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…advanc­ing the poten­tial of Okla­homa women and girls through edu­ca­tion and advocacy.

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  • About the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition


    Okla­homa has been ranked the 3rd worst state for women. The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion was formed 3 years ago to improve the poten­tial for Okla­homa women and girls through edu­ca­tion and advo­cacy. We are a non­par­ti­san orga­ni­za­tion seek­ing to iden­tify and pro­mote pro­grams and poli­cies all leg­is­la­tors can support. Individually, we may dis­agree on many issues. But on this we are of one mind: Our great state must do more to improve the lives of women and girls and help them achieve their full poten­tial.
    When we suc­ceed, all Okla­homans benefit!

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  • OWC’s 2011 Fall Issues Symposium — Recap


    Over a hun­dred peo­ple gath­ered at Fran­cis Tut­tle Career Tech­nol­ogy on the after­noon of Novem­ber 15 for our first Fall Issues Sym­po­sium. Here are a few images from the event.


    Our first panel was enti­tled “A Snap­shot of the Sta­tus of Women and girls in Okla­homa.” In the image above,  Okla­homa Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion Phyl­lis Hudecki (left) reports on early child­hood learn­ing and shares county-level socio-economic data; you can view her slideshow at http://ow.ly/7PEGl/. Zora Brown (cen­ter), Spe­cial Assis­tant for Health & Minor­ity Ini­tia­tives, INTEGRIS Health spoke on major health issues we should be focus­ing on. You can read Zora Brown’s remarks at http://ow.ly/7PPxB/.  Oklahoma Depart­ment of Men­tal Health & Sub­stance Abuse Ser­vices Com­mis­sioner Terri White (right) did a won­der­ful job of link­ing many of Oklahoma’s prob­lems to addic­tion and men­tal health issues.

    Panel #2, “Advo­cat­ing for Change in the 2012 Okla­homa  State Leg­is­la­ture,” fea­tured two OWC mem­bers guid­ing us on leg­isla­tive and advo­cacy efforts. OWC board mem­ber and YWCA Tulsa CEO Feli­cia Collins Cor­reia (left) is chair­ing our Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee. It is com­posed of the chairs of our seven issues com­mit­tees. Feli­cia talked about how we need to iden­tify, mea­sure, and under­stand issues impact­ing Okla­homa women and girls…BUT we also have to get shocked, get angry, share our deep con­cern and then advo­cate!  (As a case study, she shared how “domes­tic vio­lence” came to be rec­og­nized as a pub­lic pol­icy issue and the steps peo­ple took to get leg­is­la­tion and pub­lic aware­ness.) Then Jan Loftis (right), OWC’s Leg­isla­tive Liai­son, reviewed bills and issues OWC mem­bers sup­ported last ses­sion that will likely receive atten­tion again this year.

    After­wards we had a fun break with refresh­ments, net­work­ing and oppor­tu­ni­ties to visit with exhibitors (Okla­homa women-serving orga­ni­za­tions). Then the third ses­sion on “Reduc­ing the Rate as Which Okla­homa Incar­cer­ates Women” opened with remarks by Pam Richard­son (cen­ter above), OWC Incar­cer­a­tion Com­mit­tee Chair and CEO of Res­o­nance Cen­ter for Women in Tulsa. Pam talked about the OWC’s incar­cer­a­tion ini­tia­tive includ­ing bills we have sup­ported, a statewide con­fer­ence we co-hosted 18 months ago, help­ing estab­lish Count the Costs, and track­ing the Jus­tice Rein­vest­ment Ini­tia­tive under­way.  State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jean­nie McDaniel (right above) gave lots of rea­sons for us to get engaged in efforts to reduce the num­ber of women incar­cer­ated and car­ing about the impact on those women’s chil­dren.  New Hope Camp in Tulsa pro­vides sup­port and pos­i­tive activ­i­ties for Okla­homa chil­dren with a par­ent in prison. New Hope’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Judy Gann (left above) and Pro­gram Direc­tor Lind­say Fry-Geier both shared sto­ries. We also heard from a remark­able woman who had been incar­cer­ated numer­ous times for drug-related offenses who — with help from Res­o­nance Cen­ter — had turned her life around.

    Our final ses­sion was enti­tled “Cel­e­brat­ing Orga­ni­za­tions and Pro­grams Serv­ing Okla­homa Women.”   Mary Mélon, Pres­i­dent and Pub­lisher of  The Jour­nal Record told about why her news­pa­per hosts a Woman of the Year ban­quet each year and why they also are rec­og­nize ten out­stand­ing Okla­homa women-serving orga­ni­za­tions. Major Gen­eral Rita Aragon, Oklahoma’s Sec­re­tary of Vet­er­ans Affairs, closed out the after­noon with a per­sonal account about how a fam­ily mem­ber can go down the wrong path and why we should always con­sider what life expe­ri­ences may have con­tributed to their actions and behav­ior. It was a extra­or­di­nary and deeply mov­ing pre­sen­ta­tion. After the pro­gram ended at 5pn, many par­tic­i­pants drove the short dis­tance to the home of Susan Coles for refresh­ments and net­work­ing. It was a fab­u­lous evening and 25–30 peo­ple sat out on Susan’s expan­sive patio shar­ing and get­ting bet­ter acquainted.

    If you attended our sym­po­sium — Thank you! We hope you found it a use­ful and inspir­ing ses­sion. If you were not able to attend the Sym­po­sium, we hope you will try to attend our next major event — 2012 Advo­cacy Day April 4 (and our Lead­ing Ladies recep­tion the evening before) — both in Okla­homa City.

    Spe­cial thanks to Fran­cis Tut­tle  Tech­nol­ogy Cen­ter for host­ing our event and to all our excep­tional pre­sen­ters and exhibitors.  You can click on the images above to enlarge them.

     

  • Oct 17 (Tulsa) & 19 (Norman): Screening of “Amy’s Story” re domestic violence


    An exe­cllent film on domes­tic vio­lence is screen­ing in Tulsa Oct 17 and in Nor­man Oct 19.

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    Tulsa — Oct 17:
    DVIS and Ver­i­zon Wire­less are pre­sent­ing Telling Amy’s Story — Rais­ing Aware­ness of Domes­tic Vio­lence project! The 43-minute show­ing will be fol­lowed by a dis­cus­sion with dis­tin­guished pan­elists. The keynote speaker is Matilda Moss­man, head coach for the Uni­ver­sity of Tulsa’s women’s bas­ket­ball team. The event is at Cir­cle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis, Tulsa, Monday, Oct. 17, 5:45 p.m. Seating is lim­ited to the first 100 guests. RSVP by con­tact­ing Pat Lackey at 918.508.2707or plackey@dvis.org.

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    Norman-Oct 19:
    Please join Carol Stoops and Ver­i­zon Wire­less at a screen­ing of Amy’s Story  on Oct. 19 at 7 pm in the ball­room of the OU Stu­dent Union in Nor­man, OK. Hosted by actress and activist Mariska Har­gi­tay, and told by detec­tive Deirdri Fishel, Telling Amy’s Story fol­lows the time­line of a domes­tic vio­lence homi­cide that occurred on Novem­ber 8, 2001.  While we will never be able to change the end­ing to Amy’s story, we hope that its telling can change out­comes for the mil­lions of vic­tims, sur­vivors, and loved ones affected by domes­tic vio­lence every day.

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    You can view a brief trailer about this doc­u­men­tary at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pt0qoqFV6g

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Oklahoma Women's Coalition, Advocating for Women and Girls

720 West Wilshire, Suite 101-D
Oklahoma City, OK 73116
Telephone: 405-286-0356
Email: info@oklahomawomenscoalition.org