Blogs

October 20, 2017

We are pleased the share the following YWCA USA updates:

Week Without Violence: Great Work!

Fantastic work from the unstoppable YWCA network this week. Ninety-eight YWCAs and 18 partners held 185 events across 38 states and D.C. Our digital impact was significant as well.

• You can still watch Tuesday's Facebook Live featuring Alicia Sanchez Gill of YWCA USA and Samantha Masters of Planned Parenthood. To date, their discussion has over 20,000 views.
• A huge thank you to Angela Beatty and Karla Docter of YWCA Oklahoma City for their participation in this great promotional video.
• YWCA USA was featured on the front page of Women’s E-News this week with a great piece from CEO Alejandra Y. Castillo.
• We had many great contributors to YWCAblog this week, including senior policy analyst Caitlin Lowry on technological abuse, Lily Eisner, YWCA USA summer intern, on campus sexual assault, Sharon K. Roberson, president and CEO of YWCA Nashville and Middle Tennessee on community collaboration, and YWCA Alaska on gun violence.
• Our #WWV17 hashtag trended in Washington, D.C. yesterday during our well-attended Twitter Chat on racial justice approaches to addressing gender-based violence. Big thank you’s to all YWCAs who participated!

Don’t forget to tell your Members of Congress to prioritize gender-based violence in their work. Take action and share this alert with your networks.

And - join Gissell Vasquez, volunteer leader at YWCA Berkeley/Oakland, in sharing why Week Without Violence matters to you!

Madeleine Keegan O'Connell, CEO of YWCA Sonoma County

Madeleine shared the following update regarding the impact of the California wildfires on her association and her community:

Santa Rosa, California was besieged by a seemingly uncontainable wildfire fueled by excessive wind which first struck in the wee hours of Columbus Day.

What our community continued to struggle with over the past ten days has been the threat of the fire moving into more areas where we live and work. We are heartened by the mobilization of statewide resources and heavy concentration on these fires. Coupled with the arrival of a light rain, the containment percentages are on the increase. Presently our staff members have or are returning to their homes as evacuation orders are lifted. One of our therapists and a board member lost their homes after harrowing escapes. Luckily no YWCA Sonoma County facilities including our preschool, confidential shelter or our administrative headquarters were damaged in the fire.

World YWCA

The World YWCA board of directors recently held a meeting in July. During the meeting, they discussed key topics and strategies for sustainable momentum in the global YWCA movement. Among these included financial forecasts, planning of World Council 2019, strengthening young women and girls’ transformative leadership, and overall sustainability of the organization.

• Jenna Foster, who currently serves on the World YWCA board of directors, representing YWCA USA and the North American region of World YWCA, attended the meeting.
• Under the leadership of Malayah Harper, the new General Secretary, and board president Deborah Thomas-Austin, there is a clear direction for the future of the organization. Details regarding World Council 2019 will be forthcoming.
• Because bold and transformative change is what is needed to meet the World YWCA goal of reaching 100 million women and girls by 2035, a strategic framework for young women’s engagement is currently being refined and will be shared following discussions with the young women’s global advisory council.
• You can see a photo of Jenna and read more about YWCA USA’s global work on our newly updated intranet page here.

YWCA USA in the News

Read our CEO Alejanda Y. Castillo’s interview with Forbes.com. Also, watch for her on Good Day Street Talk in NYC tomorrow morning and Telemundo in the coming days.

Website Template

We are continuing work on the new website template and now we need your help! In an effort to tell our compelling shared story, we need authentic images from local associations. To share images, please visit this upload page, where you can drag and drop your images. Please be sure to put your association name in the filename. We will review images of all sizes and quality, so please feel free to share!

By submitting this photo for YWCA USA to consider using it on its website, or in other marketing or fundraising materials, you are confirming that you have the legal written consent of both the photographer and person(s) in the photograph for YWCA USA to make such use of it.

In case you missed it, here is the FAQ we’ve put together around the new web project. Please feel free to contact webmaster@ywca.org with any questions.

Important Dates

• October 2 – 31: Purple Purse Challenge
• October 23: Money Monday (register here)
• YWCA 101, an introductory webinar to the YWCA USA, will be offered on November 28. Register your staff, volunteers and board. (Please note, the October 24 webinar has been cancelled.)
• October 31 – November 1: Western Network Geo-Network Meeting

Questions about what you read today? Contact communications@ywca.org.