YWCA Greater Austin Launches 'Community Partnership Initiative'

SOUTH AUSTIN, TX — YWCA Greater Austin has launched an initiative aimed at providing free training and professional development to community organizations. The 2018-2020 Community Partnership Initiative comes amid the 111th anniversary of the local YWCA, officials noted.

“As a part of YWCA’s commitment to institutionalizing the elimination of racism and empowerment for women, we are proud to announce that our YW Volunteer and Training Institute will be providing local community-based, non-profit and educational organizations an opportunity to receive free training and professional development for their staff and volunteers,” YW Volunteer & Training Institute Coordinator Haleigh Campbell said.

Groups eligible to become a YWCA Community Partner include community-based, educational or nonprofit entities must have an ethos that includes:

• Providing services that align with YWCA’s mission of eliminating racism and empowering women.
• Understanding that staff development is essential to creating more impactful, responsive and efficient service delivery aimed at strengthening the Greater Austin community.
• Committing to ongoing collaboration with YWCA for the duration of the partnership.
• Serving the Greater Austin community from a home base in Travis, Hays, Williamson, Bastrop, Fayette, Llano, Burnet or Blanco counties.

Partner organizations will be able to register up to 12 staff or volunteers to attend YW Volunteer and Training Institute workshops, classes and training sessions free of charge per year, officials said. Licensed professionals will earn continuing education units where applicable. For a list of scheduled 2018 learning opportunities to date, click here.

"Training has been an essential component of the YWCA Greater Austin’s work since its inception in 1907," officials wrote. "The YW Volunteer & Training Institute promotes racial justice and civil rights by building capacity both within the YWCA Greater Austin and in the Greater Austin community to address the root causes of gender and racial injustice from the personal to the professional and institutional."

To that end, the organization places a premium on recruitment and training of volunteers, provision of continuing education units for licensed professionals and organizational training for community entities, YWCA Greater Austin officials said.

“Community-based organizations and non-profits are often limited in the funding that they have for staff development and growth,” added Executive Director Ángela-Jo Touza-Medina. “We want to leverage our expertise to help our sister organizations in the community acquire skills and tools to better reach, work with and enhance the services they provide the people they serve. We believe this is a way for us to exponentially and strategically increase the impact of our work promoting the health and safety of women and girls and their economic empowerment and advancement.”

Those interested in learning more about the YWCA Volunteer and Training Institute 2018-2020 Community Partnership Initiative, are urged to contact Volunteer and Training Institute Coordinator Haleigh Campbell at haleigh@ywcaaustin.org.

According to Austin History Center archives, the Young Women's Christian Association of the University of Texas (later known as the University Y, and now known as the YWCA Greater Austin) was founded in 1885 and chartered in 1893, as a timeline on the YWCA Greater Austin website illustrates. During that period, it provided social opportunities for women students, consisting of Bible study, prayer groups, gospel singing and support of overseas missionary efforts; particularly in China.

In 1907, members of the YWCA incorporated in the state of Texas under the name of the Young Women's Christian Association of the University of Texas. Housed on the University of Texas campus, the YWCA members met in the Old Main Building until it was torn down in 1931.

Read more about the YWCA Greater Austin's history by clicking here.

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