Core Align was born out of recognition of untapped potential, a desire to have the work we do day to day be in service of the affirmative vision we hold for our sexual and reproductive lives. In August 2010, Tracy Weitz, the director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, and Sujatha Jesudason, formerly of Generations Ahead, were in conversation with reproductive justice and disability rights advocates, confronting the contradictions in the aims and messaging of these movements. It was a deeply personal, hard conversation where participants laid bare what is often unsaid. It drove both Sujatha and Tracy to wonder what breaking down barriers between the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement would require and what it could accomplish.

How would we attract and support innovators to forge powerful alliances outside our institutions in order to craft a long-term approach to win the resources and rights for all of us to enjoy our own sexual and reproductive futures? How would it feel for people to train together as individuals who are curious, adaptive, courageous, eager to live change, and ready to risk airing what’s been left unsaid? Who recognizes this untapped potential, has the courage to do things differently and do different things, and wants to unleash our power to win the resources, rights and respect for all people’s sexual and reproductive lives?