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Westchester Activists Lead Charge In Organization Empowering Women

MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- A non-profit organization that grew out of Hillary Clinton's first presidential campaign is, eight years later, still working hard to bring awareness to and advance key goals for women

New Agenda Co-Founder Amy Siskind, left, with Panelist/Film Producer Amy Shin, center, and New Agenda VP Karen Gerringer at National Girlfriends Networking Day,

New Agenda Co-Founder Amy Siskind, left, with Panelist/Film Producer Amy Shin, center, and New Agenda VP Karen Gerringer at National Girlfriends Networking Day,

Photo Credit: Submitted
Mamaroneck resident Amy Siskind of The New Agenda.

Mamaroneck resident Amy Siskind of The New Agenda.

Photo Credit: Submitted

The New Agenda, a Mamaroneck-based nationwide organization was created in August 2008 when 30 Hillary Clinton supporters from around the country met in New York to sketch out plans for a new women’s advocacy group. 

The mission: To work on issues relating to economic independence and advancement, gender representation and bias, sexual assault and domestic violence.

While the 2008 elections provided the raison d’être for the group to form, it has run ever since as a non-partisan group welcoming men and women of all beliefs.

Leading the charge: President and Co-Founder Amy Siskind and Karen Gerringer, co-founder and vice president.

On the agenda for the Mamaroneck residents at the moment: a 5 K SToPP (Stop. Think. Protect your Peers) walk/run at New Rochelle's Iona College on Saturday, Oct. 22 to raise awareness of campus sexual assault. 

The goal of the race, now in its second year, is to remind people about this important epidemic which, said Siskind, impacts one in five college women and one in 16 college men. Proceeds go towards the organization's year-round efforts to raise awareness and produce educational content. (Last year, proceeds went towards production of “Grey Matters,” an educational video series directed by Mamaroneck’s Alanah Rafferty.)

“The idea of SToPP -- Stop. Think. Protect your Peers. -- is to empower and educate our kids," stressed Siskind. "Fifty-five percent of college students who witnessed a sexual assault didn’t intervene, many because they didn’t know what to do."

And while races will be held at other campuses around the country, that is not all that the virtual organization does. Its big annual event, National Girlfriends Networking Day, in June, happens in cities around the country and celebrates the power of building connections, which each year empowers thousands of college, millennial and professional women. According to Siskind, last year's event, advice and ideas tweeted with the hashtag #NGNDay, reached over 2.3 million viewers.

Go to www.SToPP5k.org to learn more about the October race; go to www.thenewagenda.net/ for more details on The New Agenda.

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