Sisterhood of Giving
Local women again pool resources to help others
Six local nonprofit organizations have received funding to further their missions from the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem.
The Women’s Fund is a community initiative of The Winston-Salem Foundation that seeks to improve the lives of women and girls by building a community of female philanthropists. The organization provides grants to local programs and initiatives that address the root causes of social issues impacting women and girls in Forsyth County. Grants are funded from the pooled contributions of the Fund’s more than 800 members, who include female corporate and non-profit leaders, educators, community leaders, volunteers, entrepreneurs and students.
The Women’s Fund announced its latest grantees at its Seventh Annual Luncheon on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at the Benton Convention Center, where more than 750 members and friends of The Women’s Fund gathered to celebrate the power of women’s collective giving.
More than $144,000 in grants were awarded to:
• The Augustine Project for Literacy of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which was awarded $20,000 for the Literate Girls program to help low-income girls who are struggling with dyslexia and other learning disabilities;
• The Crosby Scholars Community Partnership, which was awarded $29,964 to expand its highly successful ¡Excelencia! program to help Latinas at five area middle schools;
• (E-Girls) Empowering Girls in Real Life Situations, which helps improve the self-esteem and outcomes for middle and high school girls, was awarded a $10,000 capacity-building grant to assist it in reaching the next level of operational and organizational maturity;
• The Goler Institute for Development and Education (GIDE), which was awarded $29,835 for its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) for Girls program to help 60 low-income Forsyth county girls;
• Planned Parenthood Health Systems, was awarded $25,545 to provide Forsyth County with a dedicated Community Health Educator to conduct outreach and education in partnership with youth-serving agencies, faith communities and area schools to provide parents and teens access to age-appropriate, curriculum-based programs; and
• Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools was awarded $29,236 to fund a bilingual social work assistant to provide an array of services and resources to Latina teen mothers to help them to stay in school.
Ozumba
“There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to address the challenges women and girls face in achieving economic security,” said Dr. Allison Brashear, chair of the Fund’s Grants Committee. “The programs funded today will help provide women and girls in Forsyth County with the skills and resources to set them on a path to economic security.”
Michele Ozumba, president and CEO of The Women’s Funding Network, gave the keynote speech at the luncheon. In the last five years, The Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem has awarded more than $900,000 to local organizations.
