North America

Founded in 1974 after the Washington Conference, grassroots leaders and their allies joined Neighborhood Women (NCNW) based on shared principles and common goals. Across the USA, NCNW created spaces where grassroots women leaders could link with each other, present their work and perspectives, and exchange peer successes and challenges. They caucused at conferences created a neighborhood college program and their own annual Institute on Women and Community Development.

NCNW’s history is one of successfully linking the community development work of grassroots leaders from around the nation, and, through GROOTS and Huairou Commission, from around the world. Together they have created transformative situations where grassroots women leaders speak for themselves, enter decision-making forums and demonstrate effective practices in arenas of land tenure, HIV Aids Response, Disaster and Resilience Strategies, and Governance, among others. In three decades there has been a global shift in the visibility of grassroots women leaders, their self-organization, and input into decision-making

Women in Cities International (WCI) is a non profit organization in Canada. WIC engages 250 consolidated members in urban areas in the global north and global south on the issues of safety, urban planning, governance, inclusion, development, diversity in political representation, and inclusion of different social groups (youth, elderly people, people with disabilities, different races) in policy making.

WCI partners with grassroots women’s groups for local implementation of joint program initiatives. The grassroots groups play important roles in deciding which programs will be the most important for the local community, as well as how to implement and adapt them. WCI also provides peer learning and skills building workshops on leadership and organizational management for grassroots leaders as fundamental to the success of the working process.

WCI became a member of Huairou Commission in 2003 because both organizations share a common vision of women’s empowerment, aim to develop a stronger grassroots movement and advocate for women’s equal rights.

Working for Change is an NGO or community-based organization operating out of Toronto, Canada. The organization works in urban regions to address poverty reduction, violence against women, mental health, and newcomer/refugee issues. Working for Change also instills leadership in its members by offering a 12-week in-depth leadership training program to women that want to become leaders within their communities. In regards to policy goals, Working for Change primarily focuses on poverty reduction issues which include housing, homelessness, food security, and adequate income.

The organization has placed itself in the global narrative by participating in the World Urban Forums in Vancouver and Rio de Janeiro and the AWID Conference in Istanbul. Working for Change became a member of Huairou Commission in 2006 out of the desire to connect to grassroots women around the world.

Yellowknife is a grassroots organization located in Canada. Yellowknife became a member of the Huairou Commission (HC) in 2006 to engage in conversation with other grassroots women working for change in their communities. Yellowknife wanted to bring issues of concern to the global stage and to share their experience to demonstrate the great capacity and leadership of grassroots women. 

Yellowknife works with 250 consolidated members and 5 affiliated organizations in rural, urban, and remote locations of Canada on the issues of governance in a form of indigenous self demonstration, land and housing rights, resilience, and gender violence. 

The main focus of the organization is indigenous people’s rights. Yellowknife is structured around building the leadership, technical and political skills and expertise of indigenous women. It operates from a peer mentoring construct and has life skills and employment training programs that place women in meaningful and decent jobs.