NOTE: DETAILS MAY BE SUBJECT TO SOME CHANGE

EVENT LINK: https://actionnetwork.org/events/womens-march-houston-county-mn-adjacent-counties

From the Women’s March to the Women’s Convention, we’ve seen how powerful we are when we gather together, share space and lift each other up. While the official Women's March anniversary event will take place in Nevada, Women’s March Chapters are organizing exciting state-specific anniversary events throughout the anniversary weekend, from marches to legislative actions to community events to voter registration drives.

Residents of Houston County, MN, adjacent counties and regional friends are therefore invited to meet for a "Power to the Polls" Workshop on Sunday, January 21, 2018 for the Women's March anniversary weekend. Participants should meet from 12 Noon - 3 p.m. at The Wired Rooster Coffee Shoppe in the county seat of Caledonia, MN (map & Facebook page); there is free street parking. Women as well as men of all ages are welcome to participate. Guest speakers may also ask to speak before, after or as part of the main portion of the event.

The event will begin with a Brief Welcome by Caledonia resident Janette Dean who is an Environmental Policy and Human Rights Advocate and Organizer*. During the event, beverages and food can be ordered anytime and each arriving participant will join roundtables learning about and sharing:

• Four common types of justice: 1) Environmental Justice such as healthy ecosystems, a stable climate and pollution-free environments, 2) Social Justice such as equality, freedom of assembly and voting rights, 3) Economic Justice such as living wages, affordable higher education and available medical care, and 4) Racial Justice such as proper investment in all U.S. schools and communities to prevent poverty and desperation, ending mass criminalization and recognizing the benefits of diversity. Many of these issues of justice directly relate to U.S. Constitutional guarantees and international human rights.
• Personal Experiences and Current Concerns in being denied any of these four types of justice
• Political Candidates whom we believe would best advance these types of justice
• Key Laws and Policies being proposed and created to help fulfill justice for all (including U.S. equal rights via the Equal Rights Amendment which needs ratification by just two more states)
• Ideas to Engage, Register and Mobilize Voters

Brief remarks from each roundtable will be followed by main guest speakers, and ongoing information will be shared with participants leading up to elections.

Please join our POWER TO THE POLLS WORKSHOP FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, MN & ADJACENT COUNTIES in CALEDONIA for the first anniversary of the nationwide Women's March!

* Janette Dean now in Caledonia, MN recently helped support CA's bold climate legislation, helped NV ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and supported their environmental and social justice legislation, wrote a La Crosse Tribune Op-Ed about the need for bold climate laws, and was part of the St. Paul Stop Line 3 rally and Public Utilities Commission meeting against Enbridge's proposed new tar sands oil pipeline. Dean has a mid-career double B.A. in Political Science and Sociology (2015), is an alumna of UNR and USC, helped launch latimes.com from 1995-2005, and then lived in the Lake Tahoe region until 2016. She is a La Crescent, MN High School graduate and was selected to serve as a page in the Minnesota House of Representatives. She also won the Outstanding Legislative Intern Award at the Nevada Legislature in 2013 and continues to work on state and national legislation and public policy as a grassroots organizer and public advocate. Courses she has recently taken as part of the new United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network to help achieve the world's 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 have been "Planetary Boundaries and Human Opportunities" and "Human Rights, Human Wrongs."