Values

SISTERHOOD AND COMMUNITY BUILDING
We believe sisterhood is the benchmark of our movement. We realize our common experiences are important, and at the same time, we value and affirm our differences of experience and opinion…

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
We believe a movement of younger women must be actively diverse and inclusive to be effective…

LEADERSHIP BY OUR PEERS
We believe that developing and supporting both traditional and non-traditional leadership by our younger women peers empowers the next generation of women to work for change on the local and national level…  
 
MOVEMENT BUILDING AND INNOVATION
We believe that, as a movement of younger women, we will seek out and use to our advantage new approaches to organizing, movement building, and innovative thinking, including advances in technology and innovative strategies to communicate and organize… 

Consciousness Raising and Advocacy
We believe we must explicitly and continuously strive to become conscious of and resist bigotry and intolerance in our programming, internal dialogs, and greater presentation to the world…
 

OUR VALUES
Grassroots:  We believe our members are the most qualified to identify and address the issues in their own communities.  They have the ability to influence politics, policy, culture – and effect change. As a movement for and by younger women, we believe our chapter and organizational members, who are our grassroots, must continually and actively define what issues matter to them most, and what activist methods most resonate in their communities. At the same time, we believe movement organizing requires participation at every level of the organization and we encourage all of our leaders to participate as members in shaping this movement and their world.

Sisterhood and Community Building:    We believe sisterhood is the benchmark of our movement. We realize our common experiences are important, and at the same time, we value and affirm our differences of experience and opinion. We work to build a trusting and steadfast community of younger women by creating safe spaces where we can be ourselves, engage our differences, and learn from each other. We realize that to build genuine, supportive sisterhood and community, we must be intentional in ridding ourselves of the influence that society has on us, and work to truly uphold and advance younger women of every culture, socio-economic level, sexuality, ability, and all other social distinctions.  We believe in active mentoring, networking, and social bonding to foster sisterhood and empower our community members to reach our full potential. 

Diversity and Inclusion:  We believe a movement of younger women must be actively diverse and inclusive to be effective.  We understand the importance of working to create a diverse and inclusive environment where each person feels valued and empowered.  We believe our differences must be incorporated into all of the ways we advance the issues of younger women.  We are mindful about who shapes our activities and how they shape them, knowing that many social movements in the U.S. have been and continue to be predominantly white and, as a result, culturally biased. We realize that, in order to build a dynamic and authentically diverse and inclusive movement of younger women, we must not only relate to each other through our common experiences as women, but also discover, engage, and value our differences.

Leadership by Our Peers:  We believe that developing and supporting both traditional and non-traditional leadership by our younger women peers empowers the next generation of women to work for change on the local and national level.  We believe the best leaders are not defined by their age or by the position they hold.  We believe our leaders should choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service.  We encourage collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.  We believe younger women can be leaders whether or not we hold formal leadership positions.  We support younger women leaders in our government, business, civic, spiritual and social lives and we encourage and leaders who serve in YWTF governance.
 
Movement Building and Innovation:  We believe that, as a movement of younger women, we will seek out and use to our advantage new approaches to organizing, movement building, and innovative thinking, including advances in technology and innovative strategies to communicate and organize.  Technological and strategic innovations are crucial to keeping our movement current and relevant.

Consciousness Raising and Advocacy:  We believe we must explicitly and continuously strive to become conscious of and resist bigotry and intolerance in our programming, internal dialogs, and greater presentation to the world.  We believe we must work together to develop an awareness about who we are as younger women and what defines our community.  We believe that awareness must inform our decisions as we shape and take action on the issues that are most critical for our movement.  We believe our words must be supported by our actions and that from our consciousness-raising, we must advocate for change both within our movement and our communities.