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Inclusion Can Help DC in the HIV/AIDS Fight

Posted on by Mariah Craven

Last week The Washington Post carried a devastating headline: “HIV infection rate skyrockets among some D.C. women.” The women the headline referred to were heterosexual, low-income African American women. The HIV infection rate for them nearly doubled in two years, going from 6.3 percent to 12.1 percent, according to a new study released by the DC Department of Health.

The Washington Blade covered the same story but had a completely different angle. Their headline read “Report: D.C. HIV rates continue to drop.” The difference in coverage highlights the fact that while progress is being made in the fight against HIV in DC, black women living in poverty are being left behind.

When the DOH study was made public, Mayor Vincent Gray announced that headway was being made because “we are getting people diagnosed with HIV infection earlier and directly into care with our treatment-on-demand policy.” But these tactics clearly aren’t working for everybody. When so much of the population can’t be part of your success story, it’s time to question just how successful you’re being. It’s time to change the way we’re addressing and talking about the problem.

A report released by Washington Area Women’s Foundation in 2010 explored how advocacy can improve services for women with HIV/AIDS. “The AIDS epidemic has a unique impact on women, exacerbated by their role in society and their biological vulnerability to HIV infection,” the report said. “Women and girls living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS… continue to experience barriers to care including: fragmentation in the HIV medical care delivery system, cultural barriers, organizational procedures insensitive to the needs of women and girls, and lack of information about services. Race, poverty, language, sexual orientation, and class intensify these barriers.”

By taking the unique needs of low-income African American women into account when tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic in DC, city officials and policy makers can have real, lasting impact for all residents no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation or income. The Women’s Foundation encourages DOH and the mayor to include low-income black women in all future conversations about the most effective ways to reverse the rising HIV infection rate in DC and beyond.

On June 27th, National HIV Testing Day, The Women’s Collective (a Grantee Partner of Washington Area Women’s Foundation) held a community conversation with a representative from the DC HIV/AIDS Hepatitis, STD & TB Administration to discuss the report in further detail with nonprofits and women in the community. The event was a chance to ask questions, discuss possible solutions and meet allies. Parked right outside was a van that serves as The Women’s Collective’s mobile testing unit, where women were signing up to get HIV tests. Events and opportunities like these can and should be part of DC’s success story.

Women's Foundation Receives AAAA Kennedy Service Award

Posted on by Mariah Craven

This month, Washington Area Women’s Foundation was the recipient of the American Association for Affirmative Action’s Edward M. Kennedy Community Service Award.  The award is presented to an individual or organization that demonstrates an outstanding commitment to community service.  In the clip below, Foundation President Nicky Goren accepts the award and talks about its significance and the work of the Foundation.

U.S. Lags in Rankings of Best Places to be a Mother

Posted on by Mariah Craven

Where would you rank the United States on a list of the best places in the world to be a mother?  Would you be surprised that in a recent study, the U.S. didn’t crack the top 10 countries? Or even the top 20?  According to Save the Children’s 2012 Mothers’ Index, the U.S. placed 25th on the list.  That’s a six spot improvement over last year’s ranking, but still below countries like Norway (#1), Australia (#7), Slovenia (#13), Greece (#20) and Belarus (#24).

“A woman in the US is more than seven times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause in her lifetime than a woman in Italy or Ireland,” said Carolyn Miles, president & CEO of Save the Children.  “When it comes to the number of children enrolled in preschools or the political status of women, the United States also places in the bottom 10 countries of the developed world.”

The U.S. is also one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee working mothers paid leave.

My initial reaction to the findings of the study was shock. Surely in a nation with more wealth, knowledge and opportunities than most, mothers would be provided with excellent healthcare, access to early education and prospects to lead their communities.  The truth is, however, that these opportunities aren’t open to everyone, and the proof is right here in our own region.

A report published by Washington Area Women’s Foundation shows that our region is marked by significant disparities in receipt of prenatal care.  And once women in our region give birth, they often find that early education is expensive and sometimes ineffective.  Across the DC metro area, center-based child care can account for one-third to half of a single mother’s income.  And even though research has shown that preschool programs are crucial to the future educational success of children – especially those who live in low-income households – enrollment in public preschools remains low.  Just 14 percent of four-year-olds in Virginia, 35 percent in Maryland and 40 percent in DC were enrolled in public preschools.

This spring, motherhood briefly became a hot button issue in the presidential campaign.  Presidential candidates noted that it is a tough and important job and one candidate’s wife called motherhood a “glorious” crown.  It’s only been a few weeks, but the campaigns have already moved beyond the motherhood rhetoric, leaving a serious unsolved problem behind.  A better support system for mothers and their children would go a long way in making the U.S. a better place for us all.

Walk in Their Shoes

Posted on by Mariah Craven

Nicky Goren, president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation, recently participated in “Walk in Their Shoes,” an event organized by Vehicles for Change, a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner.  The event highlighted the importance of reliable transportation for families in the DC metro area. Nicky and Fabian Rosado, a Vehicles for Change board member, joined Renee Scarlet on her morning commute. Renee shared with them how long and difficult the commute from home to work was before she purchased an affordable van from Vehicles for Change.  Here are the highlights from their journey:

2012 Early Learning Summit

Posted on by Mariah Craven

Last week, the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative at Washington Area Women’s Foundation held the inaugural Early Learning Summit to bring together educators, advocates and researchers to explore the most pressing social, economic and environmental trends impacting early learning.

The main takeaways, according to Maya Garrett, the Foundation’s ECEFC Program Officer and event organizer, were:

  • Quality early childhood education is a key component for education and workforce success.
  • In order for school systems to prepare young children for kindergarten their must be a holistic framework that focuses on the emotional, physical, and economic well-being of the child.
  • Corporations who are funding early care and education work see their funding as an investment in the economic well being of the Country.  They are supporting the next generation of employees

Many of the highlights of the summit were captured by social media. Click here for a quick overview of the day’s events.

Low-Income Women & Their Families Can’t Afford a Gender Wage Gap

Posted on by Nicky Goren

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When you look at the budget of a low-income, single woman with children, one of the first things you’ll notice is that pretty much every dollar is reserved for the most basic necessities. In Washington, DC, half of her income might go toward childcare, another third could be reserved for rent, and the rest will barely cover bills, food, transportation and the needs of her children. When women aren’t paid for the full worth of their work, the effect is often felt by children, extended family, and entire communities; and women are receiving the message that their education, training and efforts are worth less. This is especially true for low-income women and their families.

Washington Area Women’s Foundation mobilizes our community to ensure that these economically vulnerable women have the resources they need to thrive. Often, however, their financial resources are severely limited by disparities in pay. Overall, women in the United States earn 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. Here, in the Washington region, men’s annual earnings are 20 percent higher than women’s. African American women earn 45 percent less than white men, while Latinas earn 63 percent less.

Many women are concentrated in jobs that are traditionally female and typically lower-paying. A report from Washington Area Women’s Foundation found that even when women represent the majority of workers in an occupation, they’re still paid less than men. In office and administrative support occupations, for example, women’s median earnings are still nine percent lower than men’s.

Income disparities don’t just affect women during their working years. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner, the average annual income for women 65-years-old and older is $20,593 – nearly $18,000 less than men’s average annual income. Each month, older women take in thousands less in Social Security, pensions, and assets. And in addition to earning less and living longer, an increasing number of older women are caring for grandchildren.  Pew Research Center reports that one child in ten in the United States lives with a grandparent. Among those households, one-in-five has an income below the poverty line.

These are some of the reasons why Washington Area Women’s Foundation focuses its efforts on job opportunities with career pathways and family-sustaining wages, asset building, and access to affordable, high-quality early care and education, so that residents in our community have the best possible start in life.

It’s going to take all of us working together to ensure that barriers to a woman’s success are removed. This Equal Pay Day – April 17 – we encourage employers to commit to providing fair wages to workers; we ask that consumers be conscientious about the types of businesses they’re supporting; and we encourage local and federal governments to enact and enforce legislation that requires fair treatment and compensation for all workers, no matter their gender, ethnicity or economic status.

Closing the gender wage gap is part of ensuring that every woman and girl has the opportunity to reach her full potential and help her family and community thrive.

Nicky Goren is president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Service Innovations Summit: Global Lessons on the Role of Nonprofits & Volunteerism

Posted on by Nicky Goren

Nicky SpainAcross the globe, there’s growing recognition of the value of nonprofits and volunteers joining with corporations and governments to solve social issues.  Last month, I was honored to participate in a conversation about the most effective ways those sectors can come together at the inaugural Service Innovations Summit in Madrid. The international summit was co-hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Alan Solomont, the Rafael del Pino Foundation in Madrid, and the Meridian Center in Washington.  The summit brought together the corporate sector, foundations, and NGO’s from Spain, a handful of other European countries, as well as the US to share information and best practices related to volunteering, corporate social responsibility, and public-private partnerships.  Being in Madrid added a sense of urgency to the summit: in Spain, one-in-four people is unemployed (one-in-two people under the age of 25 is unemployed) and in the middle of the conference there was a one-day negotiated general strike across the country to protest recent labor law changes that made it less costly to hire and fire workers.

I was invited to the summit to share some of my experiences and perspectives of service and volunteering from my years at the Corporation for National and Community Service, as well as great examples of some of The Women’s Foundation’s grantee partners, like A Wider Circle, who engage all levels of volunteers as part of their business models.  And I was able to connect with some of the nonprofits in Spain that provide important services to women and girls during these times of increasing need.

It was interesting to learn that Spain’s history and social and cultural norms have resulted in the government playing a significant role in funding for and solving social issues and, in many cases, limited the ability of NGOs and individuals to step in when there is a void.  As a fairly new democracy, the idea of voluntary “citizen service” is also relatively new and many participants in the summit were excited about the idea of spurring innovation and creative solutions to the challenges Spain is facing.  It is also worth noting how powerful a force family is in Spain – that one’s family is the major source of support, comfort, and sustenance when needed.

As enamored as I was with the city of Madrid, its history, art, culture, fashion, architecture, and food (funny how quickly I adapted to dinner at 10 pm!), I was even more enamored by the sense of optimism of the people I met – people who are determined to address the difficult economy the country is facing with renewed focus on the power and potential of nonprofits, foundations, corporations, volunteers, philanthropy, and the government collaborating in new ways and learning from each other – both within Spain and across the world.  As so many countries struggle to recover from economic downturns, it will be more important than ever for us to have gatherings like the Service Innovations Summit that facilitate the sharing of ideas and resources to ensure that all sectors are working as effectively as possible.

Nicky Goren is president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Weathering the Recession (Mostly) on their Own: How the Poor Get By

Posted on by Kristin S. Seefeldt

Tamara*, a long-time nurses’ assistant, hurt herself at work and was told she would be let go if she could not do her job. To prevent a sudden income loss, she applied for Unemployment Insurance (UI), but was denied because she was still technically employed by the nursing home.

A week later she was fired, and, within a few months, reported that her car had been repossessed, and that she had been unable to pay her utility bills.

Despite the struggles of poor Americans like Tamara, the way the media portrays poverty in America is changing. Between headlines like “Bleak Portrait of Poverty is Off the Mark,” in The New York Times, and the recent release of the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, a long-standing debate as to what constitutes poverty in the U.S. and how many people are truly poor has reemerged.

In particular, some argue that poor families’ standards of living have steadily risen over the last several decades, such that someone who is classified as poor today is likely to own a television or an X-box. Poor families’ consumption levels also tend to outpace their reported income levels, suggesting the poor have more resources available to them than expected, or that they systematically under-report their income.

Yet a study in which I’ve been involved for the past five years suggests that, regardless of where the official poverty mark is set, the lives of those living close to the poverty line are quite difficult, particularly during this economic downturn.

Since 2006, I have been interviewing a group of mostly single, African American mothers in their 30s and 40s living around Detroit, Michigan. Even during the best of economic times, female-headed households, particularly African American ones, tend to be one of the most vulnerable segments of our society.

During the recession, these women’s struggles have only worsened. The tough economy is partially to blame, but they have also had to find ways to weather the recession with minimal and unreliable assistance. Of the ways these women can seek support, none are very satisfying.

The first option is Unemployment Insurance (UI). When women like Tamara have lost their jobs, however, most do not qualify for UI. Some because of low earnings, others because the circumstances around their termination were complicated.

An alternative is the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (welfare). Early on, we asked women about experiences with the welfare office, and many chose not to receive these benefits during times of job loss because they did not want to be treated as if they were looking for a handout.

Given the benefits they could expect to receive, some women deemed the time and effort of dealing with a discourteous bureaucracy simply not worth it. Instead, they opted to receive food stamps only, which involves less interaction with the welfare office.

For women who decided to apply for benefits, the path was not much easier. In 2009, Nichelle*, another woman in our study, returned to Michigan when she lost her out-of-state job. Before moving back, she submitted an application online for assistance. Despite her planning, she waited more than a year for any benefits. She was first told her paper work was lost, and subsequently shuttled between various caseworkers.

Even the women who successfully apply for benefits struggle to maintain them. Take the example of Rhonda*, whose caseworker made a mistake when it was time for her food stamp case to be recertified, which happened every six months. During one of the recertification periods, Rhonda’s caseworker inadvertently closed the case and then Rhonda “couldn’t figure out how to get it straightened out.” It took four months for the mistake to be undone.

Regardless of their individual experiences, all of these women struggle with debt. Most choose to keep their gas and electricity connected, often by carrying large balances with the utility company. A few turned to credit cards during periods of unemployment or underemployment. With no other source of income, Nichelle used her credit card, as well as her refund from the Earned Income Tax Credit, to pay for a motel room with her children for nearly a year.

Food stamps, although necessary, will not pay for an overdue electricity bill or a required school uniform. While credit cards and debt accrual strategies may help families maintain a certain level of consumption, high interest rates mean even more debt, and a damaged credit score often follows.

Is this the kind of safety net we want? These women need better options to turn to without roadblocks every step of the way.

* All of the names in this piece have been changed to protect the women’s identities.

Kristin S. Seefeldt is an assistant professor for the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

This entry was re-posted with permission from Spotlight on Poverty & Opportunity, the source for news, ideas and action.

Women’s History Month Q&A of the Day – March 30, 2012

Posted on by Mariah Craven

Q: Which First Lady of the United States was an advocate for civil rights, worked to enhance the status of women, but opposed the Equal Rights Amendment?

A: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was an international author, speaker, politician and activist.  An advocate for civil rights, Roosevelt worked to enhance the status of working women, however, she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed that it would adversely affect women.

Women’s History Month Q&A of the Day – March 29, 2012

Posted on by Mariah Craven

Madame_CJ_WalkerQ: Who is the woman who’s listed in the Guinness Book of Records for being the first woman to become a millionaire by her own achievements?

A: Madame C.J. Walker was a hair care entrepreneur whose hair and beauty products for African American women made her the first woman to become a self-made millionaire.  She used her wealth to become a philanthropist, donating to the NAACP, the YMCA, schools, orphanages and retirement homes.  She made the largest contribution to save the Anacostia home of Frederick Douglass.