Three new programs to be implemented in the new building:
- Charla Richards Kreitzberg Women's Health Resource Center
- It's My Life-- a women's life skill and leadership program
- Racial Justice Center
Charla Richards Kreitzberg Women's Health Resource Center
One of our most important community services is the ENCOREplus Women’s Health Program. Since 1995 this program of the YWCA has been providing breast and cervical health education and promoting the importance of early detection to women of all ages throughout Marion and Polk Counties. In addition, the YWCA has a well established Breast Cancer Support Group.
The YWCA partners with the Marion County Breast & Cervical Cancer Screening Program to offer eligible low income women health exams that include a clinical breast exam, Pap test, and mammogram. The program is staffed full time by the YWCA’s Women’s Health Coordinator.
Program Need
The YWCA will be moving from our current location into a new building in June 2007. We see this as a great opportunity to expand our ENCOREplus program into a Women’s Health Resource Center. The Resource Center will include health books and videos available for checkout and purchase, public access to online health resources and trained volunteers available to answer questions. The Resource Center will provide a welcoming meeting space for the breast cancer and other support groups which currently meet at the YWCA four evenings a week.
A generous lead gift from the Charla Richards Kreitzberg Foundation of $100,000 will pay for the capital construction of the Center. The Center has been named the Charla Richards Kreitzberg Women’s Health Resource Center in honor of Charla, a long-time Salem advocate for women’s health.
There is a need in the community for a place in which women feel comfortable accessing health education and resources. Our new building will offer an inviting atmosphere for all women and their families. This access may encourage local women to become more proactive about their health. Access to our new Health Resource Center will also increase awareness of our ENCOREplus Women’s Health Program and help the community better learn what other services our agency provides. In addition, our Health Resource Center will strengthen our current community partnerships and potentially develop new partnerships as we work together toward the common goal of increasing women’s health awareness and services.
Materials in the new Center will be available in different languages, as over 14% of Salem’s population is Hispanic and nearly 2% is Russian. The YWCA Resource Assistance Program works daily with low income clients from these populations and will be able to refer women to the Health Resource Center for information and services. Interpreting services in Spanish and Russian will be available.
Equipment for the resource center includes computers, a television with CD-ROM and VCR capability, a clinical reference system and educational supplies. Reliable websites will be bookmarked on the Internet and volunteers will be trained to assist the public in finding health information. A second computer will enable volunteers to purchase, check out and track book and video inventory. The two computers will be networked. A McKession Clinical Reference System Women’s Health Advisor will be purchased so that women can search for health related articles and information. This is a CD-ROM that offers educational materials on hundreds of women’s health topics. Information is provided in a clear, simple question and answer format at a 5th to 8th grade reading level so it will be easily understood.
Budget: In addition to the generous capital grant from the Charla Richards Kreitzberg Foundation, we are seeking funding for the ongoing operation of the center.
It's MY Life
A Young Women’s Life Skill and Leadership Program
Sponsored by YWCA SalemVisit the It's My Life Program page
Project Abstract
The YWCA of Salem has been a leader in civil rights and advocacy for women and girls in the Mid-Willamette Valley for 92 years. She has served as a community springboard for critical local programs, providing them with administrative support until they are stable enough to stand on their own. The YW is part of the world’s oldest and largest multicultural women’s organization and her mission is to eliminate racism and empower women. The YWCA of Salem helped meet the needs of over 10,000 women, children, and families last year, providing advocacy, case management and resource assistance, women’s health care and health education, parent and child education and support.
Program Goal
The goal of the proposed life skill program is to provide a venue for women to support and teach each other that crosses economic and social barriers, giving skills for life to women living in the YWCA’s residence and women in the Salem and Keizer communities experiencing life transitions.
Program Objectives
• Create a community resource for young women, unduplicated by any other organization or civic group
• Offer skill building and mentorship designed to focus on relational and self-efficacy skills necessary to personal and interpersonal success
• Provide vision, purpose, and leadership opportunities to young women
• Utilize critical physical space in a way that benefits the entire Salem-Keizer Community
Program Strategies
These goals will be accomplished through several phases, resulting in completion of the following:
• An array of programming that addresses the pre-employability and relationship barriers to young women’s success in the workforce and the world
• Mentorship, scholarship, leadership, and service opportunities to create relationships between program participants and supportive women in the community.
• Strengthened connections between young women in universities, women in the workforce and in service organizations, and young women faced with employability, educational, and situational barriers to success
• Using established and evidence based curricula, programming using cognitive behavioral and social learning modalities and models for mentoring
• Providing opportunities for program beneficiaries to partner with community women on a leadership board
• Bringing community partners to a centralized location to offer their workshops and resources, thus creating a hub of opportunity for women and girls
• Establishing a social entrepreneurial program to generate revenue and provide work experience
Program Design
it’s MY life! will begin as a life skills program connected to the housing opportunities offered by the YWCA of Salem. Women between the ages of 17 and 34 living in the 12 subsidized housing units will participate in the program as a condition of their continued residence at the YWCA. They will work with the Life Skills Coach to evaluate their needs and establish a course plan. Classes will be offered on a rotating basis and at times that are accessible and convenient. Graduates of the classes will have opportunities to serve on a leadership board, mentor other students, and participate in program work experience.
Program Timeline and Sequence
Phase 1- Resident’s Class Established
Phase 2- Community Classes Available and Mentorship Component Begun
Phase 3- Leadership Board Implemented
Phase 4- Entrepreneurial Endeavor In Place
it’s MY life! will provide a vital component to the YWCA’s continuum of services and opportunities for women and girls and address a critical gap in support and education in this community.
topYWCA Racial Justice Center
Drawing on a 92-year history of support for social justice movements, the new YWCA Center, scheduled to open in fall of 2007, will provide a democratic gathering place where people can renew themselves and their organizations, address the issues that confront our communities, and lay the groundwork for creating a broad coalition of community members working together for racial justice. We are planning for a new Racial Justice Center in the new YWCA building.
The goals for the new Center are to:
• Overcome racial divisions in our community
• Provide opportunities for under-represented women and girls to develop and exercise leadership skills.
• Remove barriers to access and opportunity and create social change through community advocacy, examining the organizational, institutional and personal history of racism, and developing an appreciation for cultural differences.
At the new Racial Justice Center, participants will be able to:
• share stories of oppression and struggle, identifying common concerns across boundaries of race, class, language, gender, sexual orientation, and geography;
• explore and validate their experiences by sharing them with others, building the trust and self-confidence needed to challenge injustice;
• share ideas and strategies for change, learning from each other to strengthen and enhance their own efforts;
• discover new allies and new ways to join forces to achieve common goals;
• create a culture of justice that can inspire ongoing work in their organizations;
• construct a common vision of a community marked by justice and fairness for all that can provide the inspiration for coalition-building for racial, social and economic change.
Proposed new YWCA Youth Racial Justice Programs
In the YWCA Racial Justice Programs, we will strive to help young women to develop a shared power analysis, to understand the connections among oppressions and forms of exploitation, to gain skills for leadership and organizing, and to bond together into a network that can provide a powerful voice for youth issues. Staff and volunteers will work with youth to find their own voices and leadership, using programs such as the Youth Justice Program. This youth-led program will gather 20-25 young girls and provide them with peer-based training and experiences that open up the concepts of critical thinking about racial justice organizing and ownership of their own projects. Staff will provide outreach, field visits and ongoing backup to support these young people in their projects and in their communities.
Through these and other efforts, the Youth Justice Program will empower youth to become leaders in our community and to be part of a broad-based coalition of peers working for racial justice.
Week-Long Summer Racial Justice Youth Workshop
We propose a new week-long workshop during the summer that will provide an opportunity for multi-cultural learning, bringing together youth from different races, nations, classes and geographies for a week of fun, sharing, and learning. Our goal is to help instill in each child a sense of responsibility, a desire for self-reflection, and a passion for loving all humans.
We will ask parents to participate as well by donating a minimum of 4 hours per child to help make the summer workshop successful. Additionally we will recruit volunteers to conduct, assist, or give ideas for classes.
“It’s Time to Talk” Youth Forum on Racism
This forum will bring together teams of students from high schools and middle schools throughout Marion and Polk Counties to learn and share in small dialogue groups, facilitated by youth, and create their own ongoing action plans against racism to take back to implement in their schools. All aspects of our Racial Justice Youth Programs will be planned and implemented by young men and women who will serve as members of a new Racial Justice Youth Program Committee.
Latina Girls Conference: “Today’s Teen: Growing up Female and Latina in Oregon”
We propose a day-long conference for girls 11-17, their families, volunteers and community leaders featuring education, celebration, empowerment and connections. Workshops will address ways Latinas can connect and make a real difference in their neighborhoods, their lives and the world. Workshops will delve into real issues, will be led by experts, and each session will be specifically tailored for girls and adults—in English and Spanish.
In addition to working directly with young women, the new Racial Justice Center will work with the leaders of adult-led organizations in Marion and Polk Counties that are making efforts to do youth work and youth organizing around racial issues. Our goal is to work with these leaders to examine institutionalized sources of racism within their organizations, implement intergenerational models of work that honor and sustain youth power and leadership, and create sustained youth-led programs at YWCA Salem that can speak directly for youth on the issues that concern them.