For a decade, Hardy Girls Healthy Women has been leading Girls Coalition Groups, which support activism among middle-school girls and encourage them to “make a ruckus.”

Now it’s creating new groups for women.

“After the election, we heard from a lot of women saying, ‘We want to do something,’ ” said Hardy Girls President Kelli McCannell, introducing Women’s Action Groups at a kickoff event on Jan. 19 at Rising Tide Brewery in Portland.

A similar event happened at the same time in Bangor and a week earlier in Waterville, where the nonprofit is based.

“A lot of us were angry and wanted to get together and find out what we could do about it,” said board member Melissa Kenison. “Finding allies and being involved is better than just being hopeful. We’re not just sitting around being beautiful; we’re doing something about it.”

Hardy Girls Healthy Women has heard from 150 women interested in joining a monthly support group for activism. Facilitators will be trained in February, and the intergenerational groups of six to eight women will starting meeting all over the state in March.

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“I think anything that brings women together is powerful stuff,” said Barbara Ginley of Portland.

“Any opportunity to organize women results in a good outcome,” said Victoria Rodriguez, a community organizer for the Maine Women’s Lobby and the Maine Women’s Policy Center in Augusta. “This election has really hit many populations.”

“I definitely didn’t think this would be the world I’d be bringing my daughter into,” new mom Stacy Beal of Gray said. “I’ve always been passively engaged in politics,” she said, adding that now she’s thinking of running for office.

“It seems like an important time to be active,” said Katie Magovern of Cape Elizabeth. “There are so many fronts we need to fight on.”

“There are a lot people here who want to do something and don’t know where to start,” said Sarah Goodman of Portland.

“It’s intimidating to think ‘What can I do as one person?’ ” Rebecca Buchanan of Portland said. “Doing tangible things in the community is a way.”

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“The election was a pretty aggressive wake-up call,” said Hannah Young, a Planned Parenthood volunteer from Portland.

“The election pushed me to take my politics off Facebook and into the real world,” said Megan Cook of Portland.

“We need to know where our allies are so we can connect more efficiently,” said Bianca Pastrana of South Portland. “All issues are women’s issues. We all need to be concerned now.”

“With these groups, we’ll have a cohort of people to walk together as allies,” board member Cammy Watts of Palermo said. “It’s very hard to sit here and do nothing.”

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer from Scarborough.


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