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"When one door closes, another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Alexander Graham Bell said those words so long ago, but they still hold as true today as they did then. YWCA Northeast Indiana is excited about the many doors that will be opening. For our clients who have bravely fled from domestic violence, and those who left an environment that didn't allow for healing from addiction, we offer new doors. Our new facility, The Hefner Center, is currently under renovations, and we anticipate opening these new doors in spring 2024.
Did you know that during the renovations of our new building, 146 new doors are being added? Get more renovation updates in The Scoop below.
We also strive to open new doors by inviting our community to have conversations about racial equality. Please read "The Neighbor Next Door" in our Are you an AllY? segment below. With open and honest conversations, we can open new doors of equal opportunity for all.
Tis the season for giving, and we hope you will consider giving to our "Old Keys Won't Open New Doors" capital campaign. Please read more about this campaign below, and please consider us for your Giving Tuesday or Year End gifts.
Please also join me me in wishing a happy anniversary to four amazing YWCA staff members who show great passion in advancing YWCA's mission. We are beyond grateful for their many talents and unwavering determination. Happy work anniversaries to Kerigan, Rebecca, Lauren, and Olivia!
Our last Coffee & Conversation event of 2023 is quickly approaching and will be a remarkable morning! Free event. Free coffee. Priceless content. Learn more from Britney Breidenstein as she shares some tips on how to brand our uniqueness. Register soon to reserve your spot!
We are also thankful for all those that give to and participate in our Holiday Hugs party! This is a very heart-warming moment, and one that means so much to the families that are staying with us during the holidays.
To all of you, who make all this and more possible, we would love to give you a holiday hug! We are beyond grateful! XOXO
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Staying in residential care during the holidays is difficult, especially for children. It is important to our staff that we provide opportunities for positive family interactions and promote a sense of normalcy for the women and children staying with us. Each year, we plan fun activities to do during the holiday season as well as provide gifts and memorable meals for the holidays. | |
Our annual Holiday Hugs Party will include a donated meal, a caroling performance by PFW students, a craft for kids, and (of course!) a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus! Each child will get the opportunity for a photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus and will also receive a stuffed animal donated by PetSmart and board games and toys, generously donated by the staff at Lincoln Financial Group. | |
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Not only will the children receive a special present, but our adults will also receive gifts from Franklin Electric that will provide warmth and cheer in the winter months. Thank you to all of our supporters who have donated decorations, coordinated other gift drives, and provided cheer this year! We are certainly grateful for your contributions! | |
Changing the World, One Message at a Time. | |
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We are excited to begin providing our Don't Say / Do Say posts in Spanish to help reach a wider audience. Thank you to our volunteers who have translated and made this possible!
Si se pudiera reconocer a un agresor solo por su aspecto, todos se mantendrían alejados. Los agresores a menudo se muestran cautivadores para atraer a sus víctimas y para que sea más difícil creerles en caso de que estas denuncien el delito.
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YWCA Northeast Indiana's 24/7 Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Crisis Line is free and confidential: 800.441.4073
To see all of our Don't Say/Do Say messages, please visit our website.
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Coffee & Conversations
Be a Flamingo in a World of Chameleons: Branding the Uniqueness of You
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Coffee & Conversations is an opportunity for women in the community to discuss pertinent topics about how to be successful in the business sphere, public square, or in personal growth and development. YWCA Northeast Indiana invites women to come together in conversation for this free quarterly series. | |
Join us for an engaging and interactive workshop designed to help you explore, define, and amplify your authenticity. We will learn how self-exploration, brand building, digital presence, network, and feedback provide insight to create a compelling personal brand that centers your unapologetic and authentic self! | |
Britney Breidenstein is the founding principal of BeMarie Group where she works with businesses on strategic leadership development, branding strategies, and creating spaces of belonging with strategic implementation. Britney is also the Principal Growth Strategist for upLinked LLC where she provides strategic direction to the founder and businesses on branding development using LinkedIn. Britney has worked with both corporate partners and non-profits throughout the Midwest region and believes in the power of mentorship and leadership development as tools for organizational transformation.
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Find more details about the event and learn more about about our guest speaker by visiting our website. | |
What is Persimmon Pride? Persimmon is the orange pantone color of our YWCA brand. Internally, #PersimmonPride is more than a hashtag or mantra. It is a belief in the impact the YWCA team is having in our community. It's more than a saying. It is who we are and what we believe in. | |
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"YWCA offers important and necessary services to our community. I choose this job because I love working alongside such passionate and empowering coworkers, and it gives me the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than myself. "
-Kerigan (Marketing Coordinator)
"I choose to work at YWCA Northeast Indiana because I enjoy watching the positive change in our clients while in our program. I am both the inpatient and outpatient case manager, so I get to see our clients take what they learned and gained in our program and use it outside of the program when they graduate. It is so rewarding and inspiring to see the positive change."
-Rebecca (Addiction Case Manager)
"I choose to work at YWCA because I think it is so important to empower survivors of domestic violence the way we do. I also think it's so important to spread awareness of domestic violence and educate the community in our work. I'm proud to come alongside survivors and watch them grow, empower them, & give them hope for a better future."
-Lauren (Advocate)
“I am so proud to work at YWCA. It brings me joy to be able to impact our clients in a positive way. Providing services to my clients and seeing their lives change is why I do what I do."
-Olivia (Advocate)
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The passion from our staff, in addition to the unending support from our community, is what makes our work possible. Thank you to our staff and the northeast Indiana community for your support! | |
"The Scoop" will keep you up to date on the latest happenings as we renovate our new building. After construction, the former Hall’s Guesthouse Hotel at 1313 W. Washington Center Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana will become YWCA’s new home: The Hefner Center. Stay tuned for updates! | |
There are so many different areas being worked on at The Hefner Center right now, and a lot of attention is focused on heating the building for the winter. Windows and doors along the east wing have been removed and are being framed for the heating/cooling units that will be in each room. During renovations, 146 new doors will be added in the Hefner Center to help with flow of work, flow of client traffic, privacy, and security. | |
The Neighbor Next Door, authored by Heather Essex-Guy
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Two of my most cherished accomplishments are having a child, who is a second-generation college student, and my husband and I becoming homeowners. Neither of my parents are homeowners, so this accomplishment is a dream come true that I did not initially think to include in my plans. We have had some of the same neighbors for almost ten years now but for the purposes of my story today, I will now focus on the neighbors to my right. | |
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I can vividly recall one recent and unseasonably warm afternoon, I was resting with our windows open. The wife, who is a waitress, was complaining about her ‘Mexican’ coworkers to the husband. Apparently on the drive home, she shared her complaints with her mother over the phone. “You know what my mom said? She said the Mexicans are worse than N-Rs!” To which the husband chuckled in agreement, “You don’t have to tell me, I already know!” While reflecting on the conversations and favors we’ve shared, I wonder, “Do they think of ME as a n-er?”. “How do they see my teenage son, or my family when they come to visit?”
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At first, the experience with my neighbor shocked me. And now I think it scares me that even as “successful” as I am, someone as close as my neighbor wholeheartedly believes in my inferiority. I imagine that my neighbor’s children must have similar social values and I don’t want my son to be numb to the inhumanity of racism.
I am genuinely curious to know, how do you all talk about race in your homes? What efforts have you made to evolve from past practices? Black and Brown Americans are obviously not the only ones who “talk about race”. So let’s “talk about race” together, in the vein of being allies against all systems of oppression, including racism. Find the full blog on our website to read more.
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Find past posts from our "Are You an AllY?" blog series here. | |
Giving Tuesday is quickly approaching. Many of you wait until this time of year to decide how you will invest your philanthropic resources. Will you consider giving to YWCA Northeast Indiana? We have a capital campaign underway and could really use your support. | |
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The time has come when the past is no longer enough.
The time has come to look, not at what could be, but what will be.
It’s time to unlock new doors.
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In the past several years, YWCA Northeast Indiana has experienced tremendous growth. We took on many of the former Women’s Bureau’s programs, which included their Transitions addiction recovery program for women, Dress for Success, and their REACT sexual abuse counseling program. Initially, Dress for Success was located on Calhoun Street and Transitions (now part of our Hope & Harriet program) was located on Fairfield Avenue. Not only was having YWCA programming located in three locations difficult for staff to manage, but the lease payments on the Fairfield location alone were over $10,000/month. It became obvious that we needed to run more efficiently and effectively, and the Board voted to find a location to house all YWCA operations—administration and programming—in one building. Unfortunately, we discovered the Decatur Road location could not provide adequate space for us to expand enough to meet the growing needs.
After a long search, and countless visits to existing potential sites, we decided to move forward in purchasing the former Don Hall’s Guesthouse on Washington Center Road. At first, this 86,000 square foot building seemed too big for the needs of YWCA, but since purchasing the building in December 2020, we have established partnerships with three non-profit organizations to better serve our clients. We are pleased to be partnering with Out of Jam Ministries, who will not only run their operations in our building, but will provide culinary educational training for any of YWCA’s interested clients. Out of Jam will have their offices in YWCA’s new building and use a portion of the commercial-sized kitchen. Additionally, the Bowen Center will be using a portion of the building for a health clinic, providing physical and mental health services to the community as well as to YWCA staff and clients. And, lastly, in collaboration with the Fort Wayne Housing Authority, we are renovating a portion of the building to offer 13 permanent supportive housing apartments for survivors of domestic violence. Affordable housing is one of the top needs of YWCA clients, and we are thrilled the FWHA will be providing vouchers to our clients.
YWCA looks forward to also growing the number of beds available for women in our addiction residential recovery program. In northeast Indiana, only 26% of the 881 addiction recovery beds available are reserved for women. Women needing residential addiction recovery treatment do not have many places they can go for help. With the new building, we hope to triple the number of beds we currently offer. Additionally, from 2020 through 2022, we experienced a 58% increase in demand for our domestic violence services. We are finding that not only is the demand for our domestic violence services increasing, but the lethality of domestic violence is also increasing in Indiana. Without a bigger space, we can’t keep up with the need, and we don’t want to let people, who have already experienced so much trauma, go without life-saving services. With your help, my friend, they won’t go without.
Renovations are underway at YWCA Northeast Indiana’s new home, recently renamed The Hefner Center, in recognition of the significant support from William J. and Bonnie L. Hefner Foundation, and we hope to be ready for our big move this upcoming Spring. The Board and staff at YWCA Northeast Indiana hope you will join those who have given during the private phase of our capital campaign as we launch our public phase. This $16.7 million project is almost 100% funded by generous people like you. We still need about $600,000.
Learn more about our capital campaign on our website. We have unique naming opportunities available as well. If interested, please contact Kristina Johnson Nussbaum at knussbaum@ywcaerew.org.
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Goldstein Family Scholarship Program | |
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The goal of the Goldstein Family Scholarship Program is to help female survivors of domestic violence improve their self-sufficiency and quality of life by completing higher education. The scholarship fund provides financial support for tuition, books, rent, utilities, and childcare. Learn more here.
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We have recently updated our Amazon Wish List with current needs, including needs for clients and operations needs. Your purchases can be sent directly to our location.
If you would like to financially support YWCA Northeast Indiana, you can access our donation page by following the link below:
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