Loud & Clear
February 2022
Welcome New Members
Gretchen Arnold
Kaye Brinson
Patricia Murray
Susan Roth
Susan Taylor
Words from Our Co-President
I Chose to Teach Facts

My first career was as a teacher. The current brouhaha over “critical race theory” is sadly familiar and distressing. When I was an elementary teacher in Cairo, IL, White parents challenged our curriculum because they were unwilling to accept that our national (and local) history reflected bias, prejudice, and systematic policy that gave White people advantages over Black and Indigenous people. As a child I was taught that America is a land of opportunity, and that everyone has a chance to succeed if they work hard. As an adult I learned that this is not completely true. I chose to teach facts.
 
My goals were to prepare students to understand the world, encourage them to be lifelong learners, and educate them to live and work in such a way that they contribute to the good of society. If we fail to examine the inequalities and inequities created by historical design, we cannot learn from our history. If we do not teach reality, and help students understand how inequities were created and perpetrated, we limit their ability to design and implement solutions to reduce that inequity.

Black children today grow up experiencing the consequences of historical systemic racism such as real estate practices that promoted segregation: restrictive covenants, redlining, inequities in home loans, and disparities in loans to Black farmers. We do a disservice to both Black and White children by ignoring the racism baked into our culture. The point is not to assess blame, but to prepare our future leaders to do better.

Ruth Ehresman
Women's Voices Seeks Candidates for new Executive Director Position
At its December board meeting, the Women's Voices board of directors approved the hiring of a part-time executive director. Please visit our website for details about this position. Candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to president@womensvoicesraised.org by Friday, February 18, 2022.
Beyond Bathrooms: The Painful Story of Transgender Discrimination
Thursday, February 10, 7 p.m.
Virtual Program

The Missouri legislature is once again considering a variety of proposals designed to stigmatize transgender kids, making it difficult for them to access school restrooms and participate in sporting activities. Other proposals would prohibit parents and physicians from using widely accepted medical procedures to support these vulnerable young people. The cumulative effect is to feed growing prejudice and harassment of trans people across the state.
 
Speakers Christopher Lewis, MD, Samati Nioymchai and Rabbi Daniel Bogard will help us sort out the language of gender and sexual preference and understand the scientific basis of gender and the impact of various therapies. They will spell out the physical and emotional toll these legislative attacks and prejudice can take on gender-nonconforming kids.
 
You’ll come away with an enhanced knowledge of the issues and the arguments, as well as ways to share this important information with friends, acquaintances and your elected representatives.
SHED Builds Accessible, Inclusive Communities
February Lunch and Learn
Wednesday, February 16, noon
Virtual program

Join us to learn about SHED (Sustainable Housing & Equitable Development) from Mimi Taylor-Hendrix, SHED board president and Adam Brown, SHED executive director. SHED is a nonprofit organization, working on building community in University City’s 3rd Ward and surrounding neighborhoods. SHED has served the community since 2009 through volunteer home maintenance for seniors and people with disabilities. Recently it has expanded its programming to include career development (in partnership with the University City School District); community planning; and affordable housing development. SHED is committed to building stable foundations for accessible and inclusive communities.
Mental Illness Is Not a Crime: City Program Diverts 911 Calls to Mental Health Professionals
March Lunch and Learn
Thursday, March 3, 1:00 p.m.
Virtual Program

Speakers: Tiffany Lacy Clark, chief operating officer, Behavioral Health Response (BHR); Bart Andrews, PhD, BHR chief clinical officer; Felicia Spratt, MS, LPC, BHR 911 diversion director; Lt. Leonard Day, commander, Crisis Response Unit, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department
 
We were all taught to call 911 if we needed help. But what if we need help for a mental health crisis of a family member or a neighbor? Until recently, 911 calls in St. Louis City for a mental health concern typically resulted in a response by armed police or an ambulance.
 
A year-old program now diverts many of those 911 calls to more appropriate responders. Since February 2021, after two successful pilot programs, health professionals from Behavioral Health Response have been partnering with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to get people behavioral health services and prevent them from needlessly going to jail or the hospital.
 
Please join us to learn more about this innovative program. For more information, see www.bhrstl.org.
Addressing the Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
February is Black History Month, and the Advocacy Committee wants to focus on an important issue facing Black Women: maternal mortality. Some troubling facts: Black women are three times more likely than White women to die from pregnancy complications (Center for Reproductive Rights, 04/13/2021). A study found that Black women with advanced degrees were more likely to lose infants than White women who hadn't graduated from high school (What’s Killing America’s Black Infants? | The Nation).
In St. Louis and St. Louis County, 28 Black women out of 100 have inadequate prenatal care compared to 8 out of 100 White women, and Black babies are 3 times more likely to die than White babies (www.Flourishstlouis.org). Nearly 30% of city and county residents are Black, with insufficient access to public services, higher poverty rates, and greater exposure to pollution. In Medicine @ Brown, Charissa Chou calls for many structural and system-wide changes so that people of all races receive the same standard of care (The Black Maternal Mortality Crisis (brown.edu).

What can we do? Women’s Voices members can contact U.S. representatives to support HR 959 Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021 and follow our Racial Justice Committee’s work on housing.

We can also learn about the work of local organizations such as:
We invite you to join the Advocacy Committee as we address this and other critical issues that face our community. We meet monthly on the 4th Monday of each month at 1 p.m. To join the February 28 meeting, please contact Karen Francis and we will send you a link to the Zoom meeting.
LIFL Partners Add Credibility to Gun Safety Conversations
Lock It for Love volunteers are sometimes asked how we know that providing gun locks decreases gun violence involving children. We are encouraged by research such as an Arizona study which concluded that a gun-safety counseling session that included written information and free gun locks significantly improved safe gun storage habits.

Our volunteers do provide written information and free gun locks at community events. However, they rarely have time to discuss individual concerns with parents and caregivers. Fortunately, we have partnered with organizations that have credibility in their communities and the opportunity for one-on-one conversations with their clients.

Lock It for Love has added three organizations as partners: Better Family Life, Fathers & Families Support Center, and Mission: St. Louis. Along with the Urban League of St. Louis, they are part of the Neighborhood Healing Network and work collectively to assist both individual crime victims and victimized communities. You can follow the links above to learn more about the work of these new LIFL partners.
Healing the Heart of America – Visions for a New St. Louis
At the January Women's Voices program, City of St. Louis alderpersons Tina (Sweet-T) Pihl, 17th Ward, and Megan E. Green, 15th Ward shared their visions of St. Louis.

St. Louis’s population has been declining over the past 50 years yet the United States population has doubled. Pihl and Green examined how progressive cities across the country can inform their vision for how St. Louis can become a place where people want to live and raise their families. They identified three critical systemic problems that they believe a citywide comprehensive plan can address: lack of affordable housing, public safety, and education.
 
Women's Voices Members respond to injustice!
Jane Hardin, in her letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that GOP legislators harm the people of Missouri by their actions regarding opposition to mask mandates.

Joanne Kelly, in her letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, notes that letters to the editor from women are less strident than those from men.

Susan Lammert, in her letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that Missouri lawmakers are proposing legislation that would perpetuate a false history that fails to recognize the contributions of Indigenous, Black and people of color.

Lynn Lupo, in her letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that the St. Louis Cortex project is an example of how the city can persuade developers to provide affordable housing.

Mary Phelan, in her letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that Missouri has reached a new low with pandemic policies that endanger our health.

Mary Schuman, in her letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, writes that Missouri needs clean-slate legislation to remove obstacles for the formerly incarcerated in finding employment, housing, and education.
Have something to submit for Loud & Clear?

Loud & Clear is the official monthly e-newsletter of Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice and is usually distributed on the first Monday or Tuesday of the month. The general deadline for article submission is the Wednesday prior to publication. Click here to contact editor Laura Rose.
Membership Info
Even if you can’t come to meetings or become personally involved, your membership is important…and greatly appreciated.

Benefits of Membership
When you join Women’s Voices you:
  • Make our voice stronger when we advocate with elected officials.
  • Provide support to the organization by adding your name to our advocacy efforts.
  • Provide ideas and suggestions to help determine how to define our positions and choose our causes.
  • Participate in advocacy activities in any way that you want or is possible for you.
  • Take pride in your affiliation with a strong, progressive group of women working for social justice.
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Women's Voices
7401 Delmar Blvd. 
University City, MO 63130