Vital Voices, the nonprofit founded by Hillary Rodham Clinton and the late Madeleine Albright, opens its Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership with a three-day festival.
MAY 5-7, 2022, WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vital Voices, an international non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization that invests in women leaders, is proud to announce the new Vital Voices Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership, coming to the center of downtown Washington, D.C.
Located at 1509 16th Street, NW, among other high-profile institutions and think tanks and just minutes from the White House and Black Lives Matter Plaza in the city’s new “Equality Corridor,” this first-of-its-kind physical and digital space will be the epicenter of activity for global women leaders and their allies and a collaborative and inclusive space for all women – everywhere. In addition to the Vital Voices staff and global network of women leaders, the building will serve as a gathering place for local and visiting women’s organizations with limited resources that need a place to convene, innovate, plan, and act – all in the pursuit of tackling the world’s greatest challenges.
“It is our hope that women and their allies from around the world will come to this building to expand their networks, share their stories of success and hardship, highlight their bold visions for progress, and recharge so that they can go back out into the world and make real change happen,” explains Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, along with the late U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, established Vital Voices in 1997 while First Lady of the United States. “Madeleine was so excited about the creation of this Women’s Embassy and, in opening it, we’re honoring her vision and legacy.”
A three-day festival will welcome this new neighbor to the Nation’s Capital. Activities start Thursday, May 5, with a morning march of hundreds of girls and allies from the White House to the Vital Voices Global Headquarters to showcase the next generation of leaders. Following a ribbon cutting, the Global Embassy for Women will open its doors for three days of exhibits, panels, luncheons, and other activities to bring women together and celebrate the launch of the Headquarters. On May 7, the building will hold an open house as part of DC Passport’s popular “Around the World Embassy Tour.” (Register here.)
Confirmed guests (subject to change) include Hillary R. Clinton, fashion designer and Vital Voices Board Member Diane Von Furstenberg, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, recording artist MILCK, actor activists Elizabeth Banks and Angelina Spicer, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, Cameroon Political Leader Kah Walla, Tunisian Entrepreneur and Human Rights activist Amira Yahyaoui, Ukrainian Human Rights activist Oksana Horbunova, former Deputy Trade Minister of Afghanistan Muquadessa Yourish, Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, climate activist Sophia Kianni, and more.
“Vital Voices was created to make space for women to be heard,” says Vital Voices President and CEO Alyse Nelson. “Over more than two decades of investing in women leaders on the frontlines of change, we have seen firsthand how women lead differently, and that difference is precisely what our world needs to solve the challenges ahead of us. Now is the time to put a stake in the ground and create a permanent, physical, and very visible space for these leaders to come together. We believe this Headquarters will spark creativity, trust, and the kind of bold ideas that will transform and improve communities and nations around the world.”
BACKGROUND
Driven by the universal truth that women are the key to progress in their communities and that nations can’t move forward without women in leadership positions, the Vital Voices Global Partnership has directly invested in more than 20,000 changemakers across 184 countries and territories over the last 24 years. It’s provided early support for leaders who went on to become Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, U.S. Youth Poet Laureates, Prime Ministers, award-winning innovators, pioneering human rights defenders, and breakthrough social entrepreneurs, including Amanda Gorman, Malala Yousafzai, and more.
Serving as a “venture catalyst,” the non-profit identifies leaders with a daring vision for change and partners with them to make that vision a reality. It provides connections, increased capacity, a peer network, financial support, skills training, and increased visibility for their work, which ranges from gender-based violence to the climate crisis, economic inequities.
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