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Dedicated to Empowering  
Birth Mothers of Adopted Children  
April 2017
Volume 7, Number 2
In This Issue

Board
Grace Flannery,
President 

Ramona Pedersen, Vice President

Christina Ogburn Chow, Treasurer

Rachel Herndon, Secretary 

Mark Anderson 
Brooke Bergman
Megan Cohen
Kali Kirchenbauer
Kurt Schliemann
Angie Swanson-Kyriaco

Greetings OYFF Community!

Last month, we kicked off International Women's Day with a terrific social media campaign to raise awareness of birth/first mothers and celebrate this important event for women globally. I was also honored to attend the 61st UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York City and am excited to report back to you my findings and insights.

As one of 8,000 delegates from all parts of the world, I witnessed panel discussions and joined many conversations centered on the economic empowerment of women. When representatives from Zimbabwe to Norway shared their country's realities, I was struck by how relevant OYFF programs are to the global experiences of women.

During the opening ceremony, the new UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, spoke of how we are all better off when we open doors for women and girls and how these investments last generations. Indeed, our work supporting and empowering birth/first mothers is an investment in the future of not only our clients, but also the families and communities we serve.

Every one of the other delegates I met was impressed with On Your Feet Foundation's unique model for supporting birth/first mothers and reported that no such services existed in their countries. As a community, we should take pride in the impact our unique program has on birth/first mothers. We should also know that we still have many more birth/first mothers to reach. With that in mind, this year our goal is to expand our services to the rest of California.

I hope you will join us at an OYFF event this year as we continue to open doors for birth/first mothers!

Warmly,

Robin
Point of View (POV)
On February 25th OYFF launched its Point of View series.   OYFF members will regularly review books, movies, TV series, or other pop culture news items that include the birth/first mother experience.  The first POV was Emily Brunett's review of Oscar-nominated  Lion .  The second POV,  Angie Swanson-Kyriaco's review of This is Us, came out last week.

You can read them both here: Lion and  This Is Us.

If you are interested in being a reviewer, please contact Jenny Sindel at jenny.sindel@gmail.com.  
Evaluation Surveys
We are undertaking evaluations of our counseling grants program and our educational grants program.  In the past month we've sent out surveys to all counseling grant recipients, clinicians and educational grant recipients.  If you haven't yet received a survey and would like to participate, contact Jenny Sindel at jenny@onyourfeetca.org.
Speaker's Bureau
Many thanks to Rosangela Braganca who spoke on behalf of OYFF at Heartsent Adoptions in Orinda on February 25th.  Rosangela discussed her experiences as a birth mother and the role birth mothers can play in their children's lives.  

If you are interested in scheduling a birth/mother speaker (or speakers) for an event, please contact OYFF.  OYFF has a group of women who are trained to share their stories with the public for educational purposes.
Coming soon!
  • May 6th, 2017 OYFF will host its annual Mother's Day Gathering at Sticky Art Lab in Berkeley from 3-6 pm.  An OYFF hosted dinner will follow.  Click for Event Details.  Email Jenny to RSVP at jenny@onyourfeetca.org.  
  • September 8-10, 2017 will be our fall Birth Mother Retreat at Ralston-White Retreat Center.  Registration opens July 17.
Did you know that more than 85% of our funding comes from individuals like you?  Please click on the link above to make a tax-deductible contribution to support birth/first mothers today.  We appreciate and value your support!   

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