Legislative Advocacy
Providing public testimony at the state legislature is a key strategy for promoting rights and opportunities for women, girls and their families. While Connecticut is a considerably more equitable state than it was 35 years ago when CWEALF was founded, there is still more work to be done.
That is why CWEALF monitors Connecticut's Legislature. When legislation is raised that will affect women or girls, CWEALF strives to educate legislators about the impact of their decisions. During the last legislative session, CWEALF provided testimony on issues ranging from the importance of providing employees with paid sick leave to ensuring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights to the need to increase state funding for legal service agencies.
In addition to CWEALF's legislative monitoring, the agency leads coalitions on issues essential to promoting the cause of equity in Connecticut. Currently, CWEALF leads the Campaign for a Working Connecticut and the Anti-Discrimination Coalition.
The Campaign for a Working CT consists of business owners, education and training providers and social service advocates. The goal of the coalition is to promote job creation and economic growth in the state through the development of sustainable, effective workforce solutions to increase workers' skills and advance families to self-sufficiency.
CWEALF leads ctEQUALITY in partnership with the TransAdvocacy Coalition. ctEQUALITY is currently working to revise the state's anti-discrimination statutes to include “gender identity or expression” as a protected class. While transgender and gender non-conforming individuals are included in Connecticut's hate crimes statutes, this legislation would make it illegal to, for example, fire or deny housing to someone because they are transgender or gender non-conforming.
