Women of Color Network (WOCN)

The mission of the Women of Color Network (WOCN) is to provide and enhance leadership capacity and resources that promote the activities of women of color advocates and activists within the Sovereign Nations, the United States and U.S. Territories to address the elimination of violence against women and families. Created in 1997, WOCN works to address the unique challenges facing women of color advocates and activists within the violence against women movement, and provides a national medium where women of color can dialogue, network, organize, and obtain resources to support their efforts.

WOCN strategies continue include:

• Providing women of color access to information that they might not otherwise receive;
• Challenging systems and institutions that create barriers for women of color and their communities in their work;
• Promoting the development of independent, women of color led initiatives that are more likely to reach and effectively serve communities of color; and
• Continually examining local, state, federal and tribal policies and providing opportunities for women of color to organize and exercise their voice regarding issues that affect their personal and professional lives.

WOCN has created a number of national forums for networking, research, and training, including national focus groups to discuss child welfare systems as it relates to communities of color (which led to the publication of a nationally disseminated report), the first WOCN National conference in 2003 entitled Moving Beyond Emergency Services: Increasing Economic Security for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Assault with over 125 participants, and regional meetings in the summer of 2005 with women of color caucuses, committees, and groups. In addition, the WOCN initiated its Trainings without Walls teleconference series on emerging issues within communities of color. The WOCN also collaborated with national, tribal, and immigration-based domestic violence and sexual assault organizations, and the culturally-specific Institutes on matters related to state and national policy.
As a way to reach constituents on an ongoing basis, WOCN created the WOCN Infolink, which has an open subscription available on the WOCN website. The WOCN Resource Guide, which is currently being updated, identifies culturally-specific programs and women of color activists throughout the country and also supports ongoing networking efforts.