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1 month ago | 
womenspress.com | Mikki Morrissette |Sarah Whiting
We know that we could be giving a better world to the next generation. In these pages every month we learn about women who are creating spaces for greater listening, stronger support, and more collaborative action to help all members of our communities. That is how we enhance public safety and thrive economically. In short, it is obvious to the Minnesota Women’s Press community that we all do better when we all do better. The math works.
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1 month ago | 
womenspress.com | Mikki Morrissette |Sarah Whiting
The Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on how to create a stronger and more impactful criminal legal system in Minnesota, based on community-centered listening sessions, research, data analysis, education, and policy development. Its emphasis is on helping policy makers, legal system players, and community members identify how to improve public safety in restorative, fair-minded, and accountable ways.
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2 months ago | 
womenspress.com | Katie Dohman |Sarah Whiting
The recent presidential election left many feeling uncertain and fearful. But local advocates say that while it wasn’t the election result they hoped for, it’s one they have prepared for. “There’s not some grand gesture that solves all these problems, and frankly, winning the election was not going to be that either,” says Megan Peterson, executive director of Gender Justice. The upshot?
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2 months ago | 
womenspress.com | Mikki Morrissette |Sarah Whiting
In a way, having a “Leading Ladies” theme this month is superfluous, since the feminists we feature every month are leading the way toward stronger and healthier communities. But, in our current political moment, it is especially useful to showcase a few of the powerful women, nonbinary, and trans leaders who are protecting rights and standing up against a backlash of misogynistic, anti-trans, and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
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2 months ago | 
womenspress.com | Mikki Morrissette |Sarah Whiting
A unique support group in Ramsey County is fostering healing and change for women involved in the legal system. Founded three years ago, the group brings together individuals from diverse backgrounds, including women re-entering society, judges, attorneys, and other community members, to share experiences and support one another. The group is exploring ways to manage its rapid growth while maintaining its core mission of mutual support and healing.
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2 months ago | 
womenspress.com | Erica Rivera |Sarah Whiting
Thanks to Minneapolis Foundation for enabling us to continue deeper content and discussions about gender-based violence since 2024.
“We need more partners in this fight,” says Tammy Lee, the CEO of OUR Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating sex trafficking and child exploitation. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), forced commercial sexual exploitation generates $173 billion in illegal global profits annually.
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
womenspress.com | Sarah Whiting
I read Tom Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again in the fall of 1975, at Oberlin College, before I dropped out. In the autobiographical novel, a young white man from Asheville moves to New York City and then returns to the South, where he feels he no longer belongs. Despite Wolfe’s protestations, he and his fictional self still clung to the racist ideas he grew up with. As a young person who left Wisconsin and spent formative years in North Carolina and the Northeast, the book agitated me.
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
womenspress.com | Sarah Whiting
This content is underwritten by Valvoline Instant Oil Change across Northern Minnesota, a woman-owned business supporting women and families across the region.
When I talk with other survivors of sexual assault, I often remind them that healing mirrors the stages of grief because recovering from trauma is, in many ways, a grieving process.
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
womenspress.com | Sarah Whiting
It’s hard to “live, laugh, love” in these times. However, as alluring as nihilism and despair are, I cannot give up on change — because that’s what oppressive forces around us want. It takes a certain amount of pride and stubbornness to keep doing something — anything! — whether or not we have hope. I push for change because I feel an intuitive tug inside my body that something is wrong, and know that it doesn’t have to be that way.
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
womenspress.com | Sarah Whiting
The Minnesota Women’s Press editorial board met for its discussion of story angles for this magazine issue a few days after the election results were in. One member of the board is a college teacher, whose students are featured in the Tapestry collection this month. She said one classroom discussion focused on how to even define what hope is. Board members speculated that hope might be about how we find joy. Or how we build passion for change. Or where we find power in community.
