The YWCA of Metro St. Louis, the region’s oldest and largest women’s advocacy organization, celebrated its 120th anniversary in grand style at the downtown Four Seasons Hotel May 2, 2024.
While the music of Dirty Muggs filled the air, and there were plenty of thanks for a job well done over more than a century, the importance of the non-profit organization was a part of the festivities.
“A woman may come to us afraid and in crisis,” said Dr. Cheryl Watkins, YWCA president and CEO. “With compassion and professionalism, we can help her heal [and] provide the wraparound services she needs during this time, educate her children, and prepare her for employment or even entrepreneurship, so she can exit our programs having changed the trajectory of her family’s life.”
Over its decades of service, YWCA Metro St. Louis has had many success stories and the same is true in 2024.
It has continued to gather accreditations and accolades over the past two years as it “rebuilt, rebranded and reimagined its programming” to serve more clients with greater impact, Watkins said.
Founded in 1904, the YWCA provided safe housing for women traveling from rural areas to work at the World’s Fair.
It now serves more than 10,000 women and their families annually through three core service areas:
-Crisis Intervention and rapid re-housing for women who have experienced sexual and/or domestic violence
-Head Start/Early Head Start education and childcare
-Economic empowerment and career readiness services
For 120 years, YWCA has worked to create a safe and equitable path to self-sufficiency and prosperity fo/r women and families, and “we have no financial requirements for our clients; all of our services are free.”
Watkins said YWCA prides itself on creating innovative solutions for the challenges faced by their clients and the community.
“The state of childcare – or rather, the lack of childcare and shortage of childcare professionals – in our region and in our nation is dismal,” Watkins said. “It is a national crisis. Childcare and the workforce are inextricably linked, and we are committed to finding solutions that will serve both families and employers.”
YWCA’s Early Education program serves more than 1,200 children in St. Louis and St. Louis County, However, 400 families remain on the waitlist due to a shortage of qualified staff. To solve its staffing deficit, the organization has developed an accelerated, pre-credentialing program for aspiring child care professionals – the YWCA Metro St. Louis Successful Pathways.
Pathways, a Department of Labor registered apprenticeship created to help YWCA expand its staff, places aspiring professionals in the classroom while they work toward their Child Development Associate credential (CDA).
This allows YWCA to keep classrooms open so parents can remain in the workforce, or creates opportunities to open new classrooms, which allows parents to return to the workforce.
YWCA received a FOCUS St. Louis’ What’s Right with the Region Award on May 9, 2024, at The Sheldon, which honored Successful Pathways in the ‘Demonstrating Innovative Solutions’ category.
Stacy Johnson, YWCA chief program officer and Head Start director, said the Successful Pathways apprenticeship, now early in its second year, has helped YWCA keep 85 Head Start classrooms open. The classrooms serve 1,041 families.
Johnson presented the staffing model at the recent YWCA USA national conference because its leaders feel it can be replicated and scaled to benefit YWCAs nationwide.
YWCA USA CEO Margaret Mitchell will attend the YWCA Leader Lunch 44 on December 13, 2024, at the Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel. She will share how the advocacy effort of YWCA national helps support the work that YWCA Metro St. Louis does locally and regionally.
“That our agency has endured for 120 years is no small feat and we are extremely grateful,” said Watkins.
“We are celebrating 12 decades of service, thousands of women and men and partner organizations who provided advocacy, education, services, volunteer hours, financial support and empowerment to hundreds of thousands of women and families in our region.”
For more information about YWCA Metro St. Louis and for Leader Lunch tickets, visit ywcastl.org.
