Nonprofit Spotlight: YWCA Metropolitan St. Louis
YWCA Metropolitan St. Louis
Founded:
In 1904 to provide safe housing for women coming to St. Louis from rural areas to work at the World’s Fair. We are the largest and oldest women’s advocacy agency in the region, celebrating our 120th anniversary this year.
Mission:
Eliminating racism and empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
What is the biggest challenge for the organization?
Funding is always a challenge, and so is talent acquisition. Non-profits cannot afford to pay the highest salaries, yet our success depends on finding great talent that is committed to doing the hardest work. Despite these challenges, YWCA is committed to paying competitive market wages and have attracted an excellent team. This is how we have been able to grow stronger over the past few years and provide the services that truly impact our clients.
What is the most rewarding part of working for the organization?
Our services transform lives. In each of our core service areas, Crisis Intervention (sexual/domestic violence) and Housing, Head Start Early Education, and Career Readiness/Economic Empowerment and Development (CREED), we meet our clients where they are and help them create a path to self-sufficiency. Imagine meeting a woman who has been living in a car to escape an abusive partner who can eventually move into her own home. Or a Head Start family living below the poverty line who can train for better employment because they have access to reliable, high-quality childcare. Or a woman with no job prospects who completes an apprenticeship program that leads to meaningful employment. This is what we do.
One reason we’re so impactful is that we provide essential, wraparound services, at no charge, so our clients can complete our programs: housing, rent/utility assistance, food, transportation, childcare. This moves them from surviving to thriving. And we’re the only agency in the region that can do this.
Ways the business community can help:
We are committed to solving the childcare crisis in our region.
Families are trying to live and work in a childcare desert, and the number of childcare providers continue to decrease. More than 10,000 children have lost access to quality childcare since September 2023 increasing the number of unserved children in our state to 60,000.
To address the lack of teachers in our own program, we developed Successful Pathways™, a Department of Labor registered apprenticeship (and What’s Right with the Region award winner) that pays aspiring childcare professionals while they train in our classrooms. This has allowed us to keep classrooms open so parents can return to work and provide an accelerated career path for some of our Head Start parents.
Concurrently, we are reaching across the spectrum of business and industry in our region (corporate, philanthropic, economic development, education) to build a coalition of expertise and resources that can solve this problem in our community and become a model for the rest of the country.
Want more information about how to support us?
YWCA Metro St. Louis serves more than 10,000 women and families each year. There are many ways to support the agency and our clients.
Visit us online at ywcastl.org/give
Contact:
Amy Frey, Chief Development Officer
314.531.1115 x5230 afrey@ywcastlmo.org