You’ve read about our grant partners, but now we want to share with you these powerful videos of grant programs in action. Follow the link below to hear testimonies from participants in programs from Doma International, CATCO-Pheonix and Rwanda Women in Action.
Doma: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLs2bR0Raa0
CATCO-Pheonix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSTofN6l0dE
Rwanda Women in Action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ttknpOq4tw
“Teach a woman to fish, she’ll feed the whole village.”
-Hillary Rodham Clinton
Put a woman in power, she’ll feed the whole world.
That is what Josette Sheeran is striving to do. In her role as Executive Director of the World Food Programme (the food aid branch of the United Nations), Sheeran oversees more than 80 of the world’s poorest countries, providing food to 90 million people last year alone. She is one of the individuals featured in the 10 Most Powerful Women at the United Nations, a list leading up to Forbes’ The 100 Most Powerful Women 2011 due to be released in August.
Also included on that list are Valerie Amos, Judy Cheng-Hopkins, and Helen Clark, equally high-ranking and prominent officials, essential to the operations of the UN. There is Angela Kane, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, who supports tasks of the UN Secretariat, and Susana Malcorra, who directs field operations in her role as the Under-Secretary-General and Head of the Department of Field Support. Michelle Bachelet and Radhika Coomaraswamy work to protect the rights of those too oft-forgotten and mistreated: women and children. Together, Patricia O’Brien and Navanehtem Pillay direct the legal concerns of the UN in their positions as Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs and the UN Legal Counsel and The High Commissioner for Human Rights respectively. All ten of the women are members of the UN Senior Management Group.
And all ten of the women use their positions in power to feed, rescue, care for, and protect those in the world. Just imagine what ten million in power could do.
Click on this link to read the article, The 10 Most Powerful Women at the United Nations, written by Avril David: http://blogs.forbes.com/avrildavid/2011/05/02/the-10-most-powerful-women-at-the-united-nations/
Written by: Eleanor Rooke
The Getting Ahead program blogged about earlier this week was derived from the Bridges Out of Poverty curriculum—a program based around raising awareness about the truths of those in poverty, middle class, and wealth, specifically highlighting the hidden “rules” that govern all of our lives (whether we are conscious of them or not). “Bridges” gives a new lens through which we can view the whole of our community, including ourselves, our neighbors, and the systems that affect us all. Kathleen Kishman and I had the privilege to attend a half day Bridges Out of Poverty workshop yesterday led by Louise Seipel. I think everyone, whether he or she is in social service, health care, law enforcement, or simply living in our community, can benefit from what was taught:
We need to be aware of the hidden rules to better partner with others and help them toward success.
Actually, we might apply this to everyone we come across.
Written by: Eleanor Rooke
As you may know, April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is incredibly important to become educated not only on the topics of safety and prevention, but also on the issues which victims of sexual assault face each day.
Let’s take a look at the facts. In America, 1 out of every 6 women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. How does this trauma affect the lives and well-being of so many women? The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence is estimated as $727.8 million with over 7.9 million paid workdays lost per year.[1] Studies have shown 75 percent of women in treatment programs for drug and alcohol addictions report having been sexually abused.[2] Nearly 90 percent of women who have become dependent upon alcohol endured severe violence at the hands of a parent or were sexually abused as a child.[3]
Last Friday, The Women’s Fund had the privilege of attending Portraits of Recovery, a luncheon created by our Grant Partner Amethyst, Inc. At this event three amazing women shared their testimonies of abuse and recovery. Although the factors which led to their addictions varied, each of these women attributed their ability to share their own story of struggle and success because of Amethyst’s comprehensive program. Amethyst offers drug and alcohol treatment for women, which addresses economic self-sufficiency, supportive services and trauma counseling. This program takes into account the role traumatic experiences can play in addiction and the recovery process if left untreated.
We are lucky and proud to partner with Amethyst, which understands the effects of sexual assault are lasting and can play a significant role in the future of the individual and the lives that they touch. These three brave women undoubtedly touched each of us, and we want their stories to be heard. Sexual assault is not acceptable, and it needs to stop – now is the time.
[1] Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, 2003
[2] American Journal on Addictions, June 1997
[3] Journal of Traumatic Stress, December 1999
Written by: Kathleen Kishman
Women’s rights have never been easy to come by. Even today in the “free world,” women continually fight uphill battles to attain rights to suffrage, property ownership, and equal pay. Although women’s equality still has a long way to go, women this year:
Now these events are forever a part of history, and they put the women of today on the same historical map as Susan B. Anthony, Mary McLeod Bethune, Lucy Burns and all the women’s activists of yesterday. Our history is our strength, and the achievements up to today lay the foundation for all women to continue toward equality.
Women’s equality, though, is more than the passing of bills, advocating for rights, and holding government positions. It starts with each of us taking pride in ourselves and not settling for just what we are given. So in celebration of Women’s History Month, take a moment to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are now, and to realize that you are a vital contributor to where we are headed.
To read about these and other achievements by women in the past year, click here: http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/03/08/top-10-wins-for-womens-movements/
Written by: Hallie Kloots
On February 16, 2011, we released The Snapshot of Girls in Central Ohio in conjunction with a CMC Luncheon. In case you weren’t able to join us at the luncheon, or want to revisit your experience, here’s a link to the video from the panel discussion! Share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!
A few weeks ago, we released The Snapshot of Girls in Central Ohio report. The report includes detailed statistics about the condition and needs of girls in our area. Ruling Our eXperiences, a partnering organization in the research and WFCO grant partner, is working to help girls gain self-confidence and reverse some of the dismal statistics reported by central Ohio girls. Check out this article about ROX in the Bexley News.
Today we celebrate the funding of 12 new 2011 Grant Partners. In just 10 short years of promising social change for women and girls, The Fund has awarded grants to 117 programs totaling a $1.3 million dollar investment to put more women in leadership positions, strengthen girls’ life skills, and empower more women to achieve economic independence.
The 2011 Grant Partners are:
Amethyst, Incorporated: Supported Employment Program
Supported Employment (SE) provides access to vocational support while promoting economic independence for women recovering from addiction by helping them find employment and reducing the stigma against women in recovery from policy makers and employers.
CATCO-Phoenix: Full STEAM Ahead
CATCO-Phoenix will implement Full STEAM Ahead, a unit of activities for an after-school program that uses drama/theatre as a delivery system to illuminate STEM concepts for middle school girls.
CMAA Refugee Services: Capital Park Women’s Empowerment Project
The Capital Park Women’s Empowerment Project will impact 380 families living in Capital Park Apartments by empowering and training 12 Somali refugee women to become leaders around the issue of safety in their surrounding neighborhood.
Community Refugee & Immigration Services: Providing Knowledge/Pointing the Way
CRIS assists immigrant women exercise their rights, deny abusers the ability to use women’s immigration status as a tool of control, and help participants transform their situations from dependence to self-sufficiency.
Doma International: Project Green Light
Trained volunteers through Abolitionist U become mentors to advocate for and to walk alongside a woman in recovery from Human Trafficking, seeking to reduce the number of women who relapse and exit recovery programs.
Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council, Inc.: It’s Your World: Change It! aMaze Leadership Journey
It’s Your World – Change It! is a gender-specific program in the Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls supporting the developmental, social, and academic needs of middle school girls by enhancing self-concepts and cultivating skills necessary to enable girls to become confident and effective leaders.
HelpLine of Delaware & Morrow Counties: The “Thank Goodness I’m Female” (TGIF) Initiative
A teen led and developed approach, the Thank Goodness I’m Female (T.G.I.F.) Initiative emphasizes the development of healthy female friendships and peer relationships through open dialogue, skill building and youth mentoring utilizing art exhibitions, a social-norm campaign, and social networking “Youtube-like” videos to change aggressive attitudes and behaviors among girls.
Mental Health America of Licking County: Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative
Bridges Out of Poverty inspires women from businesses, churches, and other organizations to volunteer as Allies to help hard-working, low-income women, especially single mothers, escape from poverty
Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio: Peer Education Project
PPCO will engage 10 teenage women as Peer Educators, developing them into informed leaders that will provide education for 300 to 400 of their female peers in the prevention of unintended pregnancies, STI’s, and HIV/AIDS, as well as advocating for changes in government and school policy to encourage women’s rights and comprehensive sexual education.
The Interprofessional Commission of Ohio: Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX)
The ROX Ruling Our eXperiences program empowers girls through training young women on issues of body image, gender roles, female leadership and career development, dealing with harassment and discrimination, healthy relationships with peers, sexual violence, and physical self defense.
Rwandan Women in Action: Refugee Women Transitional Support Program
Refugee Women Transitional Support, in collaboration with Children’s Hunger Alliance, certify refugee women to become childcare providers and start their own cooperative daycares.
The Ohio State University ACCESS Collaborative Program: College and High School Aspiring Mothers Partnership for Degrees (CHAMPS)
The CHAMPS program provides promising young single parent college women the opportunity to develop leadership skills by implementing a college shadow program for expecting or parenting teens.
This grant slate represents new and proven programs, programs in Franklin, Licking and Delaware Counties, and deep work to help women and girls reach their full potential. Thank you for your leadership in recommending funding to The Women’s Fund Board. Your wisdom is reflected in this balanced, profoundly impactful grant slate.
Simply put, women are dynamic by nature. Flip through your contact list. I’ll bet you know women who are doctors, teachers, mothers, lawyers, business owners, philanthropists, friends, writers, CEOs, and everything in between. Each of these women probably wears more than one hat, too.
When we started planning Keyholder this year, we wanted to bring someone we could all relate to; someone who has fully embraced the ability of women to be successful at whatever it is that drives them. So, who is this woman?
She is Goldie Hawn. Although most of us know her for her bright career in acting, singing and writing, she is much more than that. She is a visionary, a philanthropist. She sends a message of mindfulness; mindfulness of who you are and what you can do for those around you. Her foundation focuses on children, realizing they are the future and they have limitless potential. All in all, she gets what it means to be a dynamic woman.
Her Hollywood roles cover everything from the quirky girl on Good Morning, World to a woman coming into her own in Private Benjamin, to her Academy Award performance in Cactus Flower. Her book A Lotus Grows in the Mud is not so much a tell-all of the Hollywood life, but rather an introspective journey to wisdom and self-fulfillment. She is a business woman, a mother, and an inspiration.
So, are you ready to Strike Gold?
Written by: Hallie Kloots
A local woman elected official and friend of mine sent me the link to this video yesterday. Please take the time to watch it. I hope it reminds you why you give to the Women’s Fund and inspires you to continue to change the world by funding social change for women and girls. Rock on!
– Liz Shirey
Money doesn’t make a man.
Nor does it make a nation, according to a recent study, Human Development Trends Since 1970: A Social Convergence Story. Educated women do.
Looking at developments tracing back to the 1970s, researchers George Gray Molina and Mark Purser found the wealth of a nation has less impact on its standard of living than its gender roles do. It seems the more women are allowed to participate in their country, the more that country prospers (no surprise there). The greater decision-making power women are allowed to have regarding issues such as childbirth and their own education, the greater the country performs. “Demographic transitions, urbanization and declining fertility rates have accelerated life-expectancy and literacy achievements over the past half-century,” the authors write. “We believe the underlying drivers of these changes are linked to individual and household-level decisions concerning fertility and female schooling.”
Digging even deeper, the authors state that, “Human development trends fit into a larger story of demographic change since the 1950s, driven by initial levels of human development and changes in fertility and female schooling.” Women and girls, it is proven, can transform entire nations. Those are the implications of investing in them.
http://backspace.com/notes/links/2010/06/girl-power.php
OTHER EXCERPTS:
When the population of literate women was closer to or exceeded that of males, countries tended to have higher life expectancy in 1970. However, this relationship disappears in 2000.
We find that income is not a significant predictor of life expectancy –once we account for urbanization, fertility and female schooling.
Demographic transitions, urbanization and declining fertility rates have accelerated life-expectancy and literacy achievements over the past half-century (UNDESA 2009). We believe the underlying drivers of these changes are linked to individual and household-level decisions concerning fertility and female schooling. Although correlated, we do not find evidence to suggest that human development trends can be explained by factors associated with economic growth. Holding income constant, social factors seem to be driving the aggregate human development story.
By: Eleanor Rooke
Liz Shirey of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University shared her thoughts on the recent conclusion of this year’s NEW Leadership Ohio program:
It’s been almost five days and I’m still buzzing from the emotional high I get from participating in the NEW Leadership Ohio Program. It is by far my favorite time of the year, and this year’s class did not let me down. I was amazed at the diversity in the room. The 2010 class consisted of 29 women ages 19 through 40+, from 17 different colleges and universities and seven different countries, and majors ranging from biological sciences, international business and environmental pre-law to psychology, political science and organizational leadership.
Some of the highlights from the week include a $tart $mart salary negotiation workshop facilitated by the founder of WAGE (Women Are Getting Even), aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap for every woman in America; a very intimate and inspiring session with Supreme Court Justice Eve Stratton; a panel discussion about the ups and downs of campaigning and serving in office with Democratic and Republican women currently running for local and statewide elected office; and a speed networking event with women working in the public and non-profit sectors, co-sponsored by Ohio Women in Government. Speaking of “networking,” that seemed to be the unofficial theme of the week. We heard over and over again from our speakers, panelists and facilitators that professional success depends upon the strength of your network, and that it is especially important to build and nurture a network of positive, passionate and supportive women. One of our participants described it as a “Sister Circle.”
We were so honored this year to have Anne Kornblut, Washinton Post political correspondent and author of Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and What it Will Take for a Woman to Win, as a guest on our panel for our keynote dinner. Joining her were Janet Carson, Geauga County Democratic Party Chairwoman, and Traci Saliba, former candidate for State Representative in the 2nd House district. It was an engaging and enlightening discussion about what is being done to identify and cultivate women to run for office and what it will take for a woman to be President in the near future.
The week came to a very emotional end on Friday. We started out with time for the women to reflect on their experiences. Many of them responded by saying that they had never been part of such a diverse, supportive, and close-knit group of women. Some shared personal stories of overcoming shyness while learning to network with women throughout the week; others talked about the ways in which they will take their newly formed leadership tools back home and use them to affect positive and lasting change in their community. We had more than half of the group announce that they were running for office and the other half volunteering to manage their campaigns. We also heard an impassioned plea from one woman for everyone to stop and think about giving a financial contribution to support NEW Leadership instead of buying that next cup of coffee from Starbucks or that pair of shoes they don’t need. As we walked to our closing luncheon featuring guest speaker TaKeysha Sheppard Cheney, founder and CEO of The Women’s Book, the women were exuding confidence and camaraderie, the likes of which I did not expect to see.
Words can’t describe our gratitude to the Women’s Fund for continuing to fund and believe in this program that literally changes lives. It changed mine, and one of the greatest gifts in my life is being able to share it with other women. Thank you WFCO for being part of the NEW Leadership Ohio Sister Circle!
Written by: Liz Shirey
We are happy to announce that applications for our Fall 2010 Grant Cycle are now open. The application process begins with submitting a Letter of Intent. In addition to the LOI, applicants are also invited to attend a grant workshop in order to gain a better understanding of creating a successful grant application. Full grant applications are by invitation only.
This Fall, we are able to award $200,000 in grant partnerships. Funding is available up to $20,000 for Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union Counties. Thanks to continued generosity in donations, our grant funding is thriving!
For more information about past grant recipients, access to LOI and application forms, and a calendar of grant-related events, please visit the What We Fund section of our website.
