You're Invited! RC's 12th Annual Winter Forum and 42nd Anniversary Dinner Celebrating 42 Years of Rural Resilience  A Virtual Event - December 10-11, 2020 Dear Rural Coalition Members, Partners, Allies and Friends, For the first time ever, our Winter Forum will be held completely online! Join us on Thursday and Friday, December 10th and 11th to share our history and collective goals for the future, and identify strategies for strengthening this work going forward. As our Winter Forum is virtual this year, there is no registration fee. Donate instead to support Rural Coalition's grassroots policy building work. All donations are tax deductible. Click the button below to complete your registration. Each person who registers will receive by mail a beautiful, handmade face mask as a complimentary gift for registering. Be sure to provide your preferred mailing address in the registration form. For those registering multiple people we will send a follow up email. Register Here Once you are registered, be sure to keep a look out for follow up emails including Zoom links, a Zoom tutorial, a program agenda and further details! You can also visit the RC Winter Forum webpage for updated information. About the Rural Coalition’s Annual Winter Forum ~ Each year, we gather our diverse grassroots members – organizations, farmers and ranchers, farmworkers and youth delegates engaged in agriculture – and partners and allies to share what we have learned each year and to build our plan for the future. As we gather this year, we will look at the past few years and what we have learned in the pandemic. What needs most to be repaired? What new wisdom have we gained? And what can we do together to build rural economies from the ground up, care for the land and water, and strengthen the social fabric that weaves us together? We will continue the conversations we have had this year on reorienting the agriculture and food system to provide just returns to farmers and workers, and educate and train youth for the jobs of the future. Remember that your donations support some of the most durable and far-reaching contributions by our Rural Coalition. Our policy work is driven by your ideas from the ground up. While funding for this policy work is often the most difficult to raise, your participation and support is what keeps our effort strong and member-driven! For more than four decades, we’ve worked together to build policies and partnerships as a basis for transformative change in how federal resources are invested and in how our communities work together. We hope to emerge from the Winter Forum with a renewed platform of innovative grassroots solutions for an agriculture and food system that fosters diversity, ecojustice, cooperation, and community-based inclusiveness. Winter Forum and 42nd Anniversary Networking Dinner & Gala Winter Forum Day One - Thurs. Dec 10 (10:00 AM – 2 PM ET) Winter Forum Day Two - Fri. Dec. 11 (10:00 AM – 2 PM ET) Networking Dinner and Remembrances - Fri. Dec 11 (6 PM –8 PM ET – Zoom) – commemorating over four decades of Rural Resilience and celebrating together our shared work, and that of our members and partners. Discussion themes will include: Critical Needs in Pandemic Response ~ Learning by Story Sharing ~ Building Climate Resilience and Jobs of the Future ~ Youth Engagement and Growing Farmers ~ Equity ~ Democratic Participation ~ Traditional Knowledges ~ Women’s and Workers’ Rights ~ Land Tenure and Heirs Property ~ Rural and Tribal Community Development ~ Rural Community Based Research This Year's RC Winter Forum Masks Supports Social Enterprises for Women In 1992, the Rural Coalition signed our People to People North American Fair Trade Agreement with communities in Mexico. This project provides an important link to honor that agreement now and in the future. Our cooperation this year helps La Mujer Obrera and Niu Matat Napawika strengthen the bridge they’ve built between social enterprises to build a fair trade system that recognizes the richness of cultural diversity in Mexico. Funds from our Forum sponsors will support the purchase and mailing of the masks at fair trade rates for each participant. Your additional purchases will increase support and help us all spread the message that cooperation and care for each other is essential to protecting health and building the economies of the future. This year, each person who registers for the Winter Forum will receive a complimentary embroidered face mask.You may also purchase additional masks on our website here for $15.00 USD (not tax deductible). About the Masks - Each mask is handmade (and washable). The masks are created by the women of the non-profit network, Niu Matat Napawika, which means “Women Working Together” in the Zapoteco, Náhuatl, Totonaco and Raramuri languages. The mask sales are supported by our member organization La Mujer Obrera in El Paso, who will assist by mailing the fair trade face masks to each Winter Forum participant. Register For the Winter Forum Now Event Today at 3 pm ET ~ November 25th ~ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women Please join Alianza Nacional De Campesinas leaders, women, and activists today as we ask to End Violence Against Women with #CampesinasRising. Everyone deserves the right to safety and dignity at work and at home. Campesinas routinely face wage theft, discrimination, workplace sexual harassment & dangerous pesticide exposure. We rise for our immigrant campesinas. In and out of their workplaces, farmworker women are especially vulnerable to violence. Whether here undocumented or with a temporary H-2A work visa, migrant campesinas cannot assert their rights out of fear of violence. If you or someone you know is a victim of workplace sexual harassment, sexual assault, or domestic violence against women call this hotline now: 800-799-SAFE (7233). Join us today on Alianza Nacional De Campesina's Webinar at 3pm ET for a discussion with Patricia Castillo, Executive Director, P.E.A.C.E. Initiative, and Mily Treviño-Sauceda, Executive Director Alianza Nacional De Campesinas, on Zoom. In Solidarity, Rural Coalition Rural Coalition | 202-628-7160 | E-mail | Website ‌ ‌ ‌ The Rural Coalition is a 501(c)3 organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Rural Coalition | 1029 Vermont Ave NW, 601, Washington, DC xxxxxx Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!