Welcome! 

iWe - Industry that Works for Everyone is committed to gender balance in the Entertainment Industry.   To achieve this goal we need massive change. 

 

https://www.generosity.com/education-fundraising/community-organizing-training-funds

 

Successful social movements like the fight for marriage equality, women’s rights and the Arab Spring, follow a predictable pattern:

1.  A community forms around a common goal

2. The community mobilizes resources

3. The community finds solutions

4. The movement is accepted by (or replaces) the establishment

Social change movements cannot be successful UNTIL the masses rally together.  MASSIVE change takes MASSIVE numbers of people.

 

Here in Hollywood, women and People of Color have been fighting for decades for better representation both in front of and behind the camera.  There have been intervals where it appeared that the industry was becoming more balanced, but each time, any ground gained was lost again within mere years.

 

We are entering an interval now where there is agitation and demand for change to the entrenched sexism and racism of Hollywood.  In order to capitalize on this agitation and create LASTING and SYSTEMIC change, we need what was missing in previous attempts:  an organized social movement.  There are many activist organizations doing excellent work in this area, but their individual efforts are islands in the stream, rather than the arms of a coordinated movement.

 

On April 9th, 2016, iWe is bringing the representatives from 20-25 activist organizations in Hollywood for a Community Organizing Training to develop the required knowledge and skillset to launch a social justice movement.  These individuals are connected to communities of their own, and have a first-hand understanding of how the issue of gender imbalance in the Entertainment Industry is deeply rooted.  They understand that to achieve gender balance in the Industry, we need to approach the issue in the context of Social Change and Social Movements. 

 

The iWe training day will be led by Judy Hertz, the Executive Director of the Midwest Academy (http://www.midwestacademy.com) who teaches a strategic, rigorous, result-oriented approach to social action and organization building.  

 

For 40 years, over 25,000 grassroots activists from hundreds of organizations and coalitions have come to the Midwest Academy to hone concrete skills to be more strategic and effective organizers and leaders in the progressive movement.  They are known for training that produces results.  Their graduates leave better equipped to do organizing that gives people a sense of their own power, wins concrete improvements in people’s lives, and alters the relationships of power to make our society more equitable.  Without Judy’s knowledge and experience guiding our training, we would not be able to launch this movement. 

 

iWe strongly believes that on the community level, there is an untapped passion, drive and potential to include ALL voices, hearts and hands to achieve the gender balance we all envision.  In fact, true social change cannot happen until the community steps in together.

 

And this is where YOU come in!  We need your help to fund our training day so we can foster the systemic change that is so desperately needed in Hollywood.

 

Where is your money going?

The main expense of our event is the cost of the training itself.  Midwest Academy is giving us a deal, but the fee is still $1,750, so this money will go toward the thing we need most to make a real difference - TRAINING!

 

The additional expenses are to cover the rental space in which we will hold the training, as well as workshop necessaries such as projector rental, copies of program materials for each attendee, pens, name tags, markers, check in sheets, scratch paper, microphones and chairs!

 

Our hope is to create a movement within the entertainment industry to change these statistics, and by doing so inspiring a world of change that extends beyond our industry and into other professions.  Our social and systematic change can only be accomplished if we stand together as a united front, and work together to make this happen.  We cannot do this without you, your support and your voice.  By helping us with this campaign, you are lending your voice and standing up for gender equality, not only in our workplace but yours as well.  We hope you will join us in doing so!