This has been and will continue to be a very busy legislative season in which key legislation impacting women and their families disproportionately will come before legislative bodies at the local, state and national levels. It will especially impact poor and middle income women. Do it NOW! Show the united power of women committed to social and economic justice!

One such bill is AB 22 , Provide for Each Child Act, introduced by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber and recently passed by the Assembly's Human Services Committee. It is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Mark Leno, because money is involved in implementing the bill.

CAWA has been encouraging our partners to become more informed about how OUR money is spent by local, state and national legislatures. These budgets reflect our priorities and AB 22 is a priority for millions of residents of our state.

CAWA has always had a strong focus on alerting our networks to opportunities for SPEAKING OUT on legislative issues and we have a Legislators' Council that has been in place since CAWA's founding. Both Leno and Lieber are members of our Council and they should know of CAWA's and your support for AB 22.

Write to them and let them know that your organization is a member of CAWA, a coalition of 600+ organizations serving women and girls throughout California with an outreach to more than a million women. There is a wealth of information on the CAWA website that extends the CAWA connection to other states and countries.

See the fact sheet and draft letters from the Women of Color Resource Center - a CAWA partner whose Executive Director, Linda Burnham , has kept us informed on poverty issues for ten years. They tell you more about AB 22 and provide drafts of letters you can send (or write your own) to Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez and Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Mark Leno.

Share this information with others and ask them to support this very needed bill and to let their State Senators and State Assemblymembers know that they want them to vote for AB 22.

As a member of CAWA, and our Mother Ship, the Women's Intercultural Network (WIN), you can receive late breaking information and alerts from our action networks. click here to let us know you are receiving this new format from ConstantContact.org so we can better serve you and all California women.

We continue to update our internet technology for a more effective and interactive on-line activist community and for adaptability to "women behind the digital curtain" - a CAWA focus in 2007. Your membership donation will help to support our efforts on the ground to connect marginalized women to the CAWA network for a voice in public policy - primarily immigrant and indigenous women with low or no income - the forgotten women of the fourth largest economy in the world. This project is made possible partially by an Excelerator Grant from AT&T.

COMING: JUNE 30, 2007, Northern California CEDAW Summit

AUGUST 25, 2007, WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY PARADE, SACRAMENTO, CA

CAWA AND WIN'S 12TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2007, DELANCEY STREET FORUM HALL