Denise helped me start t-shirt sales this week for Social Work Council. So far, so good! You can still pick one up Monday-Thursday from 9am-11am for 12 bucks in the School of Social Work.
Monday night we had a Social Work Council meeting, and I registered a whopping 10 people to vote. I need to reevaluate my plan so that I can help more people register!
We also discussed Project 2012. Social Work Council will be volunteering at Project 2012 February 25 at River City Youth Foundation during the morning shift. If you want to be grouped with us, put UTSWC in the organization column when you sign up.
In the meantime, think about volunteering at Inside Books Project with me next Sunday! I changed the date because everyone wanted to watch the Super Bowl.
I also left Whole Woman's Health on Monday after I found out my beloved boss would no longer be there. Since my "internship" was over, I was no longer allowed to observe counseling. I was still allowed to audit, but there wasn't much room to grow until I complete my degree. Plus, working at an abortion clinic wasn't as empowering as I had imagined. I would rather be doing something to prevent unintended pregnancies. Don't get me wrong, I still believe safe abortion should be accessible; I just think I would be happier if I could do more to prevent someone having to make/go through with that decision. So now I will be volunteering on Fridays with Planned Parenthood instead.
Tuesday
I had another meeting with the girls from Voices for Reproductive Justice. They have a lot of great ideas, and I'm excited to be a part of it.
I look forward to some of the guest speakers they want to have, including Sharmila Rudrappa and Sarah Weddington.
Liz also had an idea for our shirts: she's going to make our logo a Longhorn that looks like a uterus, reminding me of this great passage in Tina Fey's Bossypants.
Hilarious.
Anyway, January 31 was also the day that Susan G. Komen decided to pull grant funding from Planned Parenthood. What a public relations disaster... turning breast cancer into a partisan issue over abortion.
Komen created a new rule that prohibits funding an organization that is under formal investigation by the government. Planned Parenthood was the only group out of over 2,000 that fell into this category. Creating rules like this is dangerous, as it gives government officials the opportunity to open investigations against organizations they don't agree with.
Several board members of SGK resigned after they learned of the rule in December, most notably Mollie Williams, their top public-health official.
Karen Handel, SGK's new Vice President for Public Policy, is a former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who has said she is "pro-life and does not support the mission of Planned Parenthood."
Anti-choice organizations celebrated this pulled funding, donating $1,000,000 to Komen after the news broke.
Planned Parenthood also raised money. According to CBS, they have raised $3,000,000 between Tuesday and Friday.
On Friday, facing public scrutiny, SGK reversed it's decision, and announced they would reconsider funding grants for Planned Parenthood. Nancy Brinker, Komen's founder said that SGK wanted to provide grants to groups that provide mammograms. Planned Parenthood conducts breast screenings and mammogram referrals.
At first, Komen lost Planned Parenthood supporters, but by reversing their decision (well, now they will "consider" grants to PP), have they lost Right to Life supporters? What about all of those anti-choicers that donated A MILLION dollars after announcing they were defunding Planned Parenthood cancer screenings?
Oh yeah, and then there is this, just in the nick of time:
Wednesday
I have two classes that I have to do community action projects for. In my Communities class, we were assigned groups: I was assigned to "poverty." It felt too broad and overwhelming, but we decided to focus on low-income single mothers. In my Social Justice class we got to pick our groups, so my group will be researching unintended pregnancies (exciting for me, since that is what I'm really interested in).
Thursday
I taught my second MOC! And I got more pictures!
These are the visual aids we use. FUN.
These are the topics we cover when you come to an MOC!
I felt more comfortable teaching this one since I had been through the process before. Excited to do this for another year!
Afterwords, I called to schedule interviews with someone from: Section 8 housing, Trinity Center, and MAP for my low-income single mothers CAP. Pretty anxious to hear back from each of them...I hope I don't blow my interviews with them. Any (serious) tips for interviewing besides researching the org/person before you meet?
Then it was time for Senate appropriations. Senate appropriates money to student organizations twice a semester to fund academic endeavors. It's really long, but as a Financial Director you get to learn about a lot of events and even student orgs you didn't know about. Then you get to help decide how much funding each of those orgs gets.
There is another round coming up on February 16 if you are part of a student org that needs monetary help with an event.
Well, I think that's it. Check out this link if you are a SW student and need a laugh.
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