Watch WREN CEO Ann Warner on CNN
by WREN Staff on Jul 21, 2022
Southeastern Alliance for Reproductive Equity
We are excited to announce the formation of the Southeastern Alliance for Reproductive Equity (SEARE), a Southern Regional Partnership working to align reproductive rights, health, and justice organizations serving diverse communities in the southeast.
We have long recognized the disparities faced by organizations working towards reproductive equity in the Southeast. Reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations need more cohesion and capacity to challenge the anti-choice movement, a group more emboldened by the 2016 election. Grounded in a legacy of resistance all too familiar to movements based in the Southeast, SEARE recognizes that we are uniquely positioned to push innovative, collaborative strategies to build equity and systemic change throughout our region.
Comprised of Healthy & Free Tennessee (HFTN), SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (SisterSong), SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Inc. (SPARK), and the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN), SEARE will leverage our combined leadership and expertise, both regionally and nationally, to provide capacity building trainings to strategic partners and coordinate proactive advocacy efforts to mobilize stakeholders across geographic and movement boundaries.
“WREN is honored to be a part of SEARE because we know that now, more than ever, we need a stronger and more united movement for reproductive health, rights, and justice in the South,” said Ann Warner, CEO of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network.
“We felt it important as a Reproductive Justice organization centering Black women and Queer and Trans people of color to be in this space. Through SEARE, we hope to uplift these communities as we work to dismantle white supremacy,” said Dr. Krystal Redman, Executive Director of SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Inc.
“We chose to be an anchor organization because we are deeply invested in doing regional work in the South,” said Briana Perry, Co-Executive Director of Healthy and Free Tennessee.
SEARE is building the infrastructure for a diversified and unified movement in the Southeast for full and equitable access to liberatory reproductive rights and health information and services. We are setting the stage to better equip partners to serve and fight for their communities, to build sustainable leadership, and ultimately shape proactive public policy.
SEARE will be connecting with reproductive health, rights, and justice groups located in the Southeast during 2019 to better understand the landscape of the region and determine ways we can build stronger, more cohesive movements.
For more information visit the SEARE website at seare.org, or contact Brandi Parrish Ellison at bpellison@scwren.org.
Supporting Groups:
SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Inc.
Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN)
