This year's outcomes from HERd were four editions of the zine and a school assembly we hosted for Women's History Month. Each edition of the zine showcased a collaboration of our talents and a dedication to issues inside and outside our community that we wished to discuss. We dedicated many meetings to choosing topics we felt our community needed to hear. This year, we have expanded the zine by including more articles, art, and activities in each edition. We released a "mini-zine" during the assembly, handing out 500 copies to our school, the most we've ever printed. During this assembly, we celebrated women in our school community who impacted change.
The young women at our school felt very happy with what we do. They felt it was brave for us to address taboo subjects and issues at our school that have been long ongoing, but have little to no progress made within them. One of our team's big outcomes from this project is how we expanded the zine beyond our school walls and into other spheres of people. We had Mayor Bass and students from other chapters read our zine and acknowledge the work we have been doing.
We began with two goals this year: continuing and expanding the zine and hosting an art event emphasizing the power of protest and civic engagement. Starting with the zine, we made great strides this year. Creating each edition is a long process, and we struggled with some of the same issues as last year in making sure everyone met their deadline and had a role to play. Since we began the zine project the previous year, we had a lot of new members who were very passionate and dedicated to releasing quality work that was outspoken and meaningful.
In attempting to host an art event, we learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses as a group. We thrived with the zines because they were monthly projects to which everybody could contribute. However, for this new project, we had difficulty delegating roles and being effective throughout the year. By April, we realized that our initial vision for the event was not coming together despite our best efforts. In reflection, our collective purpose was more aligned with the zine, which we especially realized during our Women's History Month assembly, which celebrated the zine and its most public release.
Zine Papers: $150
Stickers: $100
Shirts $100
Total Budget: $350