About the Nonprofit
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Women's Empowerment Series serves women and their children with learning opportunities through year round programming and creating a community of women that makes everyone feel like they belong no matter their social or financial background or current circumstances. We provide a peer mentoring program for women and their children, online speaker series, and in-person workshops that teach life skills and create systemic change.
Our goal is to create a community where women find common ground. We provide women and their children with the resources, encouragement and tools they need for future success and sustainable growth.
Women’s Empowerment Series will serve women of all backgrounds as we work with other nonprofits to bring them the education, opportunity, and skills to succeed in their journeys.
The Women’s Empowerment Series (hereafter called WES) is a year-round program that aims to support women in crisis, major life transitions, or those seeking opportunities for personal growth. By developing self-sufficiency, an understanding of radical self-love, and connections to mentors and community resources, WES aims to ensure a sustainable and secure future for women and their families.
WES was developed in the Department of Social Services of Fond du Lac County by our current Executive Director, Theresa Menting. The program began to grow and needs began to expand, so with the blessing of the county, WES moved from a 501(c)4 to the existing 501(c)3, Goebel Family Foundation in January of 2020. This move to an existing 501(c)3 was crucial because it did not limit the assistance given to women with a wide variety of needs. The goal of WES is to assist as many women as possible on their personal journey, including, but not limited to: addiction, domestic abuse, job skill maturation and gaining self confidence. By aligning with an existing 501(c)3, WES was able to begin assisting without the limitations of working with groups that only deal with specific needs (eg: addiction and not gaining self confidence.)
As part of our mission, we meet women of various backgrounds, histories, experiences and skills “where they are at” mentally and emotionally by giving them the education and support that meet their needs. Through Gaebel Family Foundation, WES is able to tailor assistance for the women based on their goals, religion, family needs etc. The aim is never to turn away a woman based on her background, race or goals.
The population impacted by our program is primarily single mothers who fall into a low-income financial status. 97% of our participants report mental health issues and almost all have experienced some form of trauma in their lives.
WES focuses on building healthy families by concentrating efforts on issues facing women in crisis in our community. Our program pairs each participant with a mentor to walk through the program and work through the issues that are affecting their situations. The program focuses on a topic each week to assist the participants with information and resources to begin their life changing journey. The skills learned each week can be directly applied to everyday life and utilized long after a woman graduates from the program.
Our board consists of seven members consisting of three men and four women. 85% of the board are caucasion and 15% are hispanic. The board consists of a variety of backgrounds and careers ranging from Health and Human Services, Special Education, Business, Finance, Social Work, Community Development and Strategic Planning. The ages of the board vary from 33 years old to 65 years old.
The key leadership team consists of fourteen women. 75% of the leadership are caucasion, 15% are black. 10% are asian. The leadership team consists of a variety of backgrounds and careers ranging from Social Work, Health Care, Legal and Social Justice, Marketing, TV and Media, Human & Health Services, Mental Health Services, Project Management, and Education.
The challenges facing our community are centered around addressing the low-income households and the mental health of our citizens. The stigma attached to our citizens who experience these challenges bring about medical conditions that contribute to low birth weights, self-medication, and generational poverty. By addressing the needs of the most vulnerable citizens in our program, our goal is to make systemic changes in our participants' lives.
The WES Volunteer Work Program (VWP) is two-fold in its mission to empower its participants to embark on a career path, and to earn the charitable items donated while giving back to the community.
Our first aim is to help our participants not only find gainful employment, but to find a career path that will embolden their future choices. Through the VWP we will help our participants build their resumes, gain experience and obtain solid references. There are basic values that are a necessary component in having a successful career. Values which many of our participants were never taught. We hope that through this program they will learn basic values of time management, appropriate attire, respectful behavior towards supervisors and coworkers, to name a few. To help build these values, we will have regular classes or group sessions on conflict resolution, good communication, balancing home and work life, and money management; as well as specified training in child care, basic computer skills, cleaning services, administrative services, typing. This of course is a growing list that will adapt to the needs of our participants.
Once our participants feel they are ready to choose a career path, we will coach them on how to further their training and education in specific industries such as marketing, graphic design, or attending a technical college or university. We hope to provide basic training in these areas so that our participants can qualify for a technical college or more advanced training.
Our organization addresses these issues with our annual 12-week series of classes. Women’s Empowerment Series is built on six specialized programs. The Women’s Empowerment Series provides a mentor-to-mentee program. We provide continuous support and resources for the mentees who join our program. The mentors are the advocates and one of their primary support systems during their transition to a healthier, more productive lifestyle. All mentors go through the 12-week class program side-by-side with their mentees and this fosters a trustworthy and open relationship between mentee and mentor. The classes we offer are focused on mental health, financial stability, resources available to all women and families, and overall safety in the home and within relationships. We focus on the importance of healthy lifestyles as a path to healthier mindsets. Our Kids Crew is a mirrored program of the Women’s Empowerment Series classes and involves the children of the women we serve which helps to incorporate the whole family into the healthy, healing process. The classes are held during the same weekly time and focus on the same subject matters but at the age appropriate learning level. Teen Life Class is offered to teen children of the participants as well as any other community teens who would like to join. These classes offer teens the tools to be successful as students, children and members of our community. They guide teens through discussions on family balance, healthy boundaries, and financial independence. The Alumni class is for those women who have successfully completed the 12-week program and inspires graduates to continue the work of the program while giving back to the community. We offer alumni a chance to plan, initiate, and produce a community event or WES program to help the community. This helps to establish pride and self-worth for many who have struggled in the past. Blossoming Sisterhood is offered to women participants who have applied to the Empowerment Series but are in the beginning stages of healing. Many participants in the Stepping into the Positive are coping with active addiction or are having legal challenges. We offer this class as a stepping-stone into the 12-week series. This program is directed by advocates of 12-step programs and partners with the participants to help them breakthrough barriers that are holding them back from healthy living.
Upon the completion of the course, the participants can sign up for the WES Volunteer Work Program. This is a program that empowers the participants to embark on a career path, while volunteering for community organizations. Every hour spent learning a skill, the participants earn credits to choose items out of the donation closet. Our first aim is to help our participants not only find gainful employment, but to find a career path that will embolden their future choices. Through the VWP we will help our participants build their resumes, gain experience and obtain solid references. There are basic values that are a necessary component in having a successful career. Values which many of our participants were never taught. We hope that through this program they will learn basic values of time management, appropriate attire, respectful behavior towards supervisors and coworkers, to name a few. With time, they will develop other skills, such as balancing home and work life, and how to be efficient in your work. These skills and values will translate into the community and will serve as an example to their children.
To help build these values, we will have regular classes or group sessions on conflict resolution, good communication, balancing home and work life, and money management; as well as specified training in childcare, basic computer skills, cleaning services, administrative services, typing. This of course is a growing list that will adapt to the needs of our participants.
The Women’s Empowerment Series works with women who are looking to rebuild themselves, for themselves and for their children. Our programming provides participants with the skills, knowledge, and resources to do just that, and we offer continuous support throughout their times of need. After the 12 weeks of classes are over, we maintain contact with the mentees and offer support in any way that they may need.
The Women's Empowerment Series utilizes numerous approaches to gauge success within our programs. We begin with a goal of the 12-week program having a graduation rate of 90% or more. A participant is only allowed to miss two classes during the 12 week program to be eligible for graduation. This encourages the women to show dedication and accountability to succeed. We also define success in the number of women who return to attend follow-up virtual learning or participate in the Alumni program or Volunteer program.
Surveys are also taken by mentees and mentors before, throughout, and after the series, and their data compared. Survey focus will be in soft areas such as participant comfortability, relatability of mentors, presenters, and materials, and overall feeling of community/sisterhood.
More in depth surveys are also taken to gauge the groups overall needs assessment. Classes are then structured around the most urgent/frequent needs with follow-up surveys to review the need after instruction. The individual surveys not only help us to focus our content but to also match a participant with the most qualified mentor for the specific needs of the participant.
Our work creates long term systemic change by offering tools and resources for women to address their current situations and prepare themselves and their children for future success. Through our program we begin the process of evaluation, addressing the needs, and planning for the future. Our program not only treats the women but the entire family.
The Fond du Lac community has been very involved in initiating our program with referrals of participants from multiple local non-profit organizations. All content and material for classes are presented by subject matter experts who are trained and qualified in their field of expertise. We partner with health professionals, law enforcement, legal representatives, social workers, mental health professionals, college professors and state employment agencies to facilitate and review course materials.