workshop on the Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge the IWR is a response to community members who voiced their concern that immigrant women’s influence has been overlooked at times. The absence of any accurate source of data concerning immigrant women living in Cambridge not only hinders their participation in, and use of, the programs and services that are available to them, but also conceals the gaps in service that still exist. Comprised of providers (i.e., ESL, healthcare, public housing) and immigrant women, the IWR meets throughout the year to strategize and improve the mechanisms that exist and to identify those that do not to better reach and serve marginalized communities in the city and to engage them.
A citywide survey of immigrant women was developed to gather data to better connect with elected officials, City departments and agencies. The data gathered serves as a starting point in the conversation with immigrant women and children in Cambridge and helps to provide a wider picture of who is living in our community. In early 2012, the Commission released the Immigrant Women’s Roundtable Report: A comprehensive look at immigrant women and their families living in Cambridge (View Report Summary).
This second guide was developed to address the different needs of women who are homeless with children and offer them a starting point to learn about the services available to them in the Cambridge, Somerville, and Greater Boston areas. It is meant to support their efforts to regain independence and find housing for their families. The guide is based on and includes direct tips and inspiration from women who have gone through the experience of homelessness. (download You Find Your Strength: A guide for women and their families who are homeless in Cambridge, Somerville, and the Greater Boston area in English. The guide is also available in other languages.)
The Commission endorsed and supported You Find Your Strength: A Guide for Women Who Are Homeless By Women Who Are Homeless in Cambridge and Somerville, an urgently needed publication for women facing homelessness that offers support, wisdom, and practical information and advice. In addition to the many homeless, or formerly homeless, women who contributed to the project, the guide was made possible through the combined efforts of Sarah Zaman, Harvard Medical School student; Pat Maher, Healthcare for the Homeless nurse practitioner; Barbara Watts, Cambridge housing advocate; and Yadira Ramos, editor/designer.
The Women's Commission produced a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge. Written in collaboration with the Institute for Community Health and the Cambridge Public Health Department, the report is an easily accessible resource that enables policymakers, program developers, and others to make more informed decisions about their work, as well as to stimulate further program and policy research. In addition to providing a current picture of women and girls in Cambridge, the report serves as a benchmark by which to measure and track future trends. Overall, the report helps the community to assess women’s levels of, and barriers to, equality and progress in achieving opportunities.
The Commission presented City Council with its preliminary findings from the Women’s Data Workshop. The document, A Look at Women in Cambridge Now (download the pdf), recommended three strategies for City departments and agencies to improve policy, programming, and funding opportunities:
The Commission sponsored the Women’s Data Workshop to provide community leaders and stakeholders with an opportunity to explore and interpret data from the Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge. The Commission reviewed and analyzed their combined responses to develop three key strategies to increase general program impact, as well as recommendations for five key areas of City programming—Economic Issues, Older Women, Women’s Health, Women’s Safety, and Young Women/Girls. (download the recommendations, A Look at Women in Cambridge Now)
The Commission’s director participates on the committee, whose goal is to celebrate, educate, and promote the diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds of City employees by offering various educational events and activities throughout the year.
Responding to the requests of youth-serving departments and organizations in the City, the Cambridge Women’s Commission developed Identity, Relationships, and Media: An activity guide for Cambridge’s youth-serving programs (download the pdf) to address gender and gender stereotypes through the lens of identity, relationships, and media for middle and high school age youth.Identity, Relationships, and Media guide cover
In order to build a more resilient, healthy Cambridge, many of our local youth-serving organizations have taken on the responsibility of meeting the social and emotional needs of youth in their programs, leading them to discuss larger and often difficult social issues that affect their youth: race, gender, sexuality, and abuse.
Recognizing that identity is intersectional and complex, the Commission emphasized a holistic approach for each one of the activities. The activity guide also includes a section devoted to gender-focused programs in Cambridge as well as additional resources for youth workers and for youth.
Begun as a City and community-wide effort to address domestic violence, the Initiative now resides within the Executive Office. The Women’s Commission serves on the Steering and Executive Committees and works to engage and mobilize the many communities within Cambridge to change attitudes, behaviors, policies, and practices to prevent and bring attention to domestic and gender-based violence.
During a spike in statewide domestic violence fatalities in 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a public health advisory on domestic violence. Locally, the rise in abuse prevention orders in Cambridge District Court prompted the communities of Cambridge, Arlington, and Belmont to form a High Risk Assessment and Response Team (CAB HART) to reduce and prevent domestic violence homicides. Through CAB HART, the existing relationships between police, courts, and community providers are refined and tightened; enabling the team to quickly identify the cases with the highest risk of lethality. After identification, CAB HART members work to develop individualized intervention plans to interrupt the cycle of escalating violence.
The CAB HART approach is modeled after the successful and innovative High Risk Response Team created by the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and includes both a primary team and an advisory group. Participants include the Cambridge, Arlington, and Belmont Police Departments, The Guidance Center, Cambridge Public Health Department, RESPOND, Inc., Transition House, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Office of Probation, Department of Children and Families, Probate Court, and the Commission.
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