#MeToo Movement Leaders Announce The Survivors’ Agenda: A survivor-led collective creating change & building power’

The multi-dimensional initiative by ‘me too.’ International, Justice for Migrant Women, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Women’s Law Center, and a host of other national social justice organizations, aims to advance survivor justice and shift the narrative around sexual violence in America 

A National Call With Four Leaders of the Organizations To Kick off The Agenda

Takes Place on Thursday, June 25th 

XX (June 24, 2020) – In this critical juncture when the country is both preparing for a high stakes election and grappling with the pivotal changes that must be made for a more equitable society, #MeToo movement leaders are ensuring that a conversation around justice and safety for survivors is at the forefront. Today, they are launching the first-ever crowdsourced agenda co-created with survivors of sexual violence. The Survivors’ Agenda is an initiative about building power and changing the conversation–especially for those most marginalized and kept down by the structural oppressions of our society. 

The Survivors’ Agenda will crowdsource the issues, policies, and support that survivors are calling for as a united front. The agenda will be representative of their collective needs and interests and created to be used as a tool for organizing and narrative change. It will also aim to advance gender equity and bodily autonomy by demanding that our elected officials and local policymakers show up for survivors in ways they never have before.

The collaboratively-branded website launching today will provide information about the campaign and will collect responses from survivors about the issues they face, what matters to them, and what they want to see from our nation’s leaders. Addressing questions around education, housing, public health services, and health and wellness, survivors will answer survey questions and prompts that will then be joined together to form one agenda made by survivors, for survivors. 

On June 25th at 4PM PT / 6PM CT / 7PM ET, Burke, Poo, Ramírez and Graves will host a national call on Zoom to offer a framework for why a survivors’ agenda is critical and why survivor leadership is important. Throughout the call, they will discuss activating survivors to take action in the community and bring awareness to the summit coming later this year. 

This comes at a defining moment when people are taking a critical look at the impact of white supremacy on their lives and communities, calling for the defunding of the police and investment in community-driven solutions for public safety and wellbeing. The Survivors’ Agenda aims to ensure survivors are informing, leading, and deeply recognized in this conversation and movement. 

“In October 2017, the world shifted as millions of people raised their hand to say “me too,” said Tarana Burke, founder of ‘me too.’ International. “Almost three years later, and we are still experiencing the ripple effects and shifting into how a movement is born from its wake. In 2020, we are ensuring that the policies and services we need to protect our rights to dignity, safety, and freedom are not only part of the national conversation, but fundamental to it.”

In September,  the creators of The Survivors’ Agenda will host a summit to give survivors the confidence and tools they need, along with the inspiration to take this work back into their communities, whether that means starting campaigns around key policy demands or speaking as experts on this issue in the media or in public spaces.

“We are calling for a change in the rules,” said Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director of National Domestic Workers Alliance. “We are calling for the people in power–the officials we elect into office, and who purport to represent our interests–to be held accountable to the unique needs of those who have survived sexual and gender-based violence. Those who may or may not self-identify as survivors, but who, by nature of their personal experiences, identify closely with the impacts of survivorhood.”