CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Washington, DC —Over fifty women community leaders will meet at the Grassroots Leadership Retreat to mobilize support for grassroots organizing and a women-driven economic agenda which benefits all families and communities July 17-20 in Avon, CO. The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the Colorado Women’s Agenda are co-sponsors of the retreat with funding from the Rockefeller Family Fund.

Issues to be addressed include:

• Entrepreneurship
  
• Economic self-sufficiency
  
• Health
  
• Retirement security
  
• Work and family

At the Grassroots Leadership Retreat, women representing interests from across the nation will begin the work of turning that agenda into a legislative package. The economic agenda package, which will consist of model state legislation bills and best practices, will be introduced in state legislatures in January 1998.

“We need an economic agenda that addresses women’s concerns, but that also creates stronger and more thriving communities for all Americans. We’re going to carry that agenda into every state legislature in 1998,” said Anne Mosle, Director of the Women’s Program at CPA.

The issues addressed in the economic agenda package were first identified through CPA’s 1996 Women’s Voices survey of over 1,200 American women. In April, CPA and the White House co- sponsored the Women’s Economic Leadership Summit. Now, community leaders who have been offering solutions to the problems of women and families every day will help build the package at the Colorado Grassroots Retreat. Through the White House and Colorado meetings, grassroots and national women leaders are responding to the voices of women with an economic package which benefits all Americans.

Contact Ann Culp or Suzanne DeMass for details on schedule, location and participants.

Program chairs and discussion leaders for the Grassroots Leadership Retreat are:

Deborah Bloom, Executive Director, Michigan Women Matter
Jill Braunstein, Director of Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Laura Fortman, Maine Women’s Lobby
Sara Gould, Vice-President for Ms.Foundation for Women
Cecilia Ortiz, Director, State of Colorado Minority Economic Development