RIGHT TO - YWCA USA

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letter to the community
2010 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY
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Dear YWCA Metro St. Louis Friends,
We are proud of the continuing positive impact that
our YWCA is having on the lives of girls, women and
their families in the St. Louis community. This report
highlights just a few of last year’s achievements.
In 2010, our YWCA took note of a transformative
event in American history, the 90th anniversary
of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution that granted women the right to vote.
We were especially proud to have galvanized women’s
groups and organizations around signature
events that commemorated the anniversary.
A sea of all-white attire and hats signaled the
Women’s Equity Day Celebration in August. Our special
guest was Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter
of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and vice president
of global corporate citizenship for The Boeing
Company. The I Am Woman poetry slam provided a
poetic forum for expressions that paid homage to the
amendment’s passage and Iron Jawed Angels offered
a starting point for discussing gender, race, access
and power at a So Reel speaker’s series presentation.
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All YWCA programs paid tribute, in some way, to
the landmark anniversary. They did so while continuing
to deliver crucial services. One such service
was honored for its work. The St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department presented our St. Louis Regional
Sexual Assault Center with its Citizen Service Award
for their partnership in assisting assault victims and
efforts to make St. Louis safer.
School-Age Care and YW-Teens were restructured
to fall under one umbrella, the Youth Division.
Adrian E. Bracy
Chief Executive Officer
Thirteen women moved from homelessness and
into permanent housing through their efforts in
the Transitional Housing Program. The Economic
Empowerment Stability Initiative, in partnership
with the Trio Foundation of St. Louis, graduated four
by helping these women heads-of-household earn
incomes to sustain a family through nontraditional
careers. And in 2010, our YWCA Head Start program
was rated fully compliant for all program operations
by a Federal Peer Review.
Also in 2010, the Young Ambassadors, a volunteer
group formed to attract women professionals between
the ages of 22 to 35, was established.
We are pleased to report for another consecutive year
our operations met the stringent Wise Giving Alliance
Standards set by the Better Business Bureau. And
once again, YWCA received a clean financial audit.
We appreciate the volunteer chairwomen and
their committees who supported our three major
fundraising events that are critical to sustaining
our programs year-round: Leader Lunch, Circle of
Women and the Valentine Fashion Luncheon. We are
also grateful to our dedicated board of directors for
their fiduciary leadership and policy direction.
We thank all of our many program volunteers, staff
members, individual and corporate donors, and other
friends who helped us deliver services to more than
17,000 women, girls and their families last year.
Kimberly Smith
Board Chairwoman