Our roots

Women Together/Mujeres Unidas is rooted in the 2003 murder of a young man outside his house in view of his family in the Piedmont/ Pleasant Street Neighborhood. At a street vigil two days after his death the young man’s mother passionately called to all women in the neighborhood to get together and organize to help each other raise their children and to prevent this type of youth violence. Eight women leaders answered this call and “The Woman’s Group” was formed which later was named Women Together/ Mujeres Unidas.

These first few years our organization has been focusing on getting to know each other as neighbors in order to build a base of trust from which to create change. We have done this by organizing street clean ups, holding potluck dinners every three months, hosting morning coffee meetings to discuss various topics, and doing one to one interrelation meetings with each other. WT/ MU has also worked to build the leadership skills of its members by attending and hosting leadership trainings and working to emphasis strong membership participation.

One of the first big projects organized by WT/MU undertook was the “100 Women Sweep” in April of 2004. This was part of the Earth Day Clean Up organized with The Regional Environmental Council, but it acted as more than a litter removal project. A core team of WT/MU organizers created the goal to have 100 women clean the streets to act as a metaphor for women creating change in the neighborhood. Working together on Earth Day has helped to solidify relationships between members and has made WT/MU a strong visual presents in the neighborhood as well as help members take leadership roles in planning the event and the lunch gathering that follows. Every year now the women were in pink shirts with brooms and tools in hand are an expected sight in the neighborhood. Over the past three years this project it has grown significantly in participation and energy.