Gloria Taylor is a welcoming presence in the offices of the organization she co-founded, Community Women Against Hardship (CWAH). She greets everyone who comes in with a hug – even those she has never met before.
“I say, go and touch them, and make them feel like you’re glad to see them,” she said. That human touch, for everyone who enters their doors, helps make CWAH successful in its mission: bringing individualized support to families struggling with poverty. CWAH offers transitional housing for families in need, parent support programs, such as financial literacy and credit repair classes, and student enrichment programs – art classes, health and nutrition classes, jazz lessons, and even summer travel opportunities. Families involved in the program also have access to the CWAH Boutique – a free clothing store, a food pantry and a computer lab.
This year, the organization is also planning to increase its partnerships to include Washington University Brown School of Social Work and Harris-Stowe State University. These partnerships and the extra assistance they will offer CWAH, come at a time when Taylor is beginning the process of stepping down from her role as CEO, while continuing to be involved.
When Taylor co-founded CWAH in 1988, she was working for the then Chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Marguerite Ross Barnett, when Betty Jordan Lee, who was a well-known journalist, educator, and activist in the civil rights movement, introduced her to Donald Suggs.
“We created the People against Poverty campaign,” she said. “Betty and I thought that would be a good way for the public to be at least, number one, aware of the amount of poverty that existed in St. Louis. At that time, one of three kids were either below poverty, at the poverty line, or the working poor.”
That first campaign subsequently grew into the full-fledged community support organization CWAH is today. Taylor and Lee bought their current headquarters on West Belle Place for $1 from the City of St. Louis, and they were up-and-running. For 28 years, Taylor has has worked to restore the sense of community and support she remembers from her childhood.
“Our advantage was we didn’t know we were poor,” she said. “I grew up not far from here, and I used to play at this playground, which is why I returned here. But the idea of taking care of each other was part of the African American culture and that’s how we came up.
“If someone baked biscuits, it was, ‘Go on and take that down there to her mother, you know her mother had a headache this morning.’” Taylor described.
Much of the day-to-day operations of CWAH will be taken over by Chief Operating Officer Karla Frye. Taylor will stay involved in shaping the organization’s path into the future, and wants to use CWAH’s educational programs to increase voter turnout among people who may have grown to think voting isn’t worth the effort.
“They say, ‘Nothing changes for us. We don’t care who’s in.’ In other words, we’re still poor,” Taylor explained. “They feel like nothing changes. So that’s our job, to go in and teach history so they know what these people went through to allow them to work toward the best.”
She believes that education, for both adults and their children, is key to improving quality of life.
“You want to awaken people,” Taylor said. “And how do we do that? In this organization, it has been more about community engagement.”
She hopes the affiliation with Harris-Stowe students will help with youth literacy programs.
“To have professors come in their nice suits and get down on the floor, and make people feel comfortable, and create a comfortable level,” she said. “The parent is there, too, because oftentimes parents’ level of reading with their child hasn’t occurred, so they get introduced to that.”
College students benefit by receiving credit for working at CWAH. Nursing students from University of Missouri-St. Louis and social work students from Washington University currently work to “Bring together the community and academe … they act as a bridge.”
Despite those college students’ best intentions, however, when they first arrive at CWAH, many need Taylor to explain the problems affecting the lives of the families they’ll be working with.
“Because you live a totally different life than these people who are struggling with poverty,” she tells them, “You have to have a good feeling for what some of the needs are of these people.”
As Taylor changes roles within CWAH, she still remains focused on the future.
“I see that there has to be more affiliation. St. Louis is not typical, like some other more progressive cities are. Charlotte is one, Atlanta is one. Because there – people want to work together,” Taylor said. “But the big guys over here think like, ‘Those people are trench workers. Who wants to deal with them?’ Nobody wants to deal with them. And we lose out, because no one works together. Why don’t we want to talk about our strengths?”
Working together makes St. Louis stronger.
“We could have greater impact if we affiliate,” she said. “I can learn something from you, you can learn something from me. It’s that exchange.”
