On International Women’s Day, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced a partnership with The Carter Center for theirInform Women, Transform Lives campaign to increase awareness of women’s right to information and connect women to available City services and programs which help strengthen the well-being of Atlantans.

Studies have shown that across the world women are not able to exercise the right to information with the same facility as men. Women face a range of obstacles such as lack of awareness, lack of time and mobility, illiteracy and fear—all of which restrict their access to the myriad of benefits of public information.

“Atlanta’s efforts will focus on increasing access to information among women of color, whose health and economic vulnerabilities have increased due to COVID 19,” said Mayor Bottoms. “Through this campaign, our One Atlanta Office will increase awareness of and access to resources for women by connecting them to existing services that provide COVID-19 relief.” 

Many women in Atlanta are on the frontlines of combating COVID-19 as first responders, mothers, caregivers and essential workers—mostly in the childcare, health care and retail sectors. COVID-19 has further exposed existing health and economic inequities among women in marginalized communities. 

To address these issues, Atlanta’s Inform Women, Strengthen Communities campaign will focus on connecting women to economic mobility resources, housing assistance, food access programs, intimate partner violence support and mental health services. Atlanta residents can gain access to services by visiting atlstrong.org or ATL311.com or by calling 311. 

“We want to encourage a global conversation about women’s right to information and all the ways that information can benefit not only women, but entire families and communities,” said the Carter Center’s CEO, Paige Alexander. “One of the best ways to demonstrate that is at the city level, because cities offer so many crucial services and make decisions that have a major impact on people’s everyday lives.”

Atlanta is one of 13 cities chosen by The Carter Center to be part of the inaugural Inform Women, Transform Lives. Other participating cities will include Amman, Jordan; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa; Chicago, USA; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Dhaka North, Bangladesh; Dublin, Ireland; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Kampala, Uganda; Lima, Peru; Monrovia, Liberia; and São Paulo, Brazil. This effort is part of the Carter Center’s Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, a groundbreaking global endeavor to raise awareness about women’s right to information and help ensure that women can seek and receive information from their governments. 

Inform Women, Transform Lives will run through International Right to Know Day on Sept. 28. More information about the campaign and the Carter Center’s efforts to help women access information is available at cartercenter.org/info4women.