Dialogue on Diversity 2018 Policy Forum Reflections on Women’s History

 Community   Mon, April 16, 2018 10:42 AM

Washington, DC - With the title: New Voices in a Chaotic World: Women and the Civic Order, Dialogue on Diversity presents its 2018 forum on policy issues of special import for women. The date is April 18th, at the Busboys and Poets restaurant and bookshop in Washington. The agenda takes up a set of threats to women that remain as challenges to their autonomy and their successes. Ma. Cristina Caballero, Dialogue on Diversity’s founder and head, reflects on the false starts that have compromised much of women’s efforts. “We fear all our achievements are undercut by violence, from domestic discord to the horrors of trafficking. But today’s program marks the best that our decency can achieve.” The agenda begins with an overview of Forum topics by Angela Arboleda, a figure of independent instincts who has effectively powered such non-profits as NOW, Feminist Majority, and UnidosUS (NCLR), served as Senate Staff for Harry Reid, and is now an executive with Herbalife. 

In a midday discussion of education, Ivonne Díaz-Claisse, (holder, by the way, of a doctorate in mathematics) worries over the low response of Latino young people to opportunities for learning the “hard” technical and mathematical subjects. She suspects it is because Latino professionals and entrepreneurs are not being put forward effectively as Role Models for their juniors. Joycelyn Tate, analyzes the varieties of engineering, technology and mathematics studies as the key to future employment. 

The special issues affecting the LGBT community are dealt with by Ruby Jade Corado, the Executive Director of Casa Ruby, a central Washington refuge and community center for transgender and others in Washington. 

The subject of Domestic Violence covers a variety of injuries. How to prevent these and how to repair the harms to the hurt spouses, the damaged kids, and elderly family member. Natalia Otero of D.C. Safe, and Toni Zollicoffer, of the D.C. Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants, deal with abuse cases that have reached courts. Mario Cristaldo and Jorge Sodero of the Vida Senior Center discuss violence against the elderly. Melina Olmo of NACOPRW recounts the experience of Latina women and the particular features of the Puerto Rican situation. Jessica Tuñón, of Netwalking LLC, tells of the dismaying twists and turns in the use of high tech means, like the internet, to perpetrate harassment. The special afflictions of women in Latin America are the subject for Luz Patricia Mejía, OAS compliance monitor for the 1994 Convention of Belém do Pará, the basic anti-domestic violence statute for the continent.

Still another of the stresses suffered by women is the often difficult lot of immigrants, a complex of issues discussed by David Bier of the Cato Institute and Lucero Ortíz of Carecen, along with a special variety of migrants, the refugees, forced from their homes into strange territory. Still another facet is the thorny question of the DACA young people whose quest for relief from deportation has turned into a cliff hanger. The world currently sees heavy refugee flows in numerous sore spots. Who should relieve the suffering, either by taking in the fleeing persons or by paying temporary host countries for their sustenance? The U.S. contributes but the need is at best only dented.

Finally, the horror of human trafficking. Katherine Soltis, Harvard law graduate from Ayuda, Andrea Rojas-Solari from Polaris, and Christina Kiritz Arnold of Prevent Human Trafficking, each will discuss the plague of kidnapping and virtual slavery, in the U.S. and in Asia and Latin America. They recount their own excellent efforts to prevent and repair — and they report on the inability of states to suppress it. Experience in East Africa, Latin America and Europe, and to a lesser degree in North America have demonstrated the salutary effects of the election of women to high office. 

Wednesday, April 18th, 2018

10:30am - 4:00pm

Busboys and Poets (Langston Room)

2021 14th St. N.W. (at V Street)

Washington, D.C. 20009

 

CONTACT:
Maria Castilla 703-631-0650
 
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