Use What You've Got Prison Ministry Keeps Families Connected

Imagine you are a parent, miles away from your children and family members with no way to see them unless someone brings them to you. This is a reality for many in the justice system; the impact of this separation can be devastating to a family and, in particular, to developing bonds between parents and children.

Use What You've Got Prison Ministry's mission is to provide transportation for prison visitation while promoting family wellness through education, supportive resources, and spiritual enhancement. They drove a total of 24,586 miles last year, shuttling family members to sixteen correctional facilities spread throughout the state. A $5,000 grant from Women's Fund supported children visiting their mothers, helping the organization drive more miles last year, transporting them from places in Indiana such as Evansville, Gary, Goshen, Paoli, and Wabash. In 2009, Use What You've Got Prison Ministry transported 642 adults, most of which were women, and 167 children; in addition, they took 2,832 calls, up from 1,505 calls in 2008. 95% of their riders are female, 30% are unemployed, 82% have children, and nearly 60% have children living at home.

The transportation program is clearly a vital component of Use What You've Got Prison Ministry. The organization also offers other important services such as education, family advocacy, outreach, and support groups. Last year, they hosted a women's retreat, a parenting and life skills class, survival skills course, and health fair - "Keep Your Life in Sync." Outreach programs include donating clothing to needy families within their programs, assisting families with Christmas gifts to 150 children involved in their programs, and providing holiday food baskets to families. They also facilitate several support groups, such as a girlfriend support group (including a workshop on depression) and a "Girls Beyond Beauty" support group for young girls.

Families separated by incarceration and with limited options can find great support and consolation from Use What You've Got Prison Ministry. As someone who values spending time with my family members, I appreciate the great work of this organization and Women's Fund's support.

Dress for Success Highlighted on "National Makeover Day"

Today is "National Makeover Day" on QVC, featuring Dress for Success and the stories of clients, including two local women, Clara and Lynette. Clara (pictured right) was featured this morning; Lynette will be featured tonight at 11 p.m.

Both women's stories are inspiring. Clara, for example, had worked the same job for 22 years and was laid off with one day's notice. She learned that she needed to develop computer skills in order to apply and market herself for new jobs, so she enrolled in computer classes at a community center, which led her to access services with Dress for Success Indianapolis (DFSI) in 2003. Since 2004, she has been employed as a customer service representative and trainer. Clara is an active member of DFSI's Professional Women's Group, helping launch the program in 2006 and currently having a leadership role. Clara has achieved great success—personally, on the job, and at DFSI.

Clara's story illustrates how women progress on their path to self-sufficiency in partnership with DFSI, which has served 5,700 women over ten years—including 1,000 in 2009. The average age of a DFSI client (as of March) is 45.5. 75 percent of women who participated are employed (65 percent full time), and they have an above-average wage of $10 per hour.

DFSI offers three main opportunities for clients:

• A suiting program, pairing clients with a volunteer personal shopper and allows a woman to shop in the boutique (pictured right) for head-to-toe interview attire, including a suit, shoes, hosiery, hair products, makeup, and purse. Women can also obtain a complete work outfit, including business attire and uniforms, such as scrubs, catering uniforms, and work boots.
• The Career Center and computer lab (pictured right), which allows women to develop a resume, learn basic job-seeking tips, and hear from motivational speakers, for example. Women attend meetings and events to help them learn social norms when interacting with others. DFSI often works with other organizations, who recommend clients to the Career Center. Starting in June, they will partner with Training Inc., another Women's Fund grantee, to serve additional clients and provide a tailored program.
• The Professional Women's Group (PWG), which includes opportunities for women to make personal plans, learn skills, and develop a support network (see participants' "Steps to Success" goals, pictured right). Graduates of can become members of a lifelong group. There is also a post-incarceration group, which helps women stay on track, set goals, recognize negative support systems, and have access to advocacy and other resources.

As you can see, Dress for Success Indianapolis does an amazing job helping women on their path to self-sufficiency. Women's Fund is proud to have supported them since their inception, including seed money to support their start in 1999. DFSI has grown in earnest since then, and has impacted countless inspirational clients, such as Clara, who are now living independently in our community.

Day Nursery: A Childcare Leader

Did you know: In central Indiana there are only 24 licensed childcare spots for every 100 children under the age of six whose caregivers work outside the home?

Women's Fund has awarded $830,000 to address caregiving challenges in central Indiana, funding organizations like Day Nursery Association of Greater Indianapolis.

Recently I had the opportunity to join Women's Fund OPTIONS participants and Advisory Board members at a site visit to Day Nursery's Northwest Center. I was fairly familiar with Day Nursery, but I had several "a-ha" moments during the visit. It was amazing to see first-hand the high-quality affordable care they provide to children, the assurance this care provides families, and the leadership they offer to other daycare providers in the community.

Prior to the visit, I knew that Day Nursery has fantastic facilities with great staff. I learned the teachers not only are encouraged to seek higher education, they receive paid time off to pursue studies and up to 90% assistance to complete a CDA, Associate or Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Education. This education-focused culture not only helps Day Nursery retain employees and offer high-quality child care to families, it gives the employees a life-long foundation to better provide for their families.

In addition to meeting stringent requirements to be accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Day Nursery Centers are also in the Paths to QUALITY program through the Family and Social Services Administration, a statewide childcare quality ranking system. The requirements for both Paths to Quality and NAEYC are such that it can be difficult for childcares based in-home or in faith-based institutions to meet the requirements, due to limitations with their facilities and budgets. Day Nursery offers support to these providers, in addition to providing resources to parents through Child Care Answers.

Day Nursery offers many other wonderful benefits; at the Northwest Center, they serve 6 week-old children through kindergartners. Older children with special needs can access learning opportunities through Pike Township Schools. Children receive breakfast, lunch, and two snacks every day, and recreation time at the center's gym or playground. The Northwest Center also serves children of Pike Township High School students, allowing them the opportunity stay in school in order to graduate. Children at all Day Nursery centers have access to immunizations and health care services through on-site services provided by a Nurse Practitioner each month.

I am grateful for the quality childcare and leadership Day Nursery provides to our community, and I am proud of Women's Fund's long-standing support of their work.

Unemployment Impacts Women

Unemployment is an issue we see frequently in the headlines. In the last 18 months or so, as much as ever, it has served as a indicator of economic recovery. Many of us know someone who has been unemployed and the resulting challenges; or, we have at least heard stories that hit close to home.

Last week, the December statistics were released for unemployment. In Indiana, the rate has stayed steady at 9.6 percent, while nationally the rate is 10 percent. Unemployment in this time is directly impacting men more than ever, and women are more frequently the only income provider for their household. Specific groups of women are also being hard hit, as the competition for jobs increases.

When visiting one of Women's Fund's grantees last year, I found out that the typical woman they served had changed; more women with advanced degrees and polished resumes were seeking services to do whatever they could to gain employment.

An article from November, 2009 points out that unmarried women, as well as younger women and women with less education are harder hit in the job market right now. When these challenges are compounded by the fact that women working full time and year round in central Indiana earn 74% of a man's earnings, women in our community have an even greater disadvantage.

What will help? Thankfully, in central Indiana there are organizations like Training Inc., Business Ownership Initiative, and Dress for Success Indianapolis helping women position themselves to be successful and employed. I'm grateful for these services to women in our community, and proud of Women's Fund's support of these organizations.

Caregiving: Challenges and Solutions

Many of us are fortunate to have the resources to be able to handle both day-to-day and unexpected caregiving challenges. What about those who are on the edge of making it—or not? Take, for example, the single mother who is working an $8.00-an-hour job. What if she doesn't have a safe, affordable childcare option, or a family member, neighbor, or friend to leave their child with?

Women's Fund has made a concerted effort to fund organizations focused on caregiving. We have made great strides in central Indiana, granting over $832,000 to address caregiving issues through organizations like Day Nursery Association of Indianapolis, Project HOME Indy, Business Ownership Initiative (BOI), Indiana Women's Prison, and John P. Craine House, for example. Our focus has been not only on care of children, but also of seniors. This funding has helped women access affordable childcare, helped homeless pregnant and parenting teens become self-sufficient, and promoted the start of businesses providing reasonable senior and childcare options, for example.

November is National Family Caregivers Month; to learn more and access resources, click here. Whether you do or do not have someone to provide care for, I encourage you to take time this month to explore what caregiving resources are available in our community and consider how you might help those facing challenges in caring for seniors or children.

Business Ownership Initiative - Another WF Success Story

Three years ago, I attended my first Women's Fund dinner. I was in awe of thousands of attendees, all of whom were involved with and passionate about Women's Fund. Fresh off my OPTIONS class, I was feeling happy and motivated about staying involved, but I wasn't sure what avenue would best suit my enthusiasm. During the dinner, Jennifer announced a bold and transformative grant to an organization called the Neighborhood Self Employment Initiative. I was impressed. I loved the idea of helping women help themselves by giving them the tools to start and run small business, like daycares and cleaning services.

For a while, that was the extent of my involvement with the NSEI. In the meantime, they changed their name to Business Ownership Initiative. With the help of the bold and transformative Women's Fund grant, BOI grew into a much bigger, broader organization, offering one on one business counseling services, planning, and workshops to help people with any of their small business educational and support needs. In June of this year, I started a law practice with a focus on small business and entrepreneurial services. I contacted BOI and was thrilled to hear about all the programming being offered to small business owners. What was most impressive was the full slate of workshops BOI offered, everything from basic instruction on how to incorporate a business in Indiana to complex topics about sales and marketing. And now, I have worked with BOI to assist in teaching some of their legal related topics, even developing a new class for their clients on the legal risks of marketing using social media tools.

It was just a happy coincidence that I was introduced to BOI from Women's Fund, but it is not a coincidence that both organizations are meaningful to me. Women's Fund yet again exposed me to an organization using innovative tools to help women and girls in Central Indiana, and I am sure BOI's success is in no small part because of the Women's Fund grant that I saw awarded in 2006. There are so many other organizations out there that need our dollars and or time. My experience with BOI is just a great example of how I have been able to give both, directly and indirectly because of my involvement with Women's Fund.

Bank on Indy

How did you first learn about managing money? As a child, you might have had an allowance and a piggy bank, and as you got older, perhaps you had a part time job and a checking account. At some point, you probably learned something about the value of money and keeping it safe. Through economic literacy programs at local Girls Inc. chapters, for example, many central Indiana girls are developing money management skills at an early age.

79,000 Marion County residents do not use bank accounts, according to today’s Indianapolis Star article “Indy to help 79,000 ‘unbanked’ open accounts.” Instead, these residents utilize cash or payday loan companies that charge a fee to cash a paycheck. “Bank on Indy” is a campaign to encourage these residents to obtain bank accounts. Twelve area banks participating in the program will forgive those who have made financial missteps in the past and allow them to establish free or low-cost bank accounts, as well as access support services provided by ten local community centers and five Centers for Working Families (click on the article and program titles to learn more).

"Bank on Indy" allows community members to gain access to a resource many of us take for granted. For a woman living paycheck to paycheck, utilizing a payday loan company that charges a fee of $8-$12 per paycheck she cashes, the ability to establish a bank account charging no more than $15 a year may help her stabilize herself and teach her children about money management. Coupled with support from other community resources, such as Making Connections and Business Ownership Initiative, “Bank on Indy” is an important part of a woman’s path to economic self-sufficiency. Women’s Fund applauds this new initiative!

Options and Opportunities

My grandmother graduated in 1949 with a Chemistry degree (pictured is the two of us in recent years). Her five hard-working daughters became a teacher, nurses, doctor, and a graphic designer/business owner. From a young age, my closest friends were education-focused, and they are now working in a variety of career fields. You might imagine one of the most important values to me is education, and I am fortunate this was modeled by many strong women in my life.

Still on Shaky Ground, Women’s Fund’s 2006 research document, shows, with equivalent education:

• The salary of a male high school graduate is 78% more than a female’s, and

• The salary of a male with a Bachelor's degree is 64% more than a female's.

This highlights clear economic disadvantages for women regardless of the education they have received, and, barriers to women achieving economic self-sufficiency without depending on the goodwill of others.

Concord Neighborhood Center is one of the many organizations Women’s Fund has funded in the area of insufficient income. Serving over 1,000 low-income women on the near south side of Indianapolis, Concord provides wide-ranging services, including affordable childcare, youth development, basic needs assistance (including GED classes), job coaching, and case management for senior women. Their services help women of all ages be economically self-sufficient and build a foundation for them, their families, and their neighborhood to achieve long-term success.

As a woman who has had many options and opportunities through education, I am proud Women’s Fund supports Concord and their efforts to help many women also have options and opportunities!

Are You Hungry?

I am feeling hungry as the day winds down and am eating an apple and trying not to drip the juice on the keyboard while I type. For my entire life, I have been fortunate to have never worried about having food for my next meal. My food worries center more around eating too much food and making healthy choices.

This past Saturday our GO: Give Back participants gathered for their GO educational sessions and in age-appropriate and gender divided groups, we discussed Food: Enough to Spare? Enough to Share? It was a challenging topic for children to think about people in our country and community who don't have enough to eat. The children were open, receptive, and left the session with a greater appreciation for food, nutrition, and hunger.

Here are some comments from GO participants about what they learned:

"We talked about world hunger and hunger in the U.S. and I learned that 1 out of nine people are hungry in the U.S. and a lot more people are hungry around the world."
--Maddie, sixth grade

"I learned about hunger and soup kitchens. We talked about how we can help people who don't have as much food as we do."
-- Joel, fourth grade

"I learned that one out of nine people in Indiana are hungry. I learned if we do not waste our food then less people will be hungry. I learned if you want to donate give some food to Second Helpings."
-- Catherine, fourth grade

Stay tuned for more later this week about what participants like best about GO. In the meantime, for more information about GO, see our website: http://www.womensfund.org/.

Thanks for reading! I have to go clean my sticky keyboard now.

Back to School...or Not?

It is back to school season... yellow busses abound on our streets and school supplies line the aisles of our favorite stores. This time is one of excitement for many children and parents, and one of dismay for others. Most parents have to adjust work schedules to manage pickup and dropoff for their children, determine new caregiving options, and the like.

"Kids go back to school... or maybe not" talks about the challenges the Indianapolis Public School (IPS) system faces this time of year. Having worked with families and schools in IPS in the past, I know attendance can be an issue. I was surprised to see the actual number of children not present in the first days and weeks of school. IPS School 60 had around 100 children absent the first day, and according to this article, almost 9,000 children expected to attend school were not present on the first day.

Several questions linger in my mind: What happens to those children who are not in school on the first day - are they safe and well-cared for? What about children like 7-year-old Anya, who want to go to school, but are not able to attend due to a barrier related to income? What is the impact on our entire community of nearly 9,000 children missing one day, one week, or more of school?

I am proud Women's Fund provides funding to address issues around caregiving and insufficient income. I hope that the families who struggle with back-to-school time know their options. One great resource is our grantee, Indianapolis Day Nursery; they keep a list of childcare resources. Check back on Thursday for a post by Jennifer, who will continue our discussion about childcare.

Transforming Lives through Training and Education

Hi, I'm Abigail Coleman, Women's Fund Development Officer. I am excited to contribute to the conversation about issues impacting women and girls and am interested in our collective efforts to lessen them. I hope our blog will inspire additional conversation - and action - around these issues.

As a native central Indiana Hoosier, I am fortunate to have been a part of the Women’s Fund team for nearly a year now. It has been enlightening to engage through the lens of Women's Fund. I'm learning about organizations playing a significant role in the success of our community, many of which I previously knew little or nothing about.

Thanks to great family support and encouragement, I am a graduate of Ball State University and SPEA at Indiana University Indianapolis. I am grateful for my family's support and as a result, I aspire to continue to make positive contributions to our community both professionally and personally. With this fortune, I often find myself asking: What about those who do not have the resources? And those whose support network is fragile, such as domestic violence victims? I’ve found some of the answers through Women's Fund, our funding focuses, and some amazing central Indiana nonprofits.

With the economic woes that have stricken our community and world, nonprofits are relied upon more heavily right now; those funded by Women's Fund in core funding areas of caregiving, domestic violence, and insufficient income are as relevant now as ever. Organizations such as Women's Fund grant recipient Training, Inc. provide services to those who do not have the support or resources and are hit even harder by the current economy.

The core function of Training, Inc. is to provide career training for people living in poverty in Marion County. 80% of clients are women, 77% of these women are single mothers with an average of 2 children each and 16% of these women have at one time been in a domestic violence relationship.

Through the Career Track program, Training, Inc. participants receive training in computer skills, resume development, job searching, professional etiquette and attire, and even create and execute a business plan by running a simulated business. As I saw during a recent site visit, the expectations for program participants are high; participants must clock in and out and excessive tardiness may result in removal from the program! Training, Inc. graduates are truly prepared for the workplace and have high job placement and one-year retention rates as a result.

What a wonderful alignment with our goals! We recently awarded a grant for board development, succession planning, technology upgrades, and a fundraising database, which we hope will help it continue to succeed in the long-term. I am proud we fund Training, Inc., as it serves an important role in the success and empowerment of women, children, and families in our community.