Following the screening, film protagonist and advisor, Clarissa Doutherd, a single mother and community organizer, and filmmaker Tamara Perkins will join a panel of local policy-makers and Connecticut-based community organizers to examine the challenges related to accessible childcare and funding for early childhood education and opportunities for advocacy and policy change. The discussion will examine how critical access to quality childcare and early education are to the realization of human rights, not only in childhood but throughout the lifespan.  

About the film:
Single mother and activist Clarissa Doutherd is working tirelessly to build a powerful coalition. The coalition’s goal is to make local, state and national leaders understand a desperate need shared by families, parents and children across the country, from low-income to middle. It’s a need many families don’t have in the United States; but for those who do, it is crucial. Clarissa’s ambition is to make their voices heard loudly, plainly, and their desperation made clear. 

What these families need is simple on the surface: child care and early education funds. Enough to allow parents to continue to work. Enough to keep families off the streets. Enough to give their children a chance at a productive, successful future. Providing these funds would benefit every citizen in every community - so why do people fight so hard to prevent it?

CLARISSA’S BATTLE is about more than a movement. It’s about the tenacity of a woman who experienced the shock of financial insecurity after the birth of her son, and her determination to stop it from happening to anyone else. It’s about the struggle experienced by millions of families unseen and unspoken of by their communities. It is about what happens when a woman rises to grasp her power and says, “Enough.”

Clarissa’s Battle website: https://www.clarissasbattle.com/