VISTA Creates Database to Track Homeless Families

You may think databases don’t sound too exciting, but for the Ada’s Place Emergency and Transitional Housing Program databases are the cat’s meow. Our AmeriCorps VISTA member has been hard at work since July evaluating our grant reports and intake forms and consulting with Cedar Mountain Software to create a database for collecting statistics and numbers for our grant applications and reports. 

This month, our database became a reality! We have 35 families and 128 individuals entered into the database, and soon we’ll be able to see collective data about the services we offer and the resources gained by homeless families in Missoula. The database will streamline statistic gathering and free up more time for staff to focus on eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting freedom and dignity for all. This database is a welcome addition to the Ada’s Place team.

Our AmeriCorps VISTAs serving through hard work and humor!

Posted by Abigail Ewing, Ada's Place AmeriCorps VISTA

Girls' Voices Debuts at LUNAFEST 2013!

LEAD is a project of the GUTS (Girls Using Their Strengths!) program of the YWCAMissoula. Every other week, high school girls meet to discuss issues and ideas important to them. These girls are currently collecting stories from young women in our community that will  inspire a spoken word piece, asking questions such as: What do you want to say to other girls/young women? How do you express yourself? If there were no rules in life, how would you shape your community?  

This spoken word piece will accompany a live performance called “Girls' Voices” by our middle and elementary school GUTS! girls at LUNAFEST, our annual film festival fundraiser for GUTS! summer outdoor adventure trips. Funds raised at the event ensure that all girls, regardless of their ability to pay the $350 tuition, are able to participate on these 6-day adventure trips.

LEAD girls performing at LUNAFEST 2012.

For the full report on women’s and girls’ voices, come to LUNAFEST! The event will be held at the Historic Wilma Theatre on May 1. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for our silent auction. 

In the meantime, your voice matters: what do YOU want to say to other girls and young women? Post your response in the comments section below, and we’ll share your thoughts on stage to the MIssoula community during LUNAFEST!

Posted by Erin, GUTS! Program Coordinator

A Crisis of a Different Sort

There's nothing like the smell of sewage wafting from the basement to start a cold Tuesday morning at our confidential domestic violence shelter. When a pipe burst in the shelter’s back yard recently, Pathways staff members had to manage a crisis of a different kind: the possibility that there may be no running water for residents while repairs were made at the shelter. 

 The children's office in the basement of the shelter got an unexpected facelift after a pipe burst.

While plumbers were able to restore the running water with limited usage for the duration of construction, one bathroom, one bedroom, and our downstairs children’s office were out of commission for six weeks while the pipe was repaired. Finally, the shelter has a plumbing system fully up to speed in addition to new carpet, linoleum floors, and a re-organized children’s office!

Posted by Hattie, AmeriCorps VISTA, Pathways

YWCA Missoula Herstory

Strong Alone. Fearless Together. 

In 1894, YWCA USA established Traveler's Aid services to women who were traveling across the country to larger cities in the West in search of work. YWCA Missoula began as such an agency on April 5, 1911. The organization began with one room across the street from the Post Office on Cedar Street, which is now Broadway. Travelers’ Aid workers would meet dependent and inexperienced women at the train station who were in need of guidance. The organization’s motto at the time was “Face life squarely, and find and give the best.” It was recognized early that the YWCA had many functions in the community, including a well-defined employment policy for women; helping girls and young women go to school by providing them an opportunity to earn part of their way at the YWCA; providing an information desk for newcomers to the city; counseling; and providing financial aid and food donations.

 

YWCA Missoula Women in 1911

  

Over the past 100 years, YWCA Missoula has always responded to the emerging issues facing women in the community. Our oldest program was founded in 1977, when YWCA Missoula was approached by the city to open a shelter for survivors of domestic violence and their children. Ten years later, the YWCA realized that some of the women leaving the shelter still needed longer-term housing to escape violent relationships for good. To meet this need, the organization began providing transitional housing for homeless women and their children. Abuse encompasses more than just physical aspects, and often goes hand-in-hand with sexual assault, so in 1997, the YWCA expanded services to advocate for survivors of sexual assault.

In 2003, after working with women in the shelter for over 30 years, the YWCA recognized the need for a supervised visitation and exchange center where children could visit with the parents who don’t live with them and survivors of domestic violence wouldn’t be confronted by their ex abusive partners: Planet Kids was born. In 2004, the organization joined other YWCAs across the nation implementing Racial Justice programming by starting its social marketing campaign in order to spark dialogue, reflection and transformation around racism.

In 2007, the YWCA continued its work transforming the community by bringing on board a leadership and empowerment program - Girls Using Their Strengths (GUTS!) that encourages young women ages 9 to 18 to explore their personal values and discover their inner strengths. In 2009, when Missoula’s only Emergency Housing program for homeless families was on the verge of closing, Missoula County asked the YWCA to assume operations of the program. Ada’s Place Emergency Housing provides homeless families committed to seeking stable housing with 50 days in a local motel room.

It is through this rich history filled with compassion and dedication to families that the YWCA continues eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all people in the Missoula community.

 

YWCA Missoula Staff in 2012 

Posted by Elizabeth, YWCA Communications Manager