As I listened to the speech, I thought about the work that we do at The Women’s Foundation and the intersection between the federal policies discussed and the reality that women and girls in our region face, and I was once again struck by the huge disconnect that we continue to see.

The theme of the speech—economic fairness—sounds quite simple and logical.  The President spoke about how his grandparents contributed to a post-World War II “story of success that every American had a chance to share – the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.”  He called this “the defining issue of our time,” saying, “No challenge is more urgent.  No debate is more important.  We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by.  Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”  Who can argue with that?  Hard to disagree with the logic, so why can’t we get there?

Ask anyone who is out in the community, working in the trenches, and they will tell you that it’s not easy. The issues facing our nation and our local community are incredibly complex and they didn’t just pop up overnight, which means that the solutions are not simple, one-dimensional responses, and the problems won’t be solved with a blink of the eye.

Take the President’s commitment to train people with skills that will lead directly to jobs and his call to cut through “the maze of confusing training programs.”  Sounds like a no-brainer — of course we should train people with skills that lead to jobs; but just this past week we were once again reminded why something that may seem intuitive isn’t.  WAMU aired a report investigating D.C.’s job training programs and detailed the disconnect between some of the programs that are receiving funding, the skill sets required for the jobs people were being trained for, and ultimately, the availability of these jobs.  The example cited was the 4,000 people trained to earn a Commercial Drivers License and the 90 people who were ultimately hired by metro, the region’s largest CDL employer. How can there be such a disconnect?

Additionally, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation, released a resource map offering a snapshot of the city’s investment in workforce development over the course of one fiscal year.  The map details more than 30 programs and services across a dozen city agencies. It’s hard to imagine how someone could possibly navigate the system in the best of times, say nothing about the worst of times.

As we think about the worst of times and the state of our economy, the President rightly devoted a great deal of his speech to jobs.  And while he called for equal pay for women, the majority of the jobs-related portions of the speech focused on nontraditional jobs where women continue to be underrepresented and face numerous barriers to obtaining and retaining these jobs.  Isn’t it time that we give equal weight and value to ensuring women are paid equal wages for equal work?  Doesn’t that fundamentally fall into the economic fairness category?  Are we ok with telling our girls to work hard and get a good education only to be paid 77 cents on the dollar?

Calling on every state to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18 is a commendable goal set forth by the President.  There is no doubt about the importance of graduating high school and pursuing post-secondary education and training.  Our research demonstrates the drastic earnings differential based on educational attainment. Women in this region who do not have a high school diploma earn just over $18,000 per year compared to women with a graduate or professional degree who earn over $70,000.

But it’s not quite as cut and dry as simply saying that we’ll require everyone to graduate. Are we prepared to tackle the myriad of issues that cause youth, particularly girls, to drop out of school?  Generational poverty, family unemployment, violence, and teen pregnancy are just a few of the laundry list of issues that are at the crux of drop-out rates.

So how do we get there? Last night, the President reminded us that “no one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs.”  Well, there is no better time than now for our community to pull together to ensure that the Washington region is a model community where economically vulnerable women and girls have the resources to thrive.  Now is the time to work together toward innovative, multi-dimensional solutions that put women and girls on a path to prosperity.  Let’s break the disconnect.  Where would you start?

Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat is vice president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Photo credit: WhiteHouse.gov

Tags: obama, sotu, state of the union, economy, equal pay, women, girls, resources, poverty, education, work, jobs

Read on to find out what some of our grantees will be doing for our region in 2012 and tell us in the comments below what you envision for women and girls this year.  Washington Area Women’s Foundation will be sharing our own list of resolutions later this month in a special e-mail message from Foundation President Nicky Goren.  Make sure you learn what we’re planning for 2012 by signing up to get monthly e-mails today!

IWPR’s 2012 Resolutions

• During this election year, get people talking about the issues that affect women, such as jobs and the economy, the gender wage gap and workplace discrimination, STEM education, Social Security and retirement, work/family balance, and maternal and child health.
• Celebrate our 25^th anniversary by marking the progress that women have made while highlighting areas where policy changes could make a huge difference in advancing women, families, and communities.
• Illustrate the current status of women displaced by Hurricane Katrina through an upcoming report that also identifies their specific needs.
• Improve success rates for student parents by sharing best practices and forging strong partnerships with administrators, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers within the worlds of higher education, youth development, and early care and education.
• Give young women opportunities to gain career experience while expanding their knowledge of research and policy issues through our internship and fellowship programs.

Goodwill of Greater Washington’s 2012 Resolutions

• In 2012, Goodwill of Greater Washington resolves to train, equip and place nearly 200 people into local jobs that support the local economy. We anticipate that these 200 jobs will come through the continued expansion of Goodwill’s retail stores, as well as the placement efforts from our intensive job training programs;
• Goodwill of Greater Washington also resolves to continue providing 600+ jobs to local residents through our retail stores, janitorial contracts, and administrative and support divisions, many of which are filled by people who face significant disabilities or other barriers to employment.

NOVACO’s 2012 Resolutions

At a client Life Skills meeting at NOVACO in January, several clients set goals and made resolutions.  They included:

• believing in themselves so that they could achieve their goals;
• being better parents; and
• setting small goals and telling themselves that they could accomplish those goals.

One mother, Kay, reflected on how much she’s achieved so far.  She earned her high school diploma through night classes, learned to drive and got her driver’s license, and worked with lawyers to get a work permit.  She also improved her parenting skills while she worked full-time at a restaurant and was offered a management position after just one year.  She volunteered her free time as a pen pal and greeter for the USO.

DCVLP’s 2012 Resolution

The DC Volunteer Lawyers Project resolution is that every victim of domestic violence in DC seeking a civil protection order who wants representation by an attorney will have one this year.

SMYAL’s Women’s Leadership Institute’s 2012 Resolutions

• Provide a much-needed free space for young women to gather and form community.
• Using that space, build our community of women and strengthen our bonds through discussion and shared service.
• Promote further discussion about maintaining healthy relationships, recognizing unhealthy relationships, and combating domestic violence.
• Develop connections to extend our diverse community deeper into the DC metro area and beyond.
• Seek out community partners and collaborate on at least four service projects.
• Connect more young women to mentorship opportunities with local volunteers.
• Long-term resolution: Create a community of confident, empowered women through opportunities for leadership development and civic engagement.

FAIR Girls’ 2012 Resolutions

We, FAIR Girls, resolve to work as hard as we can to make sure that by the end of 2012…

• 200 teen girl survivors of exploitation have received compassionate care, including counseling, emergency housing, assistance in finding legal and medical support, resume building and job placement, educational attainment support, and a sense of family and community at FAIR Girls.
• 1000 teen girls and boys in high schools and youth shelters have participated in our Tell Your Friends workshop and have learned how to keep themselves safe from sexual exploitation and trafficking.
• 1000 law enforcement officers, teachers, and social workers are better able to identify and assist victims of trafficking having attending a FAIR Girls training.
• A law, inspired by Daisy, will have passed in Washington, D.C. ensuring that all missing teenage girls are considered “critical missing” and have access to FAIR Girls and our partners’ services when they are found.
• 2000 hours of art therapy and economic empowerment workshops will have helped inspire and restore more than 125 girls.

Thank you to the Grantee Partners who shared their resolutions with us!  You can share your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to register for our e-newsletter to learn more about The Women’s Foundation’s plans for 2012.

Tags: 2012, resolutions, women, girls, unemployment, jobs, economy, trafficking, domestic, violence, education

– Ahead of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Women’s Foundation President Nicky Goren visits the MLK Memorial and reflects on what Dr. King would think about more than 200,000 women and girls living in poverty in the DC region.

– The Women’s Foundation is inviting supporters to join us and volunteer at A Wider Circle on MLK Day.  Click here for details.

– The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) — a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner — has posted a list of their top five findings of 2011. Topics on the list include how women have fared during the economic recovery, the unmet child care needs of student parents and how much paid sick days would save taxpayers.

– East of the River Magazine explores the innovative work of AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School.  The article also takes a look at the impact a quality Pre-K education can have on the achievement gap.  AppleTree is a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner.

– “In the fight against poverty, it’s time for a revolution,” David Bornstein writes in a commentary on The New York Times website. Bornstein calls for re-defining poverty, restructuring how social services are handled, and focusing on collaborative, long-term solutions.

– Here’s your feel great story of the week: a 17-year-old Long Island high school student whose family had to move into a homeless shelter a year ago is a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search competition.  Samantha Garvey says she doesn’t have the best home life, but she hopes that she made her parents proud by being one of just 300 students nationwide to participate in the semifinals of the competition.  You can watch her story here:

Tags: women, girls, dc, poverty, homeless, education, intel, science, career, early care, children

In 2000, a similar report found that less-educated women earned 81 cents for every dollar men earned.  By 2010, the pay gap shrunk by five cents to 86 cents per dollar.  Unfortunately, that small feat is not enough; there’s still more work to do.  In the current report, women were overrepresented among low-wage workers.  While women made up 49 percent of the total workforce in 2010, women accounted for 59 percent of the low-wage workforce.

The GAO researchers surveyed 14 industries and analyzed 15 occupations.  They discovered that even within the same industries and occupations where women had more experience and education, women are still undervalued and underpaid. This can be discouraging to say the least.  I commend Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, the former chair of the Joint Economic Committee for requesting this report in 2010.   The Congresswoman’s position on this and other women’s issues around equality give so many of us hope.

However, when I hear startling statistics like these, I cannot help but to reflect on my own personal experience.  While growing up, I remember hearing how important and valuable education was to securing a decent future for me and my family.  Hearing those words evoked both the passion and desire for me to strive.  However, having secured a college degree and currently working on two master’s degrees, I can’t help but to wonder will I (we) ever catch up?  Will we ever be armed with the right amount of education and experience to be able to fairly and equally compete?  Should young girls and women continue on the path to prosperity chasing the false hope of prosperity with looming statistics like these dancing alongside our journey?

I realize these questions are heavy and could take literally an act of Congress to get answered.  But as a single mother and the head of my household, I can’t help but to seek answers to these questions as those answers impact the decisions I make for my family every day.

In the meantime and until those questions are answered, I will continue to arm myself with what motivates and inspires me – “be the best woman I can be,” which includes a very promising vision of me and all women being treated equally and fairly in every aspect of our lives.

Latricia Allen is the grants manager at Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Tags: government accountability office, report, gender, wage, gap, low, wage, workers, women, Carolyn Maloney

– The new supplemental poverty measure released by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this week finds that Latinos are the poorest group of Americans, according to DCentric. The new measure puts the nationwide Latino poverty rate at 28 percent.  The official measurement finds that African Americans have the highest poverty rate in the country.

– The cost of Thanksgiving dinner is on the rise, reports the Virginia Farm Bureau.  This year, feeding a group of 10 adults turkey, side dishes and dessert will cost $48.03.  That’s nearly $5 more than last year, reports WAMU.

– A free health education text messaging service aimed at medically under-served women is reaching a number of goals, according to the White House Council on Women and Girls’ blog. Text4Baby sends three text messages per week to subscribers with information on doctor’s visits, immunization and Medicaid.

– Cable companies around the country will begin offering discounted services to families with an annual income of $29,055 or less, reports DCentric. Cutting costs will make having the internet more affordable to low income residents.

Tags: women, girls, maternal, health, low, income, cable, poverty, latino, african, american

Tags: washington, dc, virginia, maryland, women, girls, economy, income, poverty, low-income, acs, american community survey, census

Since its release, The Women’s Foundation staff has been combing through the 87 page report, looking at the local impact, particularly on women-headed families.

“The big takeaway is that the number of female-headed households with related children under 18 living in poverty rose to 40.7 percent,” says Gwen Rubinstein, program officer at The Women’s Foundation.  “That’s compared to an 8.8 percent poverty rate for married-couple households.”

The median income for women-headed families decreased by 3.3 percent, from $33,135 to $32,031.

Rubinstein also notes that:

• 19.9% of DC residents were living in poverty in 2010, compared to 17.9% in 2009;
• DC has the third-highest poverty rate in the nation (behind Mississippi at 22.7% and Louisiana at 21.6%);
• the poverty rate in Maryland rose from 9.6% in 2009 to 10.8% in 2010;
• the poverty rate in Virginia did not change;
• median income has stagnated across our region;
• and, the percentage of Virginia residents without health insurance rose from 12.6% in 2009 to 14.1% in 2010.

Washington Area Women’s Foundation will be working with Grantee Partner The Urban Institute to continue to review and interpret data from the new report and provide updates on the ways in which these statistics impact our community and what they mean for our work.  Stay tuned for more… and to review the report yourself, please click here.

Few have paid attention, however, to the potential overall effects of changes in Medicare and Medicaid on women – both young and old.

It is time to take a gender lens to these programs. Reducing the reach and coverage of Medicare and Medicaid – through any means – will affect millions of women, particularly low-income women.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation:

• Medicaid provided 20 million low-income women with basic health and long-term care coverage in 2007.
• Women make up the majority of adult Medicaid recipients (69 percent of the total – even higher among the oldest recipients).
• If this percentage holds true in our area, any changes to Medicaid will affect nearly 1 million women in the District, Maryland and Virginia.

The same holds true for Medicare. Again, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation:

• The majority (56 percent) of Medicare beneficiaries are women.
• Any changes to Medicare will affect more than 1 million women in the District, Maryland and Virginia.
• As we learned from our 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area, this number is likely to grow dramatically in the next decade. Between 2000 and 2008, the population of women over 65 grew by 18 percent in the region, compared to an overall 5 percent increase in the total population of women.

Isn’t it time we started talking about this?

Gwen Rubinstein is Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s Program Officer.

Tags: federal, buget, healthcare, cuts, medicare, medicaid

– DCentric takes a look at how a federal government shutdown could impact DC’s most vulnerable residents.

– “Less than one-third of a representative sample of grantmakers that support health-related issues in the United States have made the needs of underserved communities a top priority” according to a new report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.  Click here for details.

– A new report from the Center for WorkLife Law shows that low-wage workers are discriminated against at work based on their caregiving responsibilities at home.  Click here to read “Poor, Pregnant and Fired.”

Tags: government, shutdown, impact, public, benefits, discrimination, women, girls, working, mothers, healthcare

– DCentric takes a look at DC Mayor Vincent Gray’s proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year and details some of the $187 million in cuts.  60 percent of those cuts would come from social services.

– Even if you’re not a federal employee, you could be affected by a government shutdown reports WTOP.com.  Click here for a look at the ways in which you might be impacted.