TWF receives $135,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
for Women affected by Katrina
With a base grant of $125,000 plus receipt of a $10,000 challenge grant from W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham is able to address needs for women affected by Katrina in Birmingham and for women along the coast in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The challenge grant was secured through $10,000 in voluntary donations from: The Julie Hall Allison Advised Fund, Community Foundation of Silicon Valley, California; The Women’s Foundation of California; The Women’s Fund of Fox Valley Region, Appleton, Wisconsin; The Women’s Funding Alliance, Seattle, Washington; and St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Birmingham.
New Beginnings Project: For women affected by Katrina who have chosen Birmingham as their home
TWF Advisory Board member Janet Olsen chaired the effort to design a project leading to economic self-sufficiency. TWF Founder, Lin Carleen, served as Janet’s sounding board in developing the project. Jeremiah’s Hope Skills Center was selected as lead agency because it provides marketable-skills training for above entry level positions in Birmingham’s huge health care industry. Women referred to the project through the Unmet Needs Committee (convened after the hurricane by The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and United Way Central Alabama) meet with a staff person at Jeremiah’s Hope to determine what is needed to succeed and then are linked to those services: childcare subsidies and referrals to quality day care (managed through Childcare Resources, Inc.); transportation vouchers, counseling, mentors and coaches (Family Guidance Center of Alabama), and support groups (Gateway, Inc.). Jeremiah’s Hope staff then continues to work with participants to secure employment and stay linked to resources that will ensure success. At least 25 women, most of whom have 2 or more children, will benefit from the program.
Stories from Participants:
One participant, “Mary” shared that her pastor from her home church in New Orleans said “when you are set back, God is setting you up.” That sentence sustains her through all the rough times and as she progresses through training to become a certified nursing assistant, she is seeing how God is setting her up to be better than ever. She will have a full time position with benefits and be eligible for a scholarship to pursue her RN.
Another participant, Ms. K., revealed that she and her two teenage sons fled New Orleans and stayed in Mississippi for awhile. She enrolled her sons in school. Later the family moved on to Birmingham, lived in temporary FEMA housing, and Ms. K. again enrolled her sons in school. The younger son played football. The older son has refused to set down roots , claiming he is going back to New Orleans, even though their house was destroyed. Today the family is in permanent housing. Ms. K. had to transfer her sons to yet another school and now the younger son doesn’t want to go out for sports. The strain of so many upheavals is showing. Ms. K. particularly appreciates the support group and counseling opportunities.
Bayou La Batre, Alabama - Women’s Health Initiative:
TWF has awarded a base grant and challenge grant to our sister women’s fund, The Women’s Fund of South Alabama. The funds will be used to support health care for Asian women in Bayou La Batre. This small town lying along the coast is primarily a community of fisherman and shrimpers. Part of the rebuilding effort for the devastated community involves reaching the large population of Asians in a culturally sensitive way to connect them with health care services. Specifically, the grant will fund training for “lay health advisors” who will help other Asian women overcome distrust to seek medical screenings for cervical cancer. The Women’s Fund of South Alabama will be partnering with the Women’s Health Initiative to enhance their ability to reach Bayou La Batre. TWF Advisory Board members hope that the partnership will also help the new women’s fund gain visibility in the community.
For more information, read on:
Background:
After Katrina devastated the coastal region, The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) knew that long term recovery and rebuilding would be most difficult for women who are the heads of their households, so they mounted a strategy to leverage funds.
WFN invited five women’s funds to submit proposals to The Women’s Funding Network Katrina Relief Fund made possible through a grant from W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Ms. Foundation for Women is the lead agency and is providing direct services in New Orleans. The Women’s Fund of Greater Memphis, The Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson, the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, and the Chicago Women’s Foundation all received grants.
TWF Advisory Board member Janet Olsen led the board’s efforts to determine the most critical needs facing women affected by Katrina. Our community’s Unmet Needs Committee was a ready made resource for all the information needed. The Unmet Needs Committee was originally convened following the F-5 tornado on April 8, 1998 by The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and United Way of Central Alabama to meet the array of needs for those families who were in the path of the tornado. The centralized system of service delivery proved so effective that it was reconvened immediately after Katrina evacuees began arriving in Birmingham. Private funders joined with The Community Foundation, Collat Jewish Family Services and The United Way to fund case managers and to convene the vast array of service providers weekly to meet the ongoing needs of evacuees.
Janet Olsen found that the majority of evacuees in Birmingham were female heads of households (some because husbands were in New Orleans working), who needed to attain or re-attain economic self-sufficiency. They also had to think of childcare, transportation, and permanent housing; and they needed support services to deal with grief, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, or newly surfacing parenting issues.
To achieve success, women needed an array of resources. More important, trying to find specialized services on their own would only lead to further frustration in an unfamiliar city. With this in mind, Women Affected by Katrina: New Beginnings Project was designed to respect our new sisters by making an array of services readily available for them to choose.
Value-added Grant-making:
The project design reflects the solution oriented approach which is the hallmark of Women’s Funds:
- Understanding the holistic approach required for success
- Building community coalitions to address issues
- Working collaboratively with community strengths
- Involving participants in design
- Mobilizing resources including advisory board strengths, community agency expertise
- Leveraging other funders’ support
- Increasing the community’s capacity to deliver services
- Creating systemic change that fosters social change
- Raising the community’s awareness about women and poverty
- Addressing the primary elements that perpetuate women as the face of poverty
- Designing sustainable models
W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities.
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June 1, 2006 Press Conference Photos
Seated left to right: Kate Nielsen, President of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham; New Beginnings Participants: Adriene Alexis, Shirley Williams, and Julie Smith; Trudy Johnson, Executive Director of Jeremiah’s Hope Skills Center, New Beginnings lead agency
Standing left to right: Dianne Mooney, President of TWF Advisory board; Virginia Sweet, Executive Director of The Women’s Fund; Janet Olsen, TWF Advisory Board Katrina Relief Chair; and New Beginnings project partners: Margie Curry, President and CEO, Childcare Resources, Inc.; Regina Allison, State Coordinator, Family Guidance Center of Alabama; and Suzanne Cornett, Resource Development Associate , Gateway, Inc.
Left to right: Virginia Sweet, Executive Director of The Women’s Fund and Trudy Johnson, Executive Director of Jeremiah’s Hope Skills Center, New Beginnings lead agency
