Grantee Profile

Women on the Rise Telling HerStory

Members and staff of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory at the 2010 Community Gala, where their organization received the North Star Frederick Douglass Award. Photo by Carolina Kroon.

From the 2010 Community Gala Program

Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH) is being recognized [with the North Star Fund Frederick Douglass Award] for its achievements in empowering currently and formerly incarcerated women to bring about changes in public policy and perception of incarcerated women, and in the process, transforming their own lives and the lives of their families.

WORTH was a lead organizer in last year's successful drive to pass the Anti-Shackling Bill in the New York State Senate and Assembly, forbidding the use of restraints on incarcerated women during labor and post-delivery recovery, and restricting the use of restraints during transport to and from the hospital.

WORTH began in 2003. "From the beginning we were a nontraditional organization. We looked around and we didn't find any other leadership development or policy organization that was run by formerly incarcerated women. We recognized that we would probably be the first one, and we saw what an impact we could have," said Tina Reynolds, Executive Director of WORTH and a formerly incarcerated mother. "What we wanted to do was dispel the myth that formerly incarcerated women could not speak to or make change happen through legislation."

WORTH partnered closely with the Correctional Association of New York to work on the Anti-Shackling Bill. "We find it really important to partner with other organizations to move our issues forward," Tina said. "Through our work with CA, we were able to bring in more formerly incarcerated women to meet with legislators and share their stories from a place of power, and to involve themselves in the process of legislative change."

More on WORTH from the Community Blog