As many of you know, the design phase of our YeS 2026 strategy is well underway. Earlier in the year, members were invited to register for Design Workshops to provide feedback on Core Activity 2 – Galvanise Membership which included a review of our advocacy priorities. This resulted in the development of the Member Design Squad. So far, the Design Squad has come together 3 times, most recently in a workshop to provide valuable member feedback on our advocacy focus areas.
YWCA currently advocates on a broad spectrum of gender equality related issues. Moving toward YeS 2026, our advocacy strategy will determine how we coordinate and position ourselves to maximise impact, influence, sustainability, and truth to power. Therefore, it is essential that we ensure our advocacy priorities align with our overall YeS 2026 purpose, making young women’s leadership and women’s housing our priority for gender equity in Australia.
As part of our co-design commitment and framework, workshops have been undertaken to capture feedback and input on our advocacy areas, including feedback from the Member Design Squad, Y team members, the Executive Team and the Board.
Over the next couple of months, the Advocacy Team will be using this feedback to develop our new Policy and Advocacy Framework, ensuring we apply an intersectional feminist lens and leverage our intergenerational understandings and legacy. We look forward to sharing our advocacy strategy with you in early 2022, when we will also start working with the Member Design Squad on how members can engage with our new advocacy strategy and how we will mobilise as a movement in Australia going forward.