Dear friend –
The Memphis Area Women’s Council is all about active verbs.
We are about action.
Our outreach, education, advocacy and community engagement projects with multiple partners aim to ensure safety, justice and equity for women and girls.
We train, rally, speak, host, celebrate, document, stage, organize, share, strategize, recruit, press, push, coordinate, distribute, walk, march, salute, showcase, build, invigorate, animate, highlight, and speak some more!
Action matters.
On a recent night at a local hospital emergency room, a woman was brought in by police after a brutal assault.
When she was ready for discharge, staff attempted to help her find safe shelter. A nurse remembered that a box of Memphis Says NO MORE resource cards had been left in the Emergency Department to be given to patients who present as domestic/intimate partner violence victims.
The assault patient was given a card. She made phone calls from the numbers listed and, within an hour or two, had found emergency shelter. The hospital provided transport to the shelter.
This woman is one of scores of area residents helped by the messaging and awareness raised by the Memphis Says NO MORE campaign, coordinated and updated by the Memphis Area Women’s Council since 2015. Council volunteers talk to students and workplaces from healthcare, businesses and churches, sharing the MSNM messaging to end victim blaming, to share resources non-judgmentally, to help men join in stopping the violence.
As you can read in our “annual report” brochure on the website, the Memphis Says NO MORE campaign is only one way we act every day toward making communities safe for all women and girls to learn, work, run, play and live.
We are grateful you believe in us and the partnerships we foster. You are a crucial part of this work. Your support now will make sure this action rolls on in 2025!
Donate with ease using this link here or mail to PO Box 95, 38101.
And thank you!
With deep appreciation –
Bettye Boone, Judy Card, Tyra Turner-Cleasant, Carol Danehower, Julianna Daniel, Haley Graham, Carla Kirkland, Glenda Moses, Catherine Turner, Deborah M. Clubb
Coming on March 30, 2025: the 39th Women of Achievement awards celebrating history-making women of Memphis and Shelby County or women whose achievements are centered in Shelby County.
So --- now is the time to nominate the amazing women in your life! Use this form here. New nominations or updates to earlier ones are due by Jan. 10, 2025. Alternatively, print materials and mail them to PO Box 95, Memphis TN 38101.
Founded in 1984, Women of Achievement volunteers have produced awards celebrations every year except during COVID. Essays about 278 individuals and three groups are archived at womenofachievement.org and in three published books, documenting and preserving women’s role in local history. Nominees for Courage, Initiative, Determination, Vision and Steadfastness must be current residents of Shelby County or their work must be centered in Shelby County. Heritage nominees must have been residents of Memphis or Shelby County. No residence restrictions apply in the Heroism category.
Women of Achievement membership is open to all. WA members participate in and co-chair the seven selection committees that choose finalists for the annual awards in January.
WA is housed at the Memphis Area Women’s Council which administers the program as a gift to the community. The 2025 celebration will be March 30 at First Congregational Church, 1000 Cooper St. Watch for ticket information in the early new year. See you there!
The Memphis Area Women’s Council advocates for women on the toughest issues, when women are ill-equipped or sometimes too traumatized to advocate for themselves — especially when it comes to safety at home, in the work place, and on campuses.
This work is ultimately satisfying and yet can be tiring and depressing and unwelcome in many circles. That is why we depend on our friends and supporters to keep our energies high, our focus crisp and our attitude positive, with hope renewed over and over.
This time of year is a good time for those who care about what we do to help us stay in the fray — by helping to defray the costs of the work. Please consider a donation to the Council today.
