Success of YW Boston partnership honored by The Boston Club
Strong Women, Strong Girls wins Advancement Award for work with Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity program
BOSTON – April 27, 2017 – Today, The Boston Club presented its prestigious 2017 Advancement Award to Strong Women, Strong Girls in recognition of its work with YW Boston to increase racial equity. Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG) mentors at-risk girls in grades 3-5 using college and middle school mentors, focusing on the study of contemporary and historic female role models. They enlisted YW Boston’s Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity program to develop a training program to help the mentors, who tend to be white, relate to the life experiences of the participants who are African-American, Hispanic and from other communities of color. The $10,000 award will be used to further develop and implement this training program.
Kathy Collins, The Boston Club’s award committee chair, said SWSG’s Mentor Diversity and Inclusion Training Program was a great match with the theme and focus of the Award because it “offers programs to develop leadership skills that promote diversity, inclusion, and tolerance in girls and young women.” The organization was one of 14 seeking the award.
“It’s a huge honor to get the award,” said Siiri Morley, executive director of SWSG. “It will allow us to have an impact on a larger scale and attract more ongoing sources of funding,” she said. “If you don’t understand all that women can do, you begin to opt out at a young age. We are trying to give these girls a sense of female support so they can move forward.”
SWSG has mentor chapters at six local colleges and universities, most recently adding Tufts and UMass Boston, and serves 700 to 800 girls a year in 56 Boston organizations. Since the nonprofit first won The Boston Club’s top award in 2008, it has nearly doubled in the number of girls served in the Boston area. It also has developed a junior mentor program that brings middle school girls into the program.
In recent years YW Boston has expanded the types of organizations to which it offers Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity. With origins in neighborhood dialogues and then elementary schools, YW Boston now offers the Dialogues program to other nonprofits, government agencies, and for-profit companies and corporations. The creative work done in the YW Boston and SWSG partnership is exemplary of the comprehensive, innovative approach the YW Boston takes to achieve its mission of eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.
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About YW Boston
YW Boston has been a leader in building a better Boston for all since 1866, when it was founded as the first YWCA in the nation. Today, YW Boston serves over 3,000 Bostonians with programs that educate + empower people across racial, gender, class, and organizational lines. YW Boston is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
Press Contact
Emily Boardman
eboardman@ywboston.org
617-585-5414