On March 2nd, Washington Area Women’s Foundation and five Grantee Partners discussed financial literacy and education for women and girls with members of the White House Council on Women and Girls.

The meeting was the second of three listening sessions The Women’s Foundation is convening with the White House Council on Women and Girls.  The meetings are an opportunity for local nonprofits to inform administration staff about the needs of low-income women and girls in the region, highlight work being done to improve the lives of this population, and discuss how federal policies are being implemented. The Women’s Foundation was asked to organize the meetings after releasing a new report, 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area (Portrait Project 2010).

Portrait Project 2010 provides a clear and current look at the lives of women and girls in the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, MD, Prince George’s County, MD and northern Virginia and in coming years will serve as a critical tool locally and beyond for policymakers, community‐based organizations and funders.

“In our region, more than 177,000 women and girls are living in poverty,” said Nicky Goren, president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation. “Giving them access to resources that improve their financial literacy and education means that we’re giving them the tools they need to move towards long-term economic security and self-sufficiency.”

The meeting coincided with the unveiling of the Obama Administration report, “Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being,” which was released at the beginning of Women’s History Month.

At Wednesday’s meeting, The Women’s Foundation was joined by representatives from five Grantee Partners – nonprofit organizations that have received funding from the Foundation.  The represented organizations were CASA de Maryland, Capital Area Asset Builders, Community Tax Aid, Doorways for Women and Families, and Manna, Inc.

All five nonprofits have identified ways to address the needs of the population that faces the greatest number of barriers to economic security: female-headed families.

Representatives from Capital Area Asset Builders discussed their matched savings accounts that help low-income families move towards self-sufficiency and long-term prosperity.  Because the program matches funds that students save, the students are more likely to go to college and break the cycle of generational poverty.

A representative from CASA de Maryland discussed the organization’s financial literacy efforts with immigrant workers at their workers center.

The Earned Income Tax Credit was discussed by representatives from Community Tax Aid, who outlined the challenges low-income families face while trying to access credits available to them.

Two representatives from Doorways for Women and Families discussed the benefits of creating a financial literacy model aimed specifically at women who are fleeing domestic violence situations.

And the challenges faced by would-be home buyers were discussed by representatives from Manna, Inc.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re not only celebrating women’s past accomplishments — we’re looking at ways in which we can make the future better for women and girls right here in our own community.  We’re exploring what we can all do to help women and girls achieve more, go further and have a brighter future.

Throughout the month and beyond, we’ll be highlighting findings from our new report 2010 Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area in a wide variety of areas.  Portrait Project 2010 gives a clear and current look at the lives of women and girls across the region and it is divided by subject matter.  Today we’re focusing on health.

Our concentration on health coincides with National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which is on Thursday.  It’s critical that individuals, organizations and the community as a whole focus on HIV/AIDS solutions in our community.  According to Portrait Project 2010, the AIDS case rate for women in D.C. is nearly 12 times the national rate for women (90 cases per 100,000).  The AIDS case rate for African American women in the District is 176 cases per 100,000 women.  And 118 out of every 100,000 teens (both male and female) aged 13 to 19 are living with AIDS, nearly all of them African American.  According to Portrait Project 2010: “the District of Columbia Department of Health has called the HIV/AIDS rate among African American youth an ‘epidemic.’”

Portrait Project 2010 also reports that Chlamydia rates for women in D.C. are more than twice as high as the rates in Maryland and Virginia and almost three times as high as the national rate.  Similar differences exist for Gonorrhea.

The report also found that local heart disease rates are similar in our region to the national rate of 3.4 percent.  A large disparity does exist, however when it comes to race.  In the District, the percentage of African American women with heart disease (4.1 percent) is almost six times that of white women (0.7 percent).  Latinas are also considerably more likely to have heart disease (2.0 percent) than white women.

More than one in four women in our area is obese, reports Portrait Project 2010, and obesity is more prevalent among women of color in our region.  More than one in three African American women in our area is obese.  Latinas are also at significant risk for obesity.  And the percentage of children who are overweight in Virginia has been on the rise in recent years.

Our region has cancer mortality rates for women that are close to the national cancer mortality rate (158 per 100,000).  Maryland has the highest cancer death rate for women in the region, with 166 deaths per 100,000.  Virginia has the lowest with 160 deaths per 100,000.

Finally, the report shows that Washington, DC has had the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates in the nation.  In our region, Latinas are the most likely to have babies as teens.

In spite of the challenges, Portrait Project 2010 shows that our region has high rates of health insurance coverage for women: about nine out of 10 women in the region is covered (compared to eight in 10 nationwide).  The report also shows that nearly all girls aged 17 and younger in the region have insurance.

But the rates of health insurance also show a theme that is repeated throughout Portrait Project 2010: a gap in access to resources that doesn’t bridge the poverty line.  Income, race and ethnicity play a major role in whether or not women are insured.  “Women with incomes below the poverty line are much less likely to be insured (77 percent), in comparison with women who have incomes above 200 percent of the poverty line (93 percent).  Women of color are also at a disadvantage… Latinas have the lowest levels of health insurance in our region in Prince George’s County, fewer than seven in 10 are covered.”

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some of The Women’s Foundation’s Grantee Partners that are helping women and girls lead healthier lives.

To read more from Portrait Project 2010, please click here.

Caduceus photo credit: CogDogBlog via Creative Commons.

Yesterday I shared findings from our new report, Portrait Project 2010, that focused on the housing challenges face by female-headed families in our community.  Portrait Project 2010 showed us that this family type is the most likely to live an unaffordable and over-crowded housing, particularly in Montgomery and Fairfax Counties, respectively.  The report also showed that while homelessness has remained steady throughout the region, it has dropped significantly in Prince George’s County.

In addition to data and anecdotal evidence, Portrait Project 2010 also includes recommendations for what policymakers and individuals can do right now to help alleviate the barriers to economic security faced by women and girls.  The recommendations for housing include:

Policies and Strategies to Strengthen Our Communities

• Create a region that invests in affordable housing for all families.
• Educate policymakers, opinion leaders and funders about the role of affordable housing in fostering economic security for women, especially female-headed families.
• Encourage the region’s governments to work together, along with community-based programs, to increase the availability of affordable housing for families ad different income levels, particularly vulnerable female-headed families with children.
• Empower women and girls to understand their financial options and advocate for affordable housing.
• Enhance awareness of the effect of the current foreclosure crisis on the economic security and stability of female-headed families, and support efforts to assist households that have been negatively affected by the crisis.

What You Can Do Now

• Advocate with policymakers so they support and sustain affordable housing for all, including first-time home buyer programs (particularly those with a financial education component), rental housing and rental and utility assistance that prevents homelessness, and transit-oriented development.
• Become a philanthropist who invests in programs that prevent homelessness and expand housing options for all families.
• Inquire about housing policies in your own community, including how foreclosures are affecting women and girls.

For more information and to read more from Portrait Project 2010, please click here.