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May 16, 2018
President’s Letter
Ellen Wiss

Happy May WGA!

P.L.E.A.S.E.

Play. Love. Eat. Appreciate. Sleep. Exercise.

On May 1, May day, at the last education event before summer for WGA, this was the valuable takeaway from Dr. Ellen Williams and Dr. Kristen Kelley’s session on holistic health.

This is such a fitting message for the women of WGA…you…who always take care of others and over achieve in every way!

Need an example? We’re not even halfway through the year yet, and we have already reached more than 91% of our growth goal with 467 members! With 79 new, 24 4Sight and 54 legacy members, we are breaking records and making history together.

We’ve already hosted 15 events. We invited friends.

In less than 2 weeks from the announcement of the Delores Barr Weaver challenge gift, we not only met the challenge gift, but more than quadrupled it, with close to $76,000 being added to this year’s grants pool! Some of those dollars came in from non-members, including men.

Influence and ripple effects abound!

You also made a plea on social media to consider contributing dollars we’d spend on holiday flowers toward our grants pool instead, and voila! More than $6,000 came in! With new members, renewals and these efforts combined, we have achieved our goal for the largest grant pool ever to lift more women and children out of poverty this year!!

Our larger collective voice helped impact our state in having the most protective child laws in the country, too!

There’s so much more, but not enough space here. Mark your calendars for our annual meeting on 10/31/18 and invite your friends for the most comprehensive update and reward of ratifying this year’s grantees toward our focus on breaking the cycle of female poverty. We have so much to celebrate together!

But for now, let’s take our usual e-news break for summer and do as the doctors say, “P.L.E.A.S.E.” And, let’s do it each day. We’ll have more energy in the fall if we make time now for play!!

Grateful to serve with all of you in WGA,


Ellen Wiss, President
(720) 256-6143

eawiss@aol.com
Spotlight on Grants: Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center
WGA member and employee of the DBWPC, Jamie Rosseland, conducts a counseling session. (Michelle Lasky is the Policy Center staff member who regularly works with the girl in this story.)

The juvenile justice system is not a substitute for therapy. Its practices demonstrate a lack of understanding of the traumatic origins of behavior, and they do not help reduce the likelihood of recidivism. Here is a story of a 15-year-old girl sitting in the Duval juvenile detention center. Due to a recent policy shift, all youth must stay in locked detention while waiting for a bed to become available. She isn’t violent or a risk to the community, but she does need therapy, desperately.

Therapy cannot happen while in the detention center. If anything, being in the detention center makes her feel unsafe and emotionally vulnerable. She can’t use her voice without fear of retaliation, she is at risk of being restrained, and she has no sense of privacy to even shower. Devastatingly, it is not uncommon for judges to incarcerate girls under the misguided notion that they will receive treatment for their mental health needs.

For treatment to be effective, mental health services must be provided in the community where girls can stay connected to their school, family, and relationships. Sadly, it is our community’s fragmented response and lack of quality mental health services that contribute to girls being sent away “for services” that will only continue to trigger and re-traumatize them.

With a two-year grant from the Women’s Giving Alliance, the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center (DBWPC) has convened the Girl-Centered Practice Collaborative, an initiative to address the fragmented response to girls and young women’s mental health needs living in Duval, Clay and Nassau Counties. The Collaborative consists of 32 organizations who’ve spent the last year learning about barriers girls and families face in getting quality mental health services in our community.

The DBWPC has compiled data by gender, surveyed Collaborative members and staff working with girls about priority areas for training, policy shifts, and services. A strategic plan will be released this year outlining the Collaborative’s priorities and recommendations to co-create a community-based continuity of care model that reduces the use of the justice system as a mental health provider and to increase the use of community-based solutions for girls and young women.

 Mark Your Calendars!

Invite friends and plan now to attend these fall events:

WGA Grants Process, Thursday, Sept. 6, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. The Community Foundation Board Room, 245 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville. Learn the ins and outs of how the Grants Team operates. Bring your lunch or order a box lunch when you REGISTER by Aug. 30.

A Place of Our Own: National Women’s History Museum, Thursday, Sept. 13, 6-8 p.m. Museum of Science and History (MOSH), 1025 Museum Circle, Jacksonville. Learn women’s history and hear about the effort to build a women’s history museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. REGISTER by Sept. 6.

Working Together to Change the Education Trajectory Toward Economic Success, Thursday Oct. 4, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., Schultz Center, 4019 Boulevard Center Drive, Jacksonville. Hear a panel of educators discuss the effect of poverty on the learning process and how to change it. Bring lunch or order one when you REGISTER by Sept. 28.

Women’s Collective Giving Grantmakers Network National Leadership Forum, Oct. 21-23, Philadelphia, Pa. Join women from 49 giving groups from around the US and Australia for this educational conference. REGISTER

WGA Annual Meeting, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., UNF University Center, 12000 Alumni Drive, Jacksonville. $35 cost includes lunch. REGISTER before Oct. 19.

Welcome New Members!
Jayne Nasrallah
Margaret Purcell
Kathy Para
Mya Surrency*
Judith Ogden
Referrals made by:
Kristi Brandon
Paula Liang
Trisha Meili
*Indicates 4Sight Member
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