Female and Finally Free

County of Los Angeles

From UN Sustainable Development Goals Website: Gender equality is a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. There has been progress: More girls are going to school, fewer girls are forced into early marriage, more women are serving in positions of leadership, and laws are being reformed to advance gender equality. • Despite these gains, many challenges remain: discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive, women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership • Women are paid 16% less than men. • One in four managers are women. • 31% of young women are not in education, employment or training. • Only 40% of women who experience violence seek help of any sort. • 1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 report experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period. • Women need more access to finance in order to be on an equal footing with men.

PFF is committed to help meet U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by being a creative hub via streaming channels dedicated to the goals. For example, U.N. Goal #5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” Led by Dayle D. Hartnett, Ph.D., PFF is developing the TV series, Female and Finally Free, reaching out to women who will tell their personal stories of becoming free from constraints. These stories may be about surviving abuse, imprisonment, or bulling; or, suffering from postpartum depression, an eating disorder, or poverty; or, about victory over any adversity. For LA2050, we would use the grant to invite females throughout LA County to send their self-produced video story to https://pacificfilmfoundation.org/gender-equality-5 for posting on the streaming Channel 5 – Gender Equality. We will then invite Website visitors to view the stories and review/vote for the story(ies) they believe in (stories, reviews, and votes moderated). PFF’s ultimate goal is to develop, produce, and ultimately distribute this episodic series so that women and girls around the world can be inspired by these courageous examples. For LA2050, we would focus on stories celebrating girls and women in LA County who have broken free of constraints, and one or more of these stories could become part of the episodic series. PFF owns the URL, http://femaleandfinallyfree.com and would develop and launch the site as part of the LA2050 grant.

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

The intended positive effects in LA County of the LA2050 Female and Finally Free Program would include: Employment in the creative industries of LA County – • On-camera subjects in the documentary TV series. • Off-camera crew developing and producing the series. • Location services, equipment rentals, post-production specialists, etc. Minority- and women-owned businesses as candidates for on-camera subjects and/or off-camera crew; or companies (e.g., location services; equipment rentals/sales; post-production crew; etc.) Economic opportunities for formerly incarcerated women – the series Female and Finally Free got its start from a year (2012) PFF spent filming women inside the Valley State Prison for Women, many of whom have by now been released, who have or are seeking employment, or who want to start their own small businesses. Income inequality – PFF commits to equal pay for equal work, including among all populations, races, and genders – female, male, LGBTQ.

PFF will use ANSWER 9 categories as success measures of LA2050 Female and Finally Free, plus: Sponsorship revenue: PFF intends to recruit brand sponsors of the TV Series, including the following criteria: Committed to UN Sustainable Goal #5 – Gender Equality Committed to UN Sustainable Goals #3, #13, #16, #17 Have written into their corporate standards an “equal pay for equal work” rule Audience growth: Working with multi-cultural audience professionals, e.g., EthniFacst/Nielsen, we will accurately measure the number of multi-racial and multi-cultural audience members we reach. Google For Nonprofits o PFF is the recipient of a Google Adwords Grant (Customer ID# 681-368-1386) which entitles us to $10,000 per month of free Adwords driving specifically addressed traffic to PFF’s Websites and social media networks. o PFF is also the recipient of a free YouTube account, which will enable the acquisition of the many Female and Finally Free videos received via the LA2050 program.