Women on the Rise

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Our Work

Our Work

The pillars of our work support justice-impacted women, grow community power, and advance campaigns that change systems across Georgia.

Our Approach

Our Three Pillars

Each pillar supports the others. Policy victories are stronger when people have the support they need to thrive. Reentry services are more effective when communities have the power to change the systems affecting them. Leadership development creates the organizers and advocates who make both possible.

Policy & Advocacy

We change laws. We pass bills. We kill jail expansions. We show up to every commission meeting, every legislative hearing, every place where decisions are made about parole reform, voting rights restoration, and survivor justice implementation.

ReEntry & Member Support

We help women coming home build the life they actually want. Through case management, monthly support circles, and our partnership with Fulton County Behavioral Health and Grady Hospital, we connect members to housing, employment, mental health care, and each other.

Healing & Leadership Development

We invest in our members as leaders and organizers through storytelling training, public speaking coaching, and advocacy education. We help build the skills, confidence, and power to advocate for themselves and their communities. 

Current Campaigns

Campaigns and Initiatives We’re Leading Now

Our current campaigns focus on survivor justice, parole reform, voting rights, and community-based alternatives to incarceration.

survivor justice

Survivor Justice

Advancing the Georgia Survivor Justice Act to expand protections for survivors of abuse.
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Parole Restructuring

Building a more transparent, accountable, and equitable parole system in Georgia.

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voting rights

Voting Rights

Helping justice-impacted individuals understand and exercise their right to vote.

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community over cages

Community Over Cages

Organizing against jail expansion and advocating for diversion and alternatives to incarceration.
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Programs & Support

Helping Women Come Home, Heal & Lead

Alongside our campaign work, Women on the Rise provides programs, membership opportunities, and community support for women coming home and people impacted by the criminal legal system.

reentry

ReEntry

Women on the Rise helps formerly incarcerated women re-enter healthy and whole through membership, case management, monthly support meetings, referrals to employment, and connections to other essential services and community support.
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membership

Membership

Membership is free and open to formerly incarcerated people, justice-impacted individuals, and supporters committed to ending mass incarceration through community building, leadership development, civic engagement, organizing, and collective power.

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Past Campaigns and Wins

Proof of What’s Possible When Justice-Impacted Women Lead

These are the fights we’ve won. They’re worth knowing, both because they shape the Georgia we live in today, and because they’re proof of what’s possible when justice-impacted women lead.

2025

Survivor Justice Becomes Law

Governor Kemp signed HB 582, the Georgia Survivor Justice Act, marking a major step forward for survivors of abuse and helping ensure they are not punished as harshly for actions taken to survive.

2024

$2 Billion Jail Defeated

WoR’s work within the Community over Cages Coalition stopped Fulton County’s proposed jail expansion and worked to advance the opening of the Center for Diversion and Services as a real alternative to incarceration.

2022

Women on the Rise Inside

Women on the Rise launched programming inside Georgia prisons to educate, support, and empower women who were still incarcerated, extending their work beyond re-entry and into the lives of incarcerated women.

2020

Welcome Home Support

Women on the Rise distributed welcome-home packages and direct support to formerly incarcerated Black women across Georgia during the pandemic, helping women return home with care, resources, and community connection.

2018

Close the Jail ATL

Women on the Rise co-launched Close the Jail ATL to close the Atlanta City Detention Center and repurpose the facility for community resources, helping create a path toward the Center for Diversion & Services.

2017

Broken Windows Laws Repealed

Fought alongside the Racial Justice Action Center to pass legislation to end 40+ broken windows policies, including reclassification to make marijuana a non-arrestable offense, and increase police transparency and accountability.

2017

PAD is Born

Our grassroots coalition helped design the Policing Alternatives & Diversion (PAD) Initiative, a public safety model that diverts people from arrest to community-based care, a more compassionate and effective approach to safety.

2015

Ban the Box Victory

Women on the Rise worked with 9to5 and a statewide coalition to help win an executive order removing felony-history checkboxes from state job applications, reducing a major employment barrier for formerly incarcerated people.

2013

First Coalition Victory

WoR partnered with Racial Justice Action Center, LaGender, Inc., and Trans(forming) to create the Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative. Together, we helped defeat a proposed ordinance targeting sex workers in Midtown Atlanta.

Join us in the Work

Whether you’re formerly incarcerated, supporting a loved one, or looking for a way to contribute, there’s a place for you in this movement.

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