October 2021

The official newsletter of the Women’s Fund of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation

Message from our Director

Thank you for taking a moment to read through this edition of Threads and catch up on all that is going on at the Women’s Fund. It has been a busy year with many projects completing at nearly the same time. In this addition, you will see a summary of the regional COVID research - it is clear this pandemic will have a lasting negative impact on the economic empowerment of women and their families. We conducted this research so that we will have a baseline understanding of what the women in our region are facing. Now is the time to look forward, and determine how we can change the future based on what the pandemic lessons have taught us. We need to come out of this time stronger than before.   The Women's Fund is excited to bring you our newest partnership which was driven by our parenting focus groups results. Please explore the Go Oshkosh Kids website, their social media pages and watch as we continue to develop this parent resource and parent-to-parent connection.    Over the last few years, a few of our treasured volunteers have passed away and have left a legacy gift to the Women's Fund so that we can continue our important work. We will be launching a legacy campaign to educate and inspire others who may be interested in creating their own legacy for the Women's Fund. What are you passionate about? How do you see yourself helping others? What would you want your legacy to be?   As we approach the holidays and giving season, we look forward to sharing more on our single mother’s program RISE 2.0. We will walk you through a mini journey about what providing a home and some of the essentials have done for our single moms. The simple definition of a home is, “a place where one lives”, but as you will soon see, a home is so much more.   "A house is made with walls and beams, a home is built with love and dreams." -Ralph Waldo Emerson With gratitude,

Karlene Grabner Executive Director Women's Fund [email protected] 920.426.3993

Go Oshkosh Kids

A new partnership between Go Valley Kids and the Women's Fund helped create the recently launched Go Oshkosh Kids website and Facebook! This new platform combines fresh, local, expert resources in one easy to access location. The mission of this partnership are the 3 C's: connection, conversation and community. Go Valley Kids and Go Oshkosh Kids uses information from local experts, as well as local parents, to provide support at all stages of parenting from expecting mothers to grandparents. Check out this great new resource, GoOshkoshKids.com and make sure to follow them on Facebook! "Helping Oshkosh raise happy, healthy kids and have fun along the way."

COVID-19's Impact on Women

The Women's Fund, in partnership with the Women's Funds of Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, Fox Valley Region, and the Fond du Lac Area, have come together for our 3rd research project to ask women how COVID-19 affected their life. The findings were consistent with national findings - we knew most of the issues discovered were happening. But the conversation isn't what happened during COVID, it's what do we do now. How do we advocate for women to make sure systems are in place for the future to ensure they can still work, feed their children, and have a safe place to live?  Key Findings

supervised at-home or online school more than any other family member

women and lower-income earners hurt most

women were laid off, furloughed or lost their job

Oshkosh Food Co-op Have you visited the new Oshkosh Food Co-op and noticed the "Chatty Checkout"? This separate checkout lane provides shoppers an opportunity to converse with the attendant and was sponsored by the Women's Fund! The Women's Fund is a huge proponent of advocating for those in isolation and that extra time shoppers can enjoy socializing at the Chatty Checkout provides that meaningful human interaction. "Research finds the health impacts of social isolation are the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. By supporting the Chatty Checkout - where shoppers who want a bit of extra engagement can find it - the Women's Fund helps both promote health and build community. We are thrilled to partner with the Women's Fund in this work." - Brenda Haines, Oshkosh Food Co-op President

The Women's Fund and their donors contributed over $70,000 in grants and donations to the Oshkosh Food Co-op which officially opened its doors in July 2021. Visit the Oshkosh Food Co-op at 155 Jackson St., Suite 101, Oshkosh.

Power of the Purse 2022 We have missed you all and appreciate your patience as we figured out what the best decision for this event was. We know things are uncertain right now, but we also know the power of gathering together. We are hopeful we will be able to gather in person in May/June 2022. We are just firming up details with Ginger Zee and will get the set information out as soon as we know. Her topic on mental health will be more impact than ever. More exciting news: Ginger Zee has published a new book! A Little Closer to Home: How I Found the Calm After the Storm, will be released in mid October. Check it out and her other book: Natural Disaster: I Cover Them, I Am One, before the Power of the Purse!

DONATE TO THE WOMEN'S FUND

Women’s Fund of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation  Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Friday 8:00 am - Noon (afternoon by appointment) 920-426-3993 | women.oshkoshareacf.org STAY CONNECTED ‌ ‌ ‌