My Magical X-Ray Goggles by Board Member Julie Davidson-Gómez

*Guest Post by Board Member, Julie Davidson-Gómez*

Leading Exhale’s year-end fundraising effort is a lot like having magical x-ray goggles. From my vantage point, I get to see the inner workings of our campaign in amazing and intricate detail. Every day, I witness the little victories and milestones that occur when a volunteer steps out of their comfort zone and reaches out to you to connect, share, and inspire.

Joining the fundraising team requires a big step, and sometimes a leap of faith, toward connecting our individual stories and beliefs to a larger organizational vision: that of a thriving pro-voice movement, financially supported by women and men who care just as much about post-abortion wellbeing, and who share our dreams for a future free from abortion stigma.

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Celebrating our “Pro-Voice High-Five’s!”

In celebration of our 5^th Anniversary of expanded service, Exhale presented a very special award – our “Pro-Voice High-Five” – to five individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to creating a more supportive and respectful social climate for women who have had abortions.  You can read all about the awardees here.

We celebrated our anniversary and all the awardees in an intimate San Francisco ceremony at the end of August.

Here’s a glimpse:

Board President Jen Rudy celebrates the announcement of fellow board member Julie Davidson-Gomez that we have surpassed our summer fundraising goal!

Tracy Weitz and Kate Cockrill from ANSIRH celebrate their award for New Research with a High-Five!

Amy Hill from the Center for Digital Storytelling celebrates her award for Leadership with Julie.

Julie Evans accepts the award for Courage from Jen in honor of all women who have told their abortion story.

Exhale Friends

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Julie Davidson-Gomez at Nonprofit Day

Exhale Board Member, Julie Davidson-Gomez, was honored to be invited to present on the plenary panel for Next Generation Organization’s at CompassPoint’s Nonprofit Day in San Francisco on August 31, 2010.

Watch the video to find out Julie’s big confession!

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We are a Next Generation Organization by Board Member, Julie Davidson-Gómez

*Guest Post by Board Member, Julie Davidson-Gómez*

One of the leadership roles I most enjoy at Exhale is chairing our Fundraising Committee. This summer, I made a personal gift of $525, and personally have helped raise over $6,000 toward our goal of $15,000.

I want to share with you why I love to fundraise for Exhale.

This morning, as you read this, I’m honored to share a podium with four inspiring “Next Generation” leaders. CompassPoint invited me to share my Exhale board story at their annual Nonprofit Day Conference. They wanted to know what set Exhale’s board of directors apart from the status quo nonprofit board, and to hear how Exhale is Next Gen.

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Announcing! Our “Pro-Voice High-Five” Awardees

In celebration of our 5^th Anniversary of expanded service, Exhale is excited to present a very special award – our “Pro-Voice High-Five” – to five individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to creating a more supportive and respectful social climate for women who have had abortions.

Our “Pro-Voice High-Five” Awards go toooooo……(drumroll please)….:

• Eyal Rabinovitch for New Thinking.

• The Doula Project for New Services.

• Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco for New Research.

• Center for Digital Storytelling for Leadership

• To every woman who has ever told her abortion story in private or public, with a counselor or a loved one, online or in-person for her Courage.

I invite you to read the interviews of each of our awardees to learn more about their passion and commitment to creating something positive, purposeful and powerful for every woman who has experienced abortion.

Congratulations to all of our “Pro-Voice High-Five” Awardees!

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“Pro-Voice High-Five” Awardee for Leadership: Center for Digital Storytelling

For over eight years, Exhale has been a confidential listener to the stories  of thousands of women and men, after an abortion.  Yet, rarely are these voices heard in public discussion.  Thus, the evolution of our pro-voice agenda that aims to transform public dialogue so that it is grounded in the voices and experiences of people who have had abortions.

But, how do we go from confidential listening to public storytelling around abortion given the great risks women and men face if they share their story with abortion?

Enter our partnership with the Center for Digital Storytelling who is the leader on how to do storytelling around stigmatized or sensitive issues in ways that empower and support storytellers.  We were honored to learn from them in a recent digital storytelling workshop we held where women told their stories of listening and abortion.

We are honored to give a “Pro-Voice High-Five” to the Center for Digital Storytelling for Leadership.  I hope you enjoy my interview with its Executive Director, Joe Lambert, and the Director of their Silence Speaks program, Amy Hill.

Staff of the Center for Digital Storytelling

Aspen: Tell me about how the Center for Digital Storytelling came to exist and about your mission.

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“Pro-Voice High-Five” Awardee for New Services: The Doula Project

Historically, a doula is a person who provides emotional and physical support to a woman giving birth.  Her sole focus is to help the woman in labor – not the family or the medical staff – and to serve as her advocate, making sure she has the birth experience she wants and needs.  More recently, this idea is being expanded to encompass other pregnancy-related events, including abortion and adoption.  The people who are doing this work operate under the radical assumption that every woman deserves support and respect for her unique pregnancy experience.

Earlier this year, we interviewed Mary Mahoney of The Doula Project on our blog.  A completely volunteer run-and-operated organization, the Doula Project is providing abortion-doula services to women in New York City.

Exhale is honored to give The Doula Project a “Pro-Voice High-Five” for New Services.  I hope you enjoy my interview with Lauren Mitchell, their Board President, about how their service is changing the world and what else is needed to grow their impact.

Aspen: Tell me about The Doula Project and how it got started.

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Meet Julie Evans

Several weeks ago I received an email from Julie Evans.  It is with her written permission that I share her email with you, our most important supporters, today:

“Dear Aspen,

I got pregnant in December. The relationship I was in was not one that had a future, but still, having an abortion was not really the first thing that came to mind. I somehow wanted to ‘make it work.’ The guy I was with was not in any place to be part of the ‘making it work’ process, and I sorrowfully realized this over the course of a week. The complicated circumstances surrounding everything only made things worse, and I felt like I didn’t have anyone to turn to. I kept it a secret from most everyone, partly because I was ashamed that I had been behaving so recklessly in a certain sense, and partly because I felt like if I didn’t tell anyone, then it didn’t really happen.

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We are a Learning Organization

I co-presented a session workshop – “Becoming a Learning Organization” – with Brian Talcott of the Center for Civic Partnerships (CCP) at The California Wellness Foundation’s (TCWF) conference on Organizational Learning and Evaluation in San Francisco last week.

Brian Talcott and me

Brian and I worked together when Exhale received TCWF-funded technical assistance from CCP back in 2006 and 2007.  With their support, Exhale was able to ratchet-up our evaluation practices and by working with top-notch evaluation experts, we began to consider methods and tools to measure Exhale’s impact on our culture change goals.

One of the many gifts we received through the program was learning that Exhale was, and always has been, a Learning Organization.  Here’s the theory:

According to LFA Group, a Learning Organization “uses evaluation as a fundamental strategy for gathering information for reflection, learning and growth in order to drive internal improvement.”

Michael O’Brien, an organizational consultant says that Learning Organizations “weave a continuous and enhanced capacity to learn, adapt and change into the fabric of its character and has values, policies, practices, programs, systems and structures that support and accelerate organizational learning.”

As the leader of Exhale, I have found becoming a Learning Organization to be very freeing.

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Can Listening to Women Who Have Had Abortions Bring Peace to the Abortion Wars? by Eyal Rabinovitch

Learn about author Eyal Rabinovitch. Read what people are saying about the paper. Download the paper as a PDF: ExhalePeacePaperbyERabinovitch5-3-10.

Sections include:

• Introduction and Overview
• The Limits of an Interest-Based Common Ground: The fallacy of “both sides”  & The limits of “underlying interests”
• From Resolution to Transformation: Cultivating Dignity Rather than Meeting Interests
• Transforming the Abortion Conflict in America: Pro-Voice and More
• Appendix: Learning from the Experience of Others

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