[Imc-girls] Second Draft of Press Release

[Anne Odom]

All - here's another draft of the press release.  Thanks to Amy Aidman and
Shawn Williams for suggestions.

Shawn - I was unclear as to whether you wanted me to replace the whole
quote, or just the front half.  Let me know if you want it pared down.

Zoe and Danielle - please send me confirmation that I can use the quotes I
made up for you, or send me new quotes.

I am going to start distributing this to news outlets next Tuesday, April
27th.  If you want to weigh in, do it before then.

Thanks!
A.

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PRESS RELEASE FOR RAGG
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New Group for Local Girlz and Womyn

R.A.G.G. - the Resource and Action Group for Girlz-n-Womyn - is a local
grassroots partnership OF girlz and womyn FOR girlz and womyn whose aim is
to provide safe spaces, resources, and activities to foster creativity,
self-expression, and empowerment.  Building on the work of GirlZone, which
closed recently, R.A.G.G. will continue to provide social activities and
workshops to girls and women in Champaign County. The newest program of the
Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC), R.A.G.G. also aims to
become a central resource for disseminating information about other
resources for females in the community.  "There are programs and resources
for girls and women in this community many folks aren't aware of.  We hope
to bring diverse groups of females together where they can share their many
talents, gifts, and experiences," says Shawn Williams, one of R.A.G.G.'s
core organizers and employee of the Urban Exchange Center at the University
of Illinois. "Not only do we want to provide safe spaces for girls & women,
we want other organizations and even businesses to do the same.  If we can
be *the* place to go to find out about any female-centric events and
offerings in the community, we make it easy for people to get the word out
when they want to offer something along those lines".

A goal of R.A.G.G. is to be responsive to girls' and women’s needs for
community activities and resources.  "Girls are often looking to learn
things that aren't available from their regular resources - like
non-main-stream foreign languages, skateboarding, and how to be politically
active in their community," says Zoe Swords, another core organizer and
student at University High School. "If we have somewhere to go where we can
say 'Hey - can you find us a resource for this', then we have a safe place
to open doors for ourselves."  R.A.G.G. aims to fill this need by taking
requests from girls and women in the community and trying to offer, or
inspire others to offer, workshops, classes, or other activities on
requested topics.

R.A.G.G. is a partnership of both girls and women, because females of all
ages have a lot to teach each other.  According to Danielle Chynoweth,
another of R.A.G.G.’s core organizers and an Urbana City Councilwoman,
"while the women in the organization have a lot of resources to offer to the
girls, the girls are instrumental in reminding us who we are, what our
programs are about, and inspiring us to learn things we have begun to think
we are 'too old' to learn."

R.A.G.G. has done some fund-raising and plans to kick-off officially on
Saturday, May 29th.  The group will host a day full of workshops at the
Independent Media Center and other downtown Urbana locations, followed by a
benefit show and kick-off party in the evening.  Workshops will be limited
to girls and women only, but the evening entertainment is open to all.
Registration for workshops will be at the IMC - check the R.A.G.G. website
for details in early May - http://ragg.ucimc.org.

Through skill sharing, community organizing, education, activism, and just
plain old support, R.A.G.G. will provide girls and women with a network and
outlet for unleashing our creativity, strength, and power!

Any girl or woman interested in joining the R.A.G.G. organizing committee
should send an email to imc-girls at ucimc.org. Girlz and womyn of all shapes,
sizes, ages, colors, etc. are warmly invited to join in this community
effort to create a safe and empowering space


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anne Odom * Product Manager * WebEasel, Inc.
WebEasel - It's that easy!
anne at webeasel.net * www.webeasel.net * 217.344.0444