On Juneteenth of this year, our staff at the Pathways for Women YWCA location in Lynnwood unveiled a Little Free Library dedicated to race and social justice literature as well as uplifting Black women and girls as authors.

As YWCAs across the country mourn the loss of Justice Ginsburg, we are determined to continue carrying out her legacy as a principled, dignified defender of justice for all.

Here in Washington, we fight to expand the right to vote, not suppress it. That’s why we’ve been one of the leading states in the nation on voting by mail. But we still have work to do, as the right to vote is withheld from the 10,000 people in our state who are out on community supervision following their jail sentence. 

America's system of mass incarceration has greatly exacerbated the racial and gender inequities across our nation. Black and immigrant women are in the sights of the overlapping prison system, deportation system, and widespread sexual assault. This month's reading list focuses on these women who are incarcerated, and elevates their stories in their own voices.

YWCA's Health Access programs work to increase wellness and safety in our community and reduce systemic barriers that drive inequities in health care access, chronic disease, and life span. We talked with Kiasha Gamble and Maisy Lane from YWCA's Health Access programs about how the healthcare system prevents us from achieving racial equity.

Medical racism is the systematic and wide-spread racism against people of color within the medical system. It includes both the racism in our society that makes Black people less healthy, the disparity in health coverage by race, and the biases held by healthcare workers against people of color in their care.