About
Our mission is simple: End Poverty. PERIOD!
In a world overflowing with resources, we believe every human being can have plenty of nutritious and delicious food, secure and spacious housing, excellent healthcare, global education ... and a bounty of period products and reproductive education!
In 2023, with lots of help from our Board of Directors -- most notably Akiesha Anderson, Esq., our WIT Legal Counsel at the time -- the WIT Young Leaders, allies, Republican and Democratic lawmakers -- both women and men -- we were instrumental in the creation and passage of Alabama’s new “period poverty” law, introduced three times by our shero, State Representative Rolanda M. Hollis. The law allocates $200,000 to the Alabama Department of Education to provide grants for menstrual products to students in Title I schools. Alabama is only the seventh state in the nation to have a mandate to provide free period products to students. Governor Kay Ivey publicly signed the bill into law in April 2022.
Thanks to generous funding from the Southern Black Girls and Women's Consortium, led by Ms. LaTosha Brown, WIT was able to lead a tour to Washington, DC, of 14 WIT Young Leaders. That's right; we took our menstrual equity mission to the United States Capitol! Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York arranged for us to make a formal presentation to the Democratic Women's Caucus, led by Congresswoman Lois Frankel of Florida. Our very own lovely Congresswoman Terri Sewell took a personal interest in our visit to the US Capitol, and gave us a tour of this sacred national institution. During the tour, she proudly introduced us to many Congressional leaders, including Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Chairman of the Democratic Caucus.
Right before our 12th birthday in 2019, we learned that there are girls who “spot” on their clothing because they cannot afford period products. Together, we started Women in Training, Inc. (WIT), a youth empowerment organization to address this poverty and human rights issue. WIT’s signature program is the WITKITS Campaign to help alleviate period poverty among the 25% of American young people who skip school or miss work because they cannot afford menstrual products. WIT provides monthly donations of WITKITS to at-risk girls, low-income women and nonbinary youth. WITKITS are branded canvas bags full of menstrual, hygiene and dental products. Since COVID-19, WIT volunteers include personal protective equipment, such as masks, gloves and a bottle of WIT hand sanitizer, in each WITKIT.
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Women in Training, Inc. has expanded to include programs to help girls break the generational cycle of poverty:
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WIT Leadership Development Academy for high school young women
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WIT Girls STEM Initiative to expose girls to careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics
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WIT Mentor Program
Earlier this year, Grant Thornton named us their newest Purple Paladin. In 2022, the Barron Prize for Young Heroes recognized us for our work to empower young women. T-Mobile and Ashoka named us Changemakers for 2021. Always brand of Procter and Gamble has named us Period Heroes, and we spoke on an International Day of the Woman panel discussion in 2021 about our ideas for combating period poverty. In 2020, Brooke won the Prudential Spirit of Community Award for Alabama for helping to create WIT. In 2019, Breanna won the Prudential Spirit of Community Award for Alabama for taking the lead in producing Architects of Change, a documentary about the modern Civil Rights Movement.
We are in 11th grade at The Montgomery Academy in Alabama.
End Poverty. PERIOD!
Founders
Brooke & Breanna Bennett
Our Mission
Women in Training, Inc. (WIT) is a youth empowerment organization that advocates for menstrual equity, menstrual education, and engages girls and nonbinary youth, ages 10 to 18, in community service and social justice. WITKITS® is the organization’s signature program for supporting people in need. WIT has created youth development programs to facilitate formal and experiential learning opportunities to cultivate young women into culturally competent and compassionate global leaders who care about themselves and the world around them.
"When the world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."
Malala Yousafzai
Our Core Values
Womanism: A form of feminism that centers the experiences of Black women and other women-of-color
Global Citizenship: The concept of a person’s identity transcending personal and physical borders; we have a responsibility for each other
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Intersectionality: The recognition that all of us belong to multiple identity groups and experience privilege and oppression in complex
ways
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Liberation: All people deserve access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All people have the responsibility to use their privileges to uplift others
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Decolonization: The process of deconstructing Eurocentric patriarchal ideologies and uplifting indigenous worldviews
Women In Training (WIT) is a nonreligious organization that works with and benefits from the generosity and volunteerism of many organizations and entities. WIT is an inclusive organization that respects the human rights of all people, regardless of sex, gender, race, color, national origin, age, disability, citizenship,
sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.
WIT does not participate in religious ceremonies or proselytize in any way.