News & Events - In The News

Coali­tion Makes Impact on Key Okla­homa Issues

(Okla­homa City, OK) – The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion held its Annual Meet­ing and Issues Forum on Thurs., June 24 at Fran­cis Tut­tle Tech­nol­ogy Cen­ter in Okla­homa City. The Coali­tion shared high­lights and accom­plish­ments achieved in 2009–2010. Mem­bers focused on three major issues in the last leg­isla­tive ses­sion, includ­ing the high rate of women in Okla­homa prisons.

“This year we gained expe­ri­ence and built rela­tion­ships with Okla­homa leg­is­la­tors and other pol­i­cy­mak­ers,” explained Jan Peery, Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee Chair. “We were able to suc­cess­fully advo­cate for bills that would help all women and girls in the state.”

The Coali­tion co-sponsored a sum­mit that exam­ined the female incar­cer­a­tion issue. Okla­homa ranks first in the nation per capita for the num­ber of women in prison. The Coali­tion advo­cated for HB 2998 which would pro­vide diver­sion pro­grams to non-violent offenders.

Another piece of leg­is­la­tion that the Coali­tion sup­ported was HB 1814 which would pre­vent employ­ers from dis­crim­i­nat­ing against preg­nant women. Coali­tion mem­bers also suc­cess­fully pushed to main­tain fund­ing for domes­tic vio­lence and sex­ual assault programs.

“Leg­is­la­tors sup­ported all of these mea­sures. Our voices were heard,” Peery said.

The forum also included a ses­sion that involved edu­ca­tors and cor­rec­tions offi­cials. They helped con­nect the dots between edu­ca­tion, poverty, and incarceration.

State Sen­a­tor Susan Pad­dack par­tic­i­pated in a panel dis­cus­sion. She encour­aged more women to run for a leg­isla­tive seat. Only five women cur­rently serve in the State Senate.

“We really want more women to par­tic­i­pate in the process. Women bring a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive — and we can help find solu­tions to prob­lems,” said Sen. Paddack.

Sen­a­tor Pad­dack said that Okla­homa is next to the low­est in the nation for the num­ber of women serv­ing in the state legislature.

Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion Elects New Chair

(Okla­homa City, OK) – The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion pre­sented a new slate of offi­cers at its Annual Meet­ing and Issues Forum on Thurs., June 24 at Fran­cis Tut­tle Tech­nol­ogy Cen­ter in Okla­homa City. The Coali­tion elected Donna Lawrence to serve as chair of the organization.

“Our coali­tion is an out­stand­ing non-partisan orga­ni­za­tion com­prised of tal­ented peo­ple and groups from across Okla­homa. While we come from dif­fer­ent parts of the state, we share the same pas­sion — to improve the poten­tial of Okla­homa women and girls,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence is one of the founders of the Coali­tion. The Okla­homa City res­i­dent has a diverse back­ground and career. She has many years of expe­ri­ence in non-profit man­age­ment and lead­er­ship, pub­lic rela­tions and mar­ket­ing, and exec­u­tive coach­ing. The daugh­ter of a for­mer state leg­is­la­tor, she is pas­sion­ate about pub­lic service.

“I have a deep con­cern regard­ing Oklahoma’s rank­ing as the third worst state for women,” explained Lawrence. “The Coali­tion is out to change that — and we’re doing it through edu­ca­tion and advocacy.”

The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion was estab­lished in 2008 with Dr. Jean Warner serv­ing as chair. Lawrence said Dr. Warner’s lead­er­ship has helped guide the Coali­tion through these early crit­i­cal years as the Coali­tion grew its mem­ber­ship to more than 350 indi­vid­ual mem­bers and 33 orga­ni­za­tional mem­bers while focus­ing on key issues. Dr. Warner was pre­sented with the Coalition’s first Pio­neer Woman Award at the annual meeting.

The mem­ber­ship elected the fol­low­ing to serve as Coali­tion officers:

Chair — Donna Lawrence, Okla­homa City
Vice Chair — Karen Mor­gan, Tulsa
Sec­re­tary — Car­olyn Kusler, Bro­ken Arrow
Trea­surer — Kathie Tan­ner, Stillwater

Watch Donna Lawrence on News9

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris Steele to be hon­ored Leg­is­la­tor of the Year
Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion rec­og­nizes him for work on female incarceration

(Okla­homa City, OK) – The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion will honor Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee and Speaker Pro Tem­pore for the Okla­homa House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, as the 2010 Leg­is­la­tor of the Year at its Annual Meet­ing and Issues Forum on Thurs., June 24. The orga­ni­za­tion is rec­og­niz­ing Rep. Steele for his lead­er­ship and efforts to reduce the high rate of female incar­cer­a­tion in the state.

“I am hum­bled by this spe­cial recog­ni­tion,” Rep. Steele said. “As policy-makers, we have the respon­si­bil­ity to work toward cre­at­ing a bet­ter tomor­row for all Okla­homans. The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion does a great job of advo­cat­ing for the improved sta­tus of women and girls in our state, and it is an honor to join with them in this cause.”

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Steele authored House Bill 2998 which allows the Okla­homa Depart­ment of Cor­rec­tions to cre­ate pilot projects that include diver­sion and re-entry pro­grams, sup­port ser­vices, employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, and other resources for low risk, non-violent female offend­ers and their children.

“Okla­homa ranks first in the nation for the num­ber of women incar­cer­ated per capita,” said Jean Warner, Ph.D., Chair of the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion. “The Coali­tion made this issue a pri­or­ity this year. We part­nered with other orga­ni­za­tions, like the Okla­homa Depart­ment of Cor­rec­tions, to exam­ine this issue and look for solu­tions. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Steele has been a leader in mov­ing this issue forward.”

The num­ber of Okla­homa women incar­cer­ated is nearly twice that of the national aver­age. The Coali­tion says that diver­sion pro­grams can save the state money, approx­i­mately $56 per day or $20,000 annu­ally per inmate.

“By imple­ment­ing effec­tive diver­sion and re-entry pro­grams, we’ll help stop the cycle of inter­gen­er­a­tional incar­cer­a­tion and strengthen Okla­homa fam­i­lies,” said Warner.

The forum will include a leg­isla­tive report plus panel pre­sen­ta­tions on poverty, edu­ca­tion, incar­cer­a­tion and domes­tic vio­lence as they impact Okla­homa women. The event which is open to the pub­lic will be held at Fran­cis Tut­tle Tech­nol­ogy Cen­ter, 12777 N. Rock­well in Okla­homa City. For more event details and to reg­is­ter, go to the right side panel of this site, under REGISTER NOW, and click to reg­is­ter.

Watch the inter­views with Chair Jean Warner and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee Chair Jan Peery
CLICK for event pre­view on News9 | CLICK for event pre­view on newsok.com

OKLAHOMANS TACKLE TOUGH ISSUE: High Rate of Incar­cer­ated Women

(Okla­homa City) — Local and state lead­ers along with con­cerned cit­i­zens came together on April 30, 2010, to iden­tify solu­tions and lay out a plan to tackle the high rate of women incar­cer­ated in Okla­homa. The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion, Okla­homa Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women, and Okla­homa Depart­ment of Cor­rec­tions hosted SIS — Solu­tions Ini­tia­tive Sum­mit. Okla­homa ranks first in the incar­cer­a­tion of women in the nation.

Read more:

Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion Pro­motes Women’s Issues at State Capi­tol

By Jen­nifer Pierce, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY — A group of Okla­homa women met with law­mak­ers Tues­day for Advo­cacy Day at the state capi­tol, hosted by the Okla­homa Women’s Coalition.  The coali­tion is work­ing to improve the lives of females, young and old.

Okla­homa ranks the third worst state in the nation when it comes to women includ­ing domes­tic vio­lence and high incar­cer­a­tion rates. The pur­pose of the day is to set the ground work for future leg­is­la­tion to sup­port fund­ing for domes­tic vio­lence shel­ters and gain sup­port for pilot pro­grams to reduce the num­ber of incar­cer­ated females.

The mem­bers of the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion went from Sen­a­tor to Sen­a­tor and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to dis­cuss improv­ing the lives of women and girls across the state.

(Read Full Arti­cle)

Okla­homa Gov­er­nor Hope­fuls Make Pledges

By Michael McNutt — The Okla­homan Pub­lished March 3, 2010

No major fire­works — or even sparks — occurred Tues­day when the four major guber­na­to­r­ial can­di­dates appeared together for the first time at a can­di­date forum.

Each pledged, if elected in Novem­ber, to work to improve the con­di­tions of women in Okla­homa dur­ing a noon lun­cheon of the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion, a non­profit group formed less than two years ago to advance the poten­tial of women and girls in the state.

Lt. Gov. Jari Ask­ins and Attor­ney Gen­eral Drew Edmond­son, both Democ­rats, and U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City, and state Sen. Randy Brag­don, R-Owasso, spoke for about five min­utes each.  (Read Full Arti­cle)

COALITION SET FOR ADVOCACY DAY AT THE CAPITOL

Lun­cheon fea­tures Guber­na­to­r­ial Candidates

The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion will host Advo­cacy Day at the Capi­tol on Tues­day, March 2, 2010. The event will focus on issues affect­ing women and girls — and encour­ages Okla­homans across the state to get involved in leg­is­la­tion impact­ing women, fam­i­lies, and communities.

“The Coali­tion wants to help Okla­homans learn about the leg­isla­tive process, under­stand the issues, and meet with law­mak­ers at the State Capi­tol,” said Jean Warner, board chair of the OWC. “The sta­tis­tics on the state of women and girls in Okla­homa is alarm­ing.” (Read Full Arti­cle)

ORGANIZATIONS PARTNER TO ZERO IN ON ISSUE

Oklahoma’s High Incar­cer­a­tion Rate

(Tulsa) -  After its Decem­ber board meet­ing, the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion held a cof­fee social for orga­ni­za­tional mem­bers. The Coali­tion and other orga­ni­za­tions were able to learn about each other and dis­cuss advo­cacy issues.

The George Kaiser Fam­ily Foun­da­tion and Dr. Laura Pittman, Deputy Direc­tor with the Okla­homa Cor­rec­tions Depart­ment, shared why the issue is a con­cern in Okla­homa. The state ranks first in the nation for the num­ber of women incar­cer­ated. Rebecca Kennedy, a Coali­tion board mem­ber, is help­ing orga­nize a sum­mit to address the issue and its impact. (Read Full Arti­cle)

Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion Unites at State Capitol

Orga­ni­za­tion gath­ers to edu­cate and advo­cate for Women and Girls

See more photos

(Okla­homa City) – The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion gath­ered at the State Capi­tol on Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 18, 2009 to edu­cate its new mem­bers about the leg­isla­tive process. Par­tic­i­pants also met with law­mak­ers to address issues con­cern­ing women and girls.

“Okla­homa is the third worst state in the nation for women,” said Dr. Jean Warner, Chair of the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion. “We’re here to say this is not okay.”

The Coali­tion is a newly formed non-profit, non-partisan asso­ci­a­tion that involves women and orga­ni­za­tions across the state. The group’s mis­sion is to advance the poten­tial of Okla­homa women and girls. Lt. Gov­er­nor Jari Ask­ins offi­cially intro­duced the orga­ni­za­tion at the advo­cacy event. (Read Full Arti­cle)

FORMER LEGISLATIVE LEADER PROVIDES INSIGHT ON ISSUES

Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion hosts event at But­tram Mansion

(Okla­homa City) – More than 80 peo­ple attended an event on Wed., May 13, 2009 to learn more about the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion. Car­leen and Jerry Burger hosted the gath­er­ing at their his­toric home, the But­tram Man­sion, in Okla­homa City.
For­mer state leg­is­la­tor Susan Win­ches­ter was the spe­cial guest. Win­ches­ter was the first woman to serve as Speaker Pro Tem­pore in the Okla­homa House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Win­ches­ter along with other advo­cates spoke about the need for more women to par­tic­i­pate in lead­er­ship roles in the leg­is­la­ture, busi­ness, and other arenas.

“Those who attended this event are inter­ested in know­ing more about the mis­sion of the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion,” explained Donna Lawrence, OWC Vice Chair and Fundrais­ing Chair. “Women like Susan Win­ches­ter are help­ing sup­port the Coali­tion in cre­at­ing pos­i­tive change for women and girls.”

Okla­homa ranks high in teenage preg­nancy, incar­cer­ated women, and child abuse. The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion hopes to get peo­ple engaged in the issues and work for solu­tions. Founded in 2008, the Coali­tion is a non-profit, non-partisan asso­ci­a­tion of indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions. The group’s mis­sion is to advance the poten­tial and equity of women and girls in the state. See more photos

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