Our Ground, Our Voices: Uprooting Structural Barriers on Capitol Hill

On October 18, CLASP joined several partners in co-hosting a Capitol Hill briefing entitled “Our Ground, Our Voices, Policy Priorities for Young Women of Color” aimed at policymakers, legislative staffers, and allies. Over the past couple of years, CLASP has used an economic justice lens to focus on policy issues impacting young women of color (YWOC).

The intersectional panel at the Hill briefing featured four dynamic and resilient women of color. These women addressed the human consequence of criminal justice, immigration, health care, and education policies on women and their communities when they are not at the table and forgotten in legislation.

Preventing ACEs: Getting to the Root of Community Trauma

Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Leveraging the Best Available Evidence." The CDC’s strategies align with much of CLASP’s advocacy work; however, making equitable gains in preventing ACEs requires intervening at the structural level to address systemic racism and oppression.

Children living in poverty are particularly likely to experience ACEs and Black children are disproprotioantely represented among children with ACEs. To prevent ACEs, we must support both the top-level policies recommended by the CDC and systems change strategies that intervene at the root level to dismantle systems of power.