YWCA East Cherry Branch
The mission of the YWCA-East Cherry Branch is to advance the quality of life for women of all ages, races, and faiths, and their families. In support of this mission, the YWCA provides services to meet critical needs, promote self-sufficiency, reduce violence, and achieve equal opportunities for all people.
Description:
The YWCA strives to reach its mission through a variety of strategic programs aimed at enabling women and families to live self sufficient and fulfilled lives. We provide emergency shelter for families faced with homelessness as well as transitional housing for families who are working towards greater independence and stability. We work with survivors of domestic violence in our domestic violence program as well as seeking to prevent domestic violence through educational and outreach programs in targeted local schools; programs that instill independence, leadership, a sense of self worth and personal responsibility, and a concept of healthy relationship skills. We offer services to teenagers who have not completed their high school education to enable them to enter into the workforce, and we encourage the growth of leaders in our own community through the GirlsFirst program, a program that targets young women in the ninth grade and offers them mentorship and peer bonding oppurtunities.
History:
YWCA -Seattle, King County, and Snohomish County began in the late 1890's as an branch of the national YWCA. Initially, the YWCA sought to meet the needs of young women -some as young as 12- who came by themselves to Seattle in search of work. The first YWCA programs aimed to offer a safe place for these women to meet and connect with each other. As time wore on, the YWCA shifted its programs to meet the emerging needs of the community, and began providing services to the homeless in the 1900's after an influx of 2000 refugees from the San Francisco earthquake arrived in Seattle. In subsequent decades, as the nation was struggling to deal with the effects of two world wars and the Depression, the YWCA offered employment training services to young women and homeless shelters, as well as support services for the war efforts. The YWCA Culture Club (now The East Cherry Branch) also became, in 1919, one of the first public places available to the black community to meet. This trend towards complete inclusiveness was echoed in 1947, when the facility was later renamed the Phylis Wheatley Branch, and became one of the first interracial YWCAs in the country.
In the fifties, the YWCA expanded its programs to include child care and classes in child rearing, recreational programs, and camp programs. In the sixties, the YWCA was a forerunner in supporting and educating on women's rights and civil rights. This devotion to social justice continued into the seventies, as the YWCA featured workshops and programs aimed at eliminating racism and raising awareness within the community about the reality of oppression.
In the past two decades, the YWCA has focused intensively on issues of homelessness and poverty, and the issues that surround and perpetuate those problems, in the larger community.
Contact people:
Office fax number: (206) 568-7851
Address:
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2820 E Cherry StreetSeattle , WA 98122 (See a map) |
Web Site: http://www.ywcaworks.org
Directions:
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Nearest Bus Stop: Rt 3, MLK and Cherry, Rt 8 Cherry and MLK, 1 minutes minute walk |
| Last updated on November 2, 2009 |
