making the promise
of health reform
real for women
Women celebrated the historic accomplishment of enacting the new health reform law that can help us gain access to quality, affordable health care. We are working hard to make the promise of health reform a reality...and to improve provisions that fall short in meeting women’s needs.
Raising Women’s Voices is a national initiative working to make sure women’s voices are heard and women’s concerns are addressed as policymakers put the new health reform law into action. RWV was founded by the Avery Institute for Social Change, the National Women’s Health Network and the MergerWatch Project of Community Catalyst.
We believe women are grassroots experts in what is wrong with the current health system and what it takes to fix it because of our roles as arrangers of health care for our families. We place a priority on inviting women to share their experiences navigating the health care system. We responsibly apply these narratives to help shape health reform policy. [read Women's Stories]
What do we want? Health coverage that is lifelong, portable from job to job and from workplace to home, non-discriminatory, user-friendly and affordable for our families. We want it to cover women’s health care across the lifespan, including comprehensive reproductive health care, pre-natal care, maternity care, primary and preventive services, acute care, dental and mental health care, as well as chronic care. [read our Women’s Vision of Quality, Affordable Health Care for All.]
RWV has a special mission of engaging women who are not often invited into health policy discussions: women of color, low-income women, immigrant women, young women, women with disabilities and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Our advisory board helps represent the interests of these constituencies. RWV’s regional coordinators conduct outreach to women in key states and do community organizing and public education.
Want to get involved? Contact us!
In the 1970s, Ms. Avery co-founded the Gainesville (Florida) Women's Health Center and later, Birthplace, an alternative birthing centre, also in Gainesville. The self-help groups she initiated served as models throughout the nation and worldwide, and they paved the way for her founding of the National Black Women's Health Project (NBWHP) in 1982. As executive director of the NBWHP, Ms. Avery was responsible for producing not only the first Center for Black Women's Wellness but also the first documentary film by African American women exploring their perspectives on sexuality and reproduction. She is a co-author of Woman: A Celebration to Benefit the MS Foundation for Women, 2002. Avery studied psychology at Talledega (Alabama) College (B.A., 1959) and received an M.A. in special education from the University of Florida (1969).