YWTF is a movement led by womxn and nonbinary activists to fight for social justice. Together we form a diverse and inclusive group on the local and national levels.
Learn more about YWTF’s core values and guiding principles by reading the #YWTFStarterPackSyllabus. Ready to join us?
YWTF in the Press
LAFAYETTE MAYOR MEETS WITH ORGANIZERS ON POLICING, USE OF FORCE, COMMUNITY
Photo credit: Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier
June 17, 2020 – Police reform activists met with Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski Tuesday afternoon to discuss, among other issues, the city’s use of force policy.
Ahead of the planned meeting between the organizers and Roswarski, around 50 people gathered downtown outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, still surrounded by temporary fencing in the face of protests, for a rally Tuesday afternoon.
For more, visit Journal & Courier.
LOCAL REFORMISTS MEET WITH LAFAYETTE MAYOR TO RETHINK POLICE FUNDING
Photo credit: Adrian Gaeta, Purdue Exponent Summer Reporter
June 16, 2020 – Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski held a closed-door meeting with four police-reform activists Tuesday to hear ideas about how to rethink use-of-force policies and divert funding from police departments to social services.
The activists, tied to organizations like Younger Women’s Task Force, sought to represent community members who are less likely to be heard by police departments, lead organizer Vanessa Pacheco said. Their stated agenda is a reframing of public safety that shifts responsibility from police departments to health care, housing and addiction services.
For more, visit The Exponent.
PROTESTERS MARCH TO LAFAYETTE MUNICIPAL BUILDING, ORGANIZERS SPEAK WITH MAYOR
June 16, 2020 — Greater Lafayette protesters are working toward building trust with city leaders. On Tuesday, after a peaceful march from the Tippecanoe County Courthouse to the Lafayette Municipal Building, four protest organizers held a private meeting with Mayor Tony Roswarski. Their goal is to create a conversation with city leaders on how the community can move forward in this nationwide fight for racial equality.
For more, visit WLFI News 18.
BLACK COMMUNITY HOSTS GRIEVING AND HEALING SESSION FOR RACIAL-INJUSTICE IN U.S.
June 5, 2020 – Members of The Collective, a caucus of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) organizers within YWTF, hosted an online healing and community-building session for the Black community of Greater Lafayette in response to the murders of George Floyd, Dreasjon Reed, Breonna Taylor and countless others at the hands of police violence and unchecked anti-Black racism.
For more, visit WLFI News 18.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY RESIDENTS HOST STRIKE FOR RENTER’S RIGHTS
May 23, 2020 – YWTF members organized community members to deliver almost 500 petition signatures to local officials demanding community leaders take a proactive approach to support reners in Tippecanoe County struggling to make ends meed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
For more, visit WLFI News 18.
OUR VALUES:
CHANGE: Our focus is certainly on changing the things that do not work for us. But more importantly, we want to create new. We need the kind of world we’ve never seen before.
INCLUSION: All of our members should feel welcome, and that they have access to resources and information they need. ALL of our members need to work to include all.
INTERSECTIONALITY: We are committed to exploring together how issues affect anyone who identifies as a woman.
CREATIVITY: We are interested in thinking as if there are no rules. We need the freedom to create so that we can break down walls to the future.
TRANSPARENCY: We have interest in being open and honest. We want to be a resource for knowledge and to allow people the ability to openly work on issues they care about. We always want to show our commitment to Greater Lafayette.
WOMEN BUILDING WOMEN: We want to contribute to each other’s survival.
EQUALITY/EQUITY: Justice means more than equality. Women and men, specifically, are socialized in different ways in our world that makes the needs of women unique. The radicalized experiences of women of color make their needs unique. Everyone deserves shoes–but more specifically, they need shoes that fit.
LEARNING: We want to share, bringing our knowledge into the space, and remember that learning is continuous throughout our lives and our work.
ASSET BASED APPROACH: What can others teach me? How can we think of the assets of a community before focusing on its deficits?
Our History
Back in 2004, Alison Stein sat down with her boss to talk about how young women needed a space for activism. Not only did Stein’s boss want to help, as the chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) she could. Within weeks, Stein found 25 other women leaders who wanted to join her. Together they became the National Coordinating Committee for the Younger Women’s Task Force. The movement grew the following year when 130 women from 42 different states came to Washington, D.C., to draft a Younger Women’s issues agenda. The group also established YWTF chapters across the country and officially commenced the work of the Task Force.
The Younger Women’s Task Force of Greater Lafayette was founded in 2016 by 10 radical women who care about issues that affect women.
YWTF is, above all, a community founded on the belief that we can work within and beyond the women’s movement to change the things we care about.