Dear Friends, Supporters, and Community Members,
Our hearts are heavy as we, the Leadership Council, write to inform you of the significant changes we face regarding our beloved Women's Center for Healing and Transformation.
This Women's Center exists for the purpose of growing and healing women
(and those whom they touch) via the medium of community interaction. Our director talks about the three wheels of healing we address: the personal, the community, and the collective. We affirm and lift-up women's ways of knowing and being in the world. As each of us finds the healing we need, we heal the cultural collective – the emotional, mental, and spiritual "waters" in which we swim.
Notably, during the pandemic, we continued to offer programming via Zoom. Currently, we have added a few in-person, ongoing classes. Yet COVID 19 put a dent in the momentum we'd gained prior to 2020. A decreased number of engaged participants and the financial resources they provide have severely impacted our viability. At this point, several factors are converging to throw the center into a crisis threatening our rebuilding efforts. These are the loss of our major monthly donation, the loss of our director, who must attend to her family at this time, and the need for five new Leadership Council Members to conduct center business.
The upshot here is that only with an outpouring of new major donors (totaling $3,000-4,000 a month) and five newly invested Leadership Council members that are solidly in place by September 8th, will we be able to continue the work of the center and rebuild.
We know that this may be hard to hear. So many have found a spiritual or emotional home here. It is also hard to say, but we must face this reality. You may like to join us here to pause for a few nourishing breaths...... ....... .......
WHAT COULD A FUTURE LOOK LIKE?
We see three options. The first two would require adequate Leadership Council members and enough funding to hire a new part-time Director and keep support staff. (Click
here to see more details)
1. Scale down: Move out of the current building and continue mostly online for now with the aim to develop a new, more cost-effective physical home and in-person programming.
2. Transform: Move out of the building, streamline our community activities or become more like a network that collaborates and connects providers to people.
3. End: Move out of this building and dissolve the organization.
Every one of you is part of a new paradigm shift that the Women's Center for Healing & Transformation represents. The changes we have collectively created so far together will continue to ripple out and contribute to the possibility of transformation of our society and world toward more love, consciousness, and egalitarianism.
May love prevail.
Anyone who has a wish to fulfill the current needs, please contact:
Patricia Stout, Founder (985) 264-8089
Anitra Senegal, Director (337) 852-8520
Marianne Powers, Council Member (281) 726-9163
Carolyn Burns, Council Member (985) 705-3395
Janet Cascio, Staff (504) 874-3989
(Click
here to learn more details)
We pledge to keep you posted on what develops. This letter will also have a text alert and a Facebook post where comments will be shared, and it will be on our website.
"When a candle burns to the bottom, nothing is truly lost. The light and warmth that the candle flame generated are still being lived out through those who benefited from them, those who created by the glow of the light or were comforted by it's warmth....and all those whose lives they touch in turn. They continue to spread that light and warmth. Nothing dies. Energy is transformed."
Patricia Stout, based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh
With love and deepest gratitude,
Patricia Stout, Founder and Anitra Senegal, Director
Leadership Council Members: Marianne Powers, Carolyn Burns, Heather Gianndrea
Women's Center for Healing & Transformation
