Another Year of Impact at the IMPACT Conference
Image description: NAAFA Executive Director Tigress Osborn and NAAFA Board Member Francisca Moreno are shown representing NAAFA at the Opportunities Fair at the 2024 IMPACT Conference. The two are standing next to a tabletop poster for the Campaign for Size Freedom, which is placed atop a table covered by a white table cloth featuring the NAAFA logo.
By Tigress Osborn, NAAFA Executive Director
The IMPACT Conference is the largest annual student activist conference in the USA. With a focus on engaging college students in service, advocacy, and social action, the conference gathers hundreds of undergrads, administrators, and other educators from across the country. Community service opportunities, workshops, and keynote speakers challenge and support students in becoming changemakers on their campuses, in their local communities, and beyond.
NAAFA returned to the conference for a second year, this time in deep East Texas in the small town of Nacogdoches. After the warm reception we received last year for the first-ever fat liberation workshop at IMPACT, we were excited to come back this year to meet new students. We were thrilled to see that conference staff members and some returning conference participants remembered us and were excited to have us back!
A New Board Member Jumps Right In
This time around, I was joined by new board member Francisca Moreno, who co-led our fat liberation workshop with me. Francisca’s own recent experience as a student activist and organizer was an excellent example for those who joined us for our workshop and for those who were able to interact with them at our table at the conference’s Opportunity Fair. At the fair, students get to interact directly with staff and volunteers from non-profit groups like NAAFA, who are doing the daily work of building a more equitable world. Students at our table asked questions, signed the Size Freedom petition, and made signs showing they support #SizeFreedom.
Workshop Inspires New Commitments
Students were able to choose from dozens of workshops on everything from best practices in service learning, to utilizing storytelling as a tool for social justice, to using restorative justice approaches. In NAAFA’s workshop, students learned basics about fat liberation as an intersectional social justice priority, including some history of NAAFA’s size acceptance work and information about the Campaign for Size Freedom. We also discussed intersectionality, the ways in which white supremacy has shaped anti-fatness, and the disproportionate impact of weight stigma and size-based injustice on People of Color, LGBTQIA+ people, and disabled people. Our workshop participants discussed examples of discrimination faced by fat people and worked collaboratively to come up with action items for what they would do after the workshop. Here are a few ways they told us they plan to bring fat liberation into their lives as student activists:
work to use more size inclusive language in my day-to-day life
include fat liberation in my health justice student organization
advocate for and support ongoing efforts to make my campus’ classrooms more accessible for fat people
undo internalized fatphobia to ensure that I see the world and make decisions in an intersectional lens centering fatness
It was especially meaningful to support the conference this year because the host campus, Stephen F. Austin University, recently went from being a private institution to being a part of the Texas state university system. This means the school is now restricted by new laws in Texas that prevent them from discussing many aspects of diversity and inclusion. Our values at NAAFA include a commitment to being an anti-racist organization and supporting our community in developing anti-racist understanding and practices individually and collectively. IMPACT shares these values, with a commitment to racial justice and an intersectional approach that extends to all aspects of their programming. As an outside conference, they brought discussions to SFAU that are now stifled on this campus, and we could see how the students and staff from the university were grateful for the opportunity to engage. We are proud to have been a part of that engagement.
Donors Make Outreach Possible
We look forward to many more years of participating in the IMPACT conference. The ongoing relationship we are building with the organizers and participants at the IMPACT Conference is just one example of our work to build deeper connections and collaborations with other social justice organizations. Your contributions to NAAFA are what allow us to strengthen our community by building bridges and coalitions with other groups. Become a monthly donor today and help us continue to make an ongoing impact!