Author: Lisa Kays

Constructing futures, one woman at a time.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Eleven weeks doesn’t seem like enough to contain it all.

Which is probably why a latecomer asked me afterwards, “Now, how long were they in this program?”

“Eleven weeks," I respond.

His shocked expression confirms that I’m not out of line in thinking that it just doesn’t seem like enough to contain it all.

All the change, the growth, the transformation that seems to have occurred throughout the First Female Construction Employment Class implemented by the Goodwill of Greater Washington, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

As part of Stepping Stones, and based on the research in our Portrait Project, The Women’s Foundation influenced Goodwill—which has been providing job training to disadvantaged populations in the area for over 60 years—to take their co-educational pre-apprenticeship construction training program and form a new one geared specifically for women in Prince George’s County.

Today, I attended the resulting graduation ceremony, where 17 women clearly got much more than certificates.

The certificates and construction seemed almost an after-thought, in fact. The focus was instead on the importance of keeping journals and setting goals. Of being sure to reflect on your life and do what you love. Of setting high standards and expectations and meeting them. Of living and working with integrity.

Not necessarily information one needs to built a support beam.

But crucial if one is to build a support team.

Which is exactly what Goodwill has done, by looking beyond the skills to the person using them, and by working with community players to address every aspect of the challenge of changing one’s life. Mentors from the National Association of Women in Construction encouraged the trainees by sharing their own stories of struggle and success in a traditionally male-dominated field. The Goodwill Program Director, Robyn, made the women read books about life and well-being to combine with their lessons on levels. Goodwill’s Joseph Mitko led discussions with the trainees on issues personal, private and sometimes painful, that made them all much more than classmates. Construction companies around the area took the trainees on tours of important construction sites and individuals came in from various organizations and companies to lead workshops on resume writing and goal-setting and taking care of yourself when life gets crazy.

And it was clear that it did.

As one graduate said in reference to the obstacles that could have hindered their success, “The devil was really busy.”

That devil of seemingly small things that can so easily derail a dream.

Especially, it seems, for women.

Transportation.

Baby-sitters.

Sick kids.

That devil seemed to have nothing on these women, though.

They networked for each other if someone couldn’t make a job fair.  They carpooled and strategized about buses and trains.  They invited one woman’s young son into the class for the duration when her nanny quit. She was crying as she thanked them for this.  Otherwise, she would have had to have quit. 

“You could have complained,” she said.  Instead, they provided snacks and are including his name on the class plaque.

These women supported and shared their way to success.

And it was clear that’s what would keep them going. Much like with high school, it’s the relationships, the encouragement, the meeting challenges and pushing oneself that will define your future, not the algebra or the biology you may carry away.

Which may be why the women seemed a bit more excited about the “female power music mix CD” and the Passages journals they received from Goodwill than they were about their certificates.

Because while the certificates and the skills may get them where they want to go, it seemed that it’s the spirit of the CDs and the journals and the confidence of camaraderie that will keep them going.

As one graduate said, “We will never forget the great expectations you had for us…we accept the responsibility of being the first class of this type, and will achieve the success you have envisioned for us.”

Because construction skills may build buildings. But it takes much more than that to build a future.

To see pictures of the event, click here! 

Battling season-induced smallness.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

‘Tis the season. There’s eggnog and lights and holiday parties a plenty. Merriment and jingle bells and a gift giving frenzy.

But let’s not forget the annual reports, holiday mailers, mass appeals and, of course, the multitudes of holiday address labels, personalized just for me, to remind me to give, give, give.

There is so much need, and so little time. Tax deadlines are upon us, after all. (See #3, here.)

And doesn’t my mailbox know it. For it is bearing the burdens of the world these days.

And as the junk mail stacks up and mass appeals and data statistics grow, I start to feel so small, small, small. Tiny isn’t just for Tim, after all.

Because amidst the holiday mountain of need, I feel like little more than a mole.

So you can imagine my joy when amidst all the reminders of poverty and need and great, great loss and destruction, I received from a friend a copy of Ode magazine and was reminded, by the story of just a regular guy, that even in the midst of big, big need there is space for small, but significant contributions.

Whew.

And not only that, but the possibility that it’s the smaller scale work that tends to do more good than the big, huge, bureaucratic efforts. At least, that’s Dick Grace’s theory, and he seems to know what he’s doing.

In Ode, he was featured for his very personal approach to his Grace Family Foundation, which accepts only as much money as he can personally oversee in terms of assessing situations and visiting schools and families.

No fancy monitoring and evaluation schemes. No complex matrices of impact. No annual reports.

Just checking up on people to see if their lives are better. “Personal involvement is the key to successful philanthropy,” Grace says in Ode. “It’s like the difference between the millions spent on foreign aid, which often go to waste, and the smaller sums devoted to micro credit—a more small-scale, human, effective means of combating poverty.”

Which makes sense, if the Nobel Prize is any indication. Just ask Muhammed Yunus.

Because when philanthropy is personal, problems don’t have to be seen in terms of their grandeur to warrant funding dollars or attention. They can be talked about in terms of people, in terms of families, in terms of individual lives.

Which is why I like Grace’s philosophy that, “You don’t have to be wealthy to do good. You don’t need just money for philanthropy….People are never too poor or too inexperienced to be effective on their own.”

A welcome reminder this time of year, when my mailbox is housing a mountain of need and I find myself shrinking in the face of it.

Because philanthropy’s primary goal is to make problems smaller, not people.

The "p" word and polite society.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

At this week’s Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers Annual Meeting, Ralph Smith, Senior Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, noted that it seems that it’s not okay to say the “p” (poverty) word in polite society. That it’s right up there with the other “bad” words: politics, race, class, sex.

Only to be discussed in the company of those who love and know us. At home. In the safety of common experience, education and economic status.

Add to this that to talk about poverty you have to address race, class, politics and often sex and gender, and, well, forget it.

I am, of course, smugly convinced that this doesn’t apply to me, as a bold, concerned citizen who speaks her mind.

And then I remember all the times friends from Africa have asked me direct questions about race or poverty while walking down Washington, D.C. streets. Sometimes they loudly use phrases like, “Why do white people…” or “Why are black people…” or “What about the people sleeping outside…?”

These questions generally spurn an instinctive, fast, hushed reaction of, “Oh, let’s talk about that once we get home.”

I don’t want to offend, after all.

My African friends generally think this is insane. Race and economic status are given points of reference in their society, where people are labeled, without insult or offense, as “white,” “brown,” “dark,” “light” and are often known by their professions—and therefore economic standing—before their names. “Where is The Carpenter?” “Have you seen The Professor?”

I guess it’s easier to talk about poverty and race when the differences are not as vast—when the majority of people are of a common race and economic status.

When one is at home.

The embarrassment of disclosure must come along when the disparities appear, coinciding with the literal embarrassment of riches.

Which may be another reason, along with those Siobhán mentioned last week, that philanthropists often prefer to give anonymously. And why it is perhaps so important, as she reminded us, that, “The public use of our money can say so much. Putting big money and names to our work can speak to what we share as women, what we want as women and the society we want to shape as women.”

Money talks, if given a voice. Money creates movements.

If in doubt, think Gates, the cause of AIDS in Africa and how his bandwagon is about as packed as an African bush taxi.

Seems an appropriate time to be thinking about AIDS in Africa anyway, as today we mark World AIDS Day, and have the opportunity to reflect on an illness that seems more and more to be a mark of the inequities of race, gender and yes, the “p” word than just a disease.

Philanthropic leaders salute Stepping Stones!

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Philanthropic leaders gathered today at the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers Annual Meeting had many different opinions and thoughts on issues of local and national poverty, but they all seemed to agree that The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones program is to be lauded as an effective, innovative leader in transforming lives.

In a discussion on sustainable, meaningful efforts to address poverty, Ralph Smith, Senior Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, called Stepping Stones an "amazing effort" and stated, "Those supporting that effort should be congratulated, because you’re pointing the way."

Patricia McGuire, President of Trinity (Washington) University and one of The Washingtonian’s "100 Most Powerful Women of Washington," thanked The Women’s Foundation for its work on building the financial skills of area women, a primary component of Stepping Stones. She noted that the Stepping Stones approach is an important and effective one because it addresses poverty by moving from charity to investments that empower people to sustain change in their own lives.

To learn more about why Stepping Stones is viewed as a leading model in addressing poverty and empowering women and their families, check out the program’s latest report, Stepping Stones 2006: Paving Women’s Pathways to Economic Security. It explains how 5,500 women saved nearly $3 million while shedding more than $72,000 in personal debt, and more!

Same Story, New Terrain

Posted on by Lisa Kays

This is my first blog to introduce myself as the Communications and Marketing Officer of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Whether in the United Arab Emirates or the United States of America, Windhoek or Washington,DC,it is undeniable that where women thrive, so do families, communities and countries.

One of my earliest introductions to this reality came during my service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, where I heard repeatedly, “To educate a woman is to educate a nation.”

To empower a woman is to empower a community. A nation. Future generations.

To grow. To thrive. To dream. To achieve.

In the years following this introduction—through my work in international development with a focus on African women, girls and community development—I came to internalize this idea as a foundational principle of my work.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am therefore thrilled (and thankful!) to be starting a new adventure applying the experience I gained in Africa to the work of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation—work that so deeply impacts my local community.

As I begin my work as The Women Foundation’s Communications and Marketing Officer and take in the history and stories of its unique approaches and successes, I am struck by the similarities that bridge women in communities across all continents.

And while I am sometimes frustrated by the challenges and the on-going inequities and injustices faced by women, I continue to be motivated, rejuvenated and energized by the power of women to come together to change their lives and improve their communities.

I can therefore imagine no more rewarding place to be than The Women’s Foundation! I look forward to meeting and working with you. Please feel free to drop me a line at lkays@wawf.org.