Ywca South Florida Inc

Youth programs - ywca south florida provides afterschool care for elementary school students at three (3) miami-dade county public schools during the school year, and two (2) ywca centers in miami gardens and overtown during the summer months. Established in 1976, this program meets the needs of working families by providing elementary school children with a safe, nurturing, highly engaged and supervised environment that includes age appropriate academic and enrichment activities during out of school time. Each childs unique potential is celebrated and challenged with the ability to learn, explore and have fun. Funded partially by the childrens trust, ywca serves approximately 210 children daily. In addition, ywca continued to offer summer programming to 90 youths to help decrease the learning loss among students over the summer recess. The ywca afterschool and summer programs provide students with many academic, social, and enrichment activities to aid in their academic and personal development, such as literacy instruction for struggling readers, mathematics support, homework assistance, physical fitness, health and wellness, financial literacy and career exploration activities, and social emotional learning; as well as hands-on stem activities. A core part of ywcas afterschool program is global education. Global education aims to open the world and build tolerance and acceptance for the students beyond their zip code. Catering to students aged 4-13, this initiative utilizes current events to link their experiences to both local neighborhoods and the global environment. Ywca developed a curriculum based on the oxfam curriculum created for schools. The program provides art, community service projects, financial literacy, global education, homework assistance, literacy development, nutrition, social and emotional learning, and physical fitness. This fiscal year, global education piloted a new model of program delivery that deploys specially trained global education ambassadors to deliver the curriculum at sites. In addition to ywcas afterschool and summer camp sites, global education was offered two (2) additional sites in miami gardens, in partnership with the resource room, reaching an additional 70 students.

Economic prosperity programs - the ywca economic prosperity programs provide ywcas clients access to knowledge, training, upskilling, certifications, and workforce development. They help women and teens bring their passions and ideas to life though entrepreneurship courses which culminated in pitch competitions where judges provided feedback and recommendations. Participants were able to partake in over 150 hours of financial literacy classes/workshops (45 youth classes, and over 60 adult workshops offered with remote access) to address various topics that increase financial literacy skills and inform their financial decision- making. In 2023-2024, workshops included building credit, home buying, planning for retirement, investing in the stock market, and wills vs. Trusts to name a few. Over 830 attendees participated in these sessions. In addition, school-aged youth were provided with 45 class days of hands-on financial literacy activities and instruction, giving them a strong foundation for their financial future. For this fiscal year, ywca economic prosperity programs offered services to over 1300 residents of miami-dade and broward counties through 7 distinct initiatives. In ywcas teen360 program for broward students, 130 youth participants from under-resourced communities learned to develop money management and business entrepreneurship skills in both classroom-based activities and out of school time. Instructors provided highly regarded entrepreneurship curricula and lessons for youth from underserved communities. Ywcas students receive life coaching and personal development support from staff as well as mentoring from area entrepreneurs who want to share their knowledge and experiences. This year, students were able to compete for seed funding during ywcas teen360 entrepreneurship expo, which allowed them to present their goods and services to a group of judges and their community. Ywcas we360 entrepreneurship classes and outreach has supported the launch and growth of 438 woman-owned businesses over the history of the program. During this fiscal year, ywca served 43 female entrepreneurs of color, teaching them the basics of business planning, market research, benchmarking against competitors, and understanding their target market. This year, ywca south florida hosted a pitch competition sponsored by proctor and gamble, where we360 program alumni competed for a total of 18,500 in funds to improve their businesses. Ywca is honored and privileged to have had the opportunity to provide support to these entrepreneurs and help them take their businesses to the next level. Ywca is proud of the success of its participants, and hopes to continually improve the support ywca offers to the south florida women of color entrepreneurs. Other programs include the matched savings program that incentivizes the habit of regular saving thus allowing participants to create a safety net for their financial stability when emergencies arise. Participants must complete four required financial literacy workshops in which they learn the necessary skills to manage their funds, their credit, and their financial future. The program matched nearly 12,400 in savings for participants, in addition to increasing their financial knowledge and capabilities. This year, ywcas workforce development program, miami skilling in action, funded by jpmorgan chase and microsoft, was able to provide 250 participants with wraparound support as they completed technology sector certifications. These certifications were earned through ywcas partnership with gener8tor skilling, a national accelerator that provides coaching and mentoring and job placement assistance for participants as they complete their online certification. Ywca initiated this workforce development program, which provides residents who have been historically overlooked by miamis thriving tech sector, with the training and certifications necessary to find employment and to earn higher salaries in the regions tech boom. Beyond the certifications in data analytics and program management, ywca/gener8tor cohorts were able to network with mentors and recruiters focused on helping them improve their current employment situations. Throughout all of these programs, ywca offers wraparound support services, success coaching, and access to the womens success fund, which provides for the removal of barriers to encourage the completion of the initiatives described above. All members of these courses and workshops are served by ywcas staff to help identify areas where they need support, such as health issues, housing referrals, food insecurity, and other concerns that threaten to take their focus away from completion. The womens success fund provides emergency funding paid directly to the creditor, utility, or landlord before accounts are closed or people are evicted. Together, these programs educate low- and middle-income women, children, and their families in all aspects of financial matters, assisting them in developing solid financial practices that help them grow, thrive, and succeed in todays challenging economy.

Family wellness services - since 1994, ywcas family wellness program has provided much-needed health services to the underserved and uninsured individuals of miami-dade and broward counties. The program has served approximately 2,530 individuals by providing clinical breast examinations, annual breast screening mammography, cervical cancer screenings, follow-up appointments, diagnostic exams, health education, case management, and support services in partnership with local healthcare providers. In addition, ywca provides health education and mental health support through ywcas cancer support groups for those who experienced or are experiencing cancer across miami-dade county. These support groups are conducted in three languages: english, spanish, and creole. The resources of the family wellness program assist in removing economic, language, and insurance barriers to treatment and service. The family wellness program also focuses on the social determinants of health that affect women of color in miami-dade and broward counties. Ywcas black maternal health program strives to target black women and women of color to improve maternal outcomes in the community. Ywca accomplishes this by offering comprehensive support to patients in order to improve their overall health. In partnership with jackson health system and the doula and midwife community, ywca seeks to improve the alarming rates of morbidity and mortality rates for black women and infants in the community. Women referred from jackson health systems and ywcas doula and midwife partners are directed services to critical services such as housing, food security, healthcare access, and financial support, addressing the barriers that frequently impede their health outcomes. Ywca empowers its clients by increasing their awareness about early detection and proactive treatment of developing health risks through education and access to screenings for breast and cervical cancers. Ywcas programs help reduce mortality rates and increase resilience in its clients and their families. Ywcas aim is to empower minority communities by addressing critical health topics through education and awareness activities. By promoting education and sharing valuable resources, ywca helps improve health outcomes and maintains a culturally relevant approach to ensuring that women and their families continue to get lifesaving care. Court care/kidspace - ywca court care and kidspace is a human rights response program located in miami-dade and broward county courthouses. Ywca provides service coordination and free, temporary childcare for ages 6 months 13 years to ensure parents, mainly women, can fully participate in related court proceedings or filings. Maintaining six centers in total; five (5) of the physical and virtual locations are in miami-dade county and one is located in broward county. Ywcas trained, qualified staff supervise children thanks to a partnership between ywca south florida, miami-dade county, the eleventh judicial circuit of florida, and broward county. Ywcas court care and kidspace centers provide children with a positive and nurturing environment and families with support services; and both with an appropriate and responsive referral system should families have additional needs. Further, ywca court care/kidspace staff offer referrals for wellness, food, and housing to those in need. As courts pivoted to virtual hearings, child care expanded to virtual services to ensure kids in the home remained safe and were not retraumatized while parents participated in virtual court cases. In fiscal year 2023-2024, the court care and kidspace programs served a total of 307 children and families. Racial & social justice - ywcas office of racial and gender equity advancement continues to lead social justice initiatives and programs throughout miami-dade and broward counties. Ywcas largest initiative, the community justice challenge, was held on may 13 june 7 for the fifth year in a row. The 21-day experience was designed to create dedicated time and space to learn about and build more effective social justice habits. This years weekly topics included bodily autonomy, womens financial empowerment, gun violence, and transportation. In all, this years challenge had 229 daily participants from 40 companies and organizations. Ywca hosted five (5) instagram live discussions highlighting local organizations, which were collectively viewed more than 2,000 times. In addition to ywcas community justice challenge, the community was engaged through ywcas virtual beyond 21 events, including weekly instagram live broadcasts, takeactiontuesday, and ywcas all the r.a.g.e. Book club events. The beyond 21 program builds on the success of the challenge and makes subject matter experts available to the community to further the conversation around systemic racism in the country. Ywcas takeactiontuesday broadcasts also provided an opportunity for the community to engage with subject matter experts as well as an opportunity for individuals to share their unique experiences and perspectives with a wider audience through a racial and gender equity lens. In 2023-2024, ywca continued as the lead agency for the childrens trusts social emotional wellness and racial equity, diversity and inclusion (sew- redi) work. Through this initiative, ywca and its eight (8) partners across miami-dade county provided sew-redi trainings, resources and supports to the trust and trust-funded providers who service families and youth. Ywca also held courses and events for the childrens trust staff as well as the over 160 trust-funded agencies, cumulatively serving nearly 400,000 children and parents across miami-dade county. In fiscal year 2023-2024, ywca held 50 sessions, including virtual and in-person trainings, retreats and peer learning communities that directly reached more than 250 individuals across multiple agencies. In addition, ywcas virtual speakers and streaming series were collectively viewed more than 6,600 times. As part of ywcas lead agency role, ywca also worked with leadership and staff from the childrens trust on organization-wide sew-redi initiatives. This fiscal year, ywca kicked off the 2nd cohort of its economic justice council (ejc). The ejc initiative seeks to place more women of color into high-growth opportunities through programs that provide crucial workforce development training and that create industry and business areas that are inclusive and conducive to career pathways. Ejc engages top business decisionmakers from key local industries and employers who have committed to racial justice and equity. This years cohort included seven (7) local business leaders and ceos who will participate in four (4) core sessions between april and october, exploring and understanding economic justice, societal and systemic factors and how leaders can create more equitable industries. Social justice in action programs - from events to community engagements, ywcas approximately 130 volunteers were committed to serving and supporting social justice and equity. Volunteers assisted with events, shared professional expertise through workshops, packed hygiene kits, provided hands-on help at ywcas locations, and packed and distributed holiday meals and toys.