Women's Educational Media

is Now GroundSpark!

A Message from Debra Chasnoff

We have changed our name, but our mission and values remain the same. For 30 years, Women’s Educational Media, now GroundSpark, has used the power of film to spark progressive social change.

With your support, our Respect For All Project has radically challenged the prevailing cultural belief that we should not talk to children about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. We have helped students in every state understand differences in family configurations and started dialogue in countless classrooms about prejudice-based bullying.

Partnering with a wide array of organizations, we have opened up the possibility for LGBT people to have the option to be parents, pressured a huge multinational company to stop producing nuclear weapons, fueled the community land trust movement, and put a human face on the fight for marriage equality.

GroundSpark, our new name, embodies our role as a creative spark for change and builds on our track record of solid community organizing, education, and courageous leadership.

It positions us to increase the breadth of the issues we address, the depth of our impact, and most importantly, the diversity of individuals and institutions that stand by our side.

As GroundSpark, we will continue to produce high quality films and media, build strategic partnerships, and offer educational training to inspire audiences across the country—and throughout the world—to take action for real, progressive change.

Thank you for being part of Women’s Educational Media’s incredible record of accomplishments. And welcome to our future, with GroundSpark!

If you have questions about our name change or want additional information about GroundSpark, please email us at info@groundspark.org.

It’s STILL Elementary Premieres in New York City

Please join us at the premiere screening of our new retrospective documentary It’s STILL Elementary, with GroundSpark’s Executive Director Debra Chasnoff, the film's Academy Award®-winning director.

After the screening there will be a Safe Schools Symposium with a panel discussion with leaders in the safe schools movement, including Eliza Byard, Interim Executive Director, GLSEN; Brian Ellner, Senior Counselor to the Chancellor, New York City Department of Education; and Celia Oyler, Professor of Education at Teachers College of Columbia University.

Join us as we take stock of the progress that has been made since our groundbreaking film It's Elementary – Talking About Gay Issues in School was first released over 10 years ago.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

6:00 pm Doors open for reception

6:45 pm Film screening

8:00 pm Panel discussion

Corwin Center Auditorium, Horace Mann Hall, Teachers College of Columbia University

West 120th Street and Broadway

New York, NY

The event is free and open to the public. Identification required. You can reserve your seat by using our online form or by calling GroundSpark at 1.800.405.3322.

Celebrate Generations of Change with GroundSpark
in San Francisco

To celebrate our name change and mark this turning point in GroundSpark’s history, we will be screening our new documentary, It’s STILL Elementary, which highlights the 10th anniversary of distributing our signature film It’s Elementary – Talking About Gay Issues in School.

Come see the impact on some of the students who were in the original film and the fascinating history of why the film got made, the response it provoked from the conservative right, and the questions it raises about the national safe schools movement today.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Robbie in 4th Grade

Robbie Today

5:30 pm Doors open for hors d’oeuvres

6:15 pm Film screening and remarks

8:15 pm Reception with food and wine

Jewish Community Center

2300 California Street @ Presidio

San Francisco, CA

Special rate parking available

Tickets are $35 per person and can be purchased through www.groundspark.org or by phone at 415.821.9653.

This is a ticketless event. Names will be held at the door.

That's a Family! Sparks National Dialogue about Family Diversity

There has been a flurry of media attention about That's a Family! the past couple of weeks. Beginning in February of this year, the Evesham Township School District in southern New Jersey received complaints from a small, but very vocal and organized group of parents who objected to the use of the film in the district’s third grade health curriculum.

While the entire curriculum was attacked, there was a specific focus on its inclusion of families with lesbian and gay parents. The school board responded by forming a review committee made of 27 teachers, parents, and health education experts.

The review committee announced its unanimous support for the use of That’s a Family!, and suggested that if a change had to be made, they should move the materials to fourth grade, instead of third. After a period of public comment that featured many hateful and derogatory attacks against LGBT people, the school board voted 7-1 to reject their own committee’s advice and ban the film from the district.

The Evesham Township School Board's decision to ban the film has sparked major national, and even international, coverage in newspapers, magazines, radio programs, TV shows, and blogs. We have included links to some of the media outlets that have covered this story.

Thank you so much for your continued support of our work. In times like this, it enables us to turn a potentially negative situation into a national story that advances our work and values.

Read:

Coverage in the New York Times, 9-14-2007

Spotlight on MSNBC's Todayshow.com, 9-17-2007

Alfred Doblin's article in North New Jersey's newspaper, The Record, 9-17-2007

Watch:

CNN, The Situation Room, 9-14-2007

Fox and Friends, Fox News, 9-20-2007

The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, Fox, 9-24-2007

www.groundspark.org Goes Live

To go along with our new name, we have redesigned our website. Please check it out www.groundspark.org. We are still working out some kinks and will be adding new features over the next few weeks. If you have suggestions to make the site even better, please email kswanson@groundspark.org.

Also, please note that staff email addresses have changed to first name initial, last name @groundspark.org and @respectforall.org.