I hope you all have had a chance to read Phyllis’ commentary in the Spotlight on Poverty.
I am one of the staff here at The Women’s Foundation working on the Women’s Economic Security Collaborative (WESC) and I think it is a very exciting project. We have the opportunity to really help low-income women and their families throughout the country by bringing greater attention to the issue and the policies that affect it.
One of the things that I love about this project is that I get to work with some of the other really incredible women’s foundations from other cities. Our partners are The Women’s Foundation of California, the Chicago Foundation for Women and the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis.
Already, we are learning so much from one and other – and I think the fact that we will be able to meld all of our experience and focus it on one common goal makes the WESC a very powerful group. Also, it gives Washington Area Women’s Foundation the opportunity to take the best of our partners’ work and use it here in the Washington metropolitan area.
I want to share with you just a few of the great projects that our collaborators are working on:
- The Women’s Foundation for Greater Memphis is the only women’s foundation in the nation to lead the fundraising for a Department of Housing and Urban Development HOPE IV project (these projects provide funds to revitalize some of the country’s most distressed housing projects). In Memphis, the women’s foundation has partnered with the Memphis Housing Authority to redevelop two of the largest public housing developments in Memphis and to provide comprehensive community support services.
- In Illinois, the Chicago Women’s Foundation has launched a state-wide public awareness campaign to address domestic violence called “What Will It Take”. Their goal is to end the abuse of women and girls, and they have used a wide-range of tools– including town-hall meetings, PSA’s, an action packet, concerts and more- to educate and involve the people of Illinois.
- The Women’s Foundation of California houses The Women’s Policy Institute – the only project in the nation of its kind. It is a year-long program for community leaders in California that combines advocacy training sessions and actual work to develop and implement policy advocacy projects. Thus, the Institute meets the twin goals of increasing the number of women’s advocates in the state and increasing the number of policies that reflect the needs and realities of low-income women and their families.
And, of course, our partners are learning from us as well. In fact, the Stepping Stones Initiative’s success in helping single-women low-income families increase their financial independence is not only influencing the work of our partners, but of many other women’s foundation around the country as well (including Colorado, Maine and the Nokomis Foundation to name a few).
Over the next year, we will be working locally with Grantee Partners, poverty experts, policymakers, women throughout our region and other key stakeholders to review the local landscape and to discuss ways to improve policies that impact low-income women – including the use of a Poverty Impact Statement.
Then, we will meet with our partners in the WESC so that we can all share what we have learned in our communities and what we have learned nationally. Our goal is that, by working together, we can each exponentially increase our knowledge and our ability so that we can have a deeper impact on the lives of women and girls at home.
I think we will.
Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Major Events and Policy Advocacy.
