In November, we launched the second round of our Innovation Lab, where small teams have formed to explore, test and implement solutions to complex, reproductive movement issues.​

Over the course of the next 8 months, these 22 people will define and focus the movement-level problem they wish to address, conduct research to understand the underlying perspectives and needs of their end-users, thematically organize their findings, and brainstorm and implement possible solutions. They will also deepen their practices of creative collaboration within their teams and the larger lab community, trying out various ways of practicing curiosity, generosity, being generative, and taking risks together. 

Please welcome our 5 new Innovation Lab teams, and learn more about their work!
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Team Young Women of Color Leading

Young women of color (YWOC) are disproportionately impacted by sexual and reproductive health issues. Often times young women and girls of color are left out of conversations concerning their bodies, and policies are written about them instead of with them. How might reproductive rights and health organizations like Planned Parenthood of NYC and girls’ organizations like Sadie Nash Leadership Project and Girls for Gender Equity foster radical collaborative opportunities in the following areas: education and service provision; public policy and systems change; and culture shift, in order to create realities for young women of color that are rooted in safety, liberatory practices, and their own agency? ​

Team Disrupting Unintended Pregnancy

“Unintended pregnancy” has been measured, analyzed, and translated into research, public policy, public discourse, and clinical practice for more than fifty years; evidence of its harms has been used extensively to justify and enhance access to contraception. In recent years, patient-centered outcomes thinking, justice-based public health analyses, new research, and a re-examination of existing research challenge not only the cultural relevance of the unintended pregnancy construct but also question whether evidenced-based claims linking “unintended pregnancy” to poor maternal and child health and socioeconomic outcomes can be inferred as causal. Is the translation and use of “unintended pregnancy” liberating or harming our communities - and what are the alternatives? ​

Team RIF = Reading Is Fundamental

HIV/AIDS has plagued the United States since the 1980s;  though many innovations have been created to help reduce the prevalence of the disease, the incidence of disease continues to rise. Barriers such as the stigma placed on LGBTQ sexual practices, discrimination,  and the lack of culturally-centered health care models create a perfect storm for preventing African American SGL men and Trans POC folks from engaging in primary and reproductive health care, and achieving desired health outcomes. How can we use health literate social media to close the gaps between the providers and recipients of health care? 

Team Sweet Spot

The reproductive health, rights, and justice movement is composed of human beings, many of whom work in organizations so focused on crisis management that employees struggle to be healthy and thrive. Many leaders say they wish they could afford to do better by their people; meanwhile, employees take their expertise elsewhere, sometimes leaving the movement entirely, due to toxic working environments or occupational burnout. How can our movement and organizations be accountable to cultivating practices that recognize a person's whole self, in and beyond the workplaces, to help people thrive while sustaining the movement? ​

Team Transforming Whiteness

White folks committed to racial justice are struggling to transform themselves and their organizations in service of disrupting the racial status quo, often putting undue burden on friends, family, and colleagues of color. What do white people need in order to shed white toxicity, and call in other white people to center racial equity within their own organizations and progressive social movements? How might we transform ourselves, our organizations, and our movements to become strong, co-conspirators in racial justice?