ORGANIZING A NEW YWCA
Step I
Revised July 2003
THE YWCA MISSION
YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
I. WHAT IS A YWCA?
· An organization with a Mission that intentionally draws together women and girls of diverse backgrounds to work toward the elimination of racism and the economic empowerment of women.
· A membership movement of women and girls, the largest in the world.
· Membership is open to all women and girls 12 years and over, representing full range of diversity in the community. All members 15 and over have the privilege of voting.
· A YWCA also serves girls and boys under 12 as registrants. Men can be associates. Members pay dues, set by the local associations. Local Associations also charge fees to participate in various programs and activities.
· Paying membership dues in a YWCA is different from paying dues to a social club or health spa, for example. Membership dues in a YWCA signify a commitment to what the YWCA stands for as a membership movement of women and girls. All programs in a YWCA are based on the needs of women and girls in the community, and in the context of the YWCA Mission.
· Each local association helps members understand the Mission of the YWCA. It also demonstrates the distinction of the YWCA as the largest and oldest worldwide membership movement of women and girls, one that operates autonomously and develops leadership skills through involvement leaders of the association.
· A program that responds to concerns and unmet needs of women and girls in local communities throughout the world.
· An organization that provides leadership opportunities for women and girls.
· A national organization made up of 300 Local Associations and works in more than 100 countries around the world.
· An incorporated, not-for-profit organization, chartered in the state in which it exists or operates.
II. A LOCAL YWCA FUNCTIONS:
· With a diverse board of directors, whose names are proposed by a nominating committee and whom YWCA members then elect. The board sets policies and has certain other fiscal and legal responsibilities.
· With staff and volunteers, usually working in committees to carry out various functions, for example, membership or program committees.
· With a constitution and/or bylaws which define(s) its functions and procedures.
· With programs that are developed in accordance with the Mission.
· With members who are recruited and involved in proposing activities that can meet the needs of women and girls.
III. HOW DOES ONE ORGANIZE A NEW YWCA?
The first step is to complete a Community Information Form (attached). This information provides a basis for the Regional Council Office of the YWCA of the U.S.A. (“Regional Council Office”) to assist you to proceed with further steps. The form will also help you and the Regional Council Office with answers to questions, such as:
· Does the geographical area need a YWCA?
· Is there sufficient community interest and an adequate number of women committed to the mission of the YWCA?
· Are there unmet needs of women and girls in your area?
· Is there the potential for attracting members and for financing an association in this area?
The next step, if the questions can be answered affirmatively, and if the Regional Council Office agrees, is to move to a formal organizational stage in preparation for becoming a Provisional YWCA.
The Regional Council Office will provide written materials, direction, and assistance to an Organizing Committee (such as how to: recruit members, develop program plans and a budget, write a constitution/bylaws, work with the United Way and other such organizations, and interpret the YWCA to the community). The Regional Council Office will also assist the Organizing Committee in understanding national, regional, and local relationships and the requirements for becoming a Local Association.
Information on membership, program, national, regional, and local relationships, and YWCA history is contained in this booklet.
Within 60 days after you have sent the Community Information Form to the Regional Council Office, you will be contacted to discuss further actions needed.
NATIONAL, REGIONAL, AND LOCAL RELATIONSHIPS
One of the strengths of the YWCA of the U.S.A. as a women’s membership movement is that its Regional and National Offices work in partnership with YWCAs around the country –in 300 communities and on college campuses. In this partnership, each group hears from the other in regional and national meetings, through reports, correspondence, and telephoning, and in-person or through on-site services.
Pursuant to the Bylaws of the YWCA of the U.S.A., each local association must affiliate with a Regional Council:
Regional Council Affiliation. Each Local Association shall affiliate with one (1) Regional Council pursuant to the terms and conditions of these Bylaws. As members of the YWCA, each Local Association shall be bound by and abide by the determinations, policies and procedures of that Regional Council, subject to dispute mediation rights set forth in these Bylaws. Each Local Association shall affiliate with a Regional Council in a contiguous state of its own state; provided that a Local Association in the states of Alaska or Hawaii shall affiliate with one (1) of the two (2) Regional Councils geographically closed to it. A Local Association shall be permitted to affiliate with a new Regional Council not more than one (1) time in any two (2) year period, except for special cause as demonstrated to the satisfaction of the National Coordinating Board. Any such change in affiliation shall require not less than six months prior notice to the Regional Council losing the Local Association’s affiliation, the Regional Council gaining the Local Association’s affiliation and the National Coordinating Board.
The National Office carries responsibility for seeing that YWCAs meet requirements for affiliation in the YWCA of the U.S.A.
The Regional Council Office is strengthened by program diversity in community associations, as they assess and work to meet the expressed needs of women and girls in their service areas. In turn, Local Associations are strengthened by the Regional Council Office’s awareness of issues and trends garnered, in part, from its work with other association leaders, and by sharing of program models and other information from around the region.
Each local association operates autonomously, but in compliance with policies adopted by the National Coordinating Board. National Coordinating Board members, who set policies for the YWCA of the U.S.A., are elected by voting delegates selected by each Local Association, in accordance with the rules for approving voting delegates. (Each Regional Council selects two members to represent them on the National Coordinating Board).
Issues under consideration by the National Coordinating Board are discussed at the local and regional levels by special committees and in Regional Council and/or inter-association meetings, so that action taken by the corporate body reflects local and regional thinking. Local Associations also pay dues to the Regional Council to remain affiliated with the YWCA of the U.S.A., in accordance with a formula adopted by the Regional Council.
A NEW YWCA
A new YWCA will:
· provide a strong link with women and girls in the U.S.A. and around the world (The YWCA of the U.S.A. is a member of the World YWCA where work is going on in 109 countries).
· strengthen the work of the YWCA of the U.S.A. in its program services and policies, as it focuses on racial justice and the economic empowerment of women.
· strengthen the work of the Regioanl Councils and Local Associations.
A new YWCA can come into being through:
· the efforts of a group of committed women, as they follow the organizing steps in this booklet; and
· the process of moving from an organizing committee to provisional status, and then, when the proper steps* are taken and approved, to full affiliation as a Local Association in the YWCA of the U.S.A. and the applicable Regional Council.
*Booklets, Organizing a New YWCA, Step II and The Provisional Period, Step III, will be supplied for these stages.
THE YWCA ADVANCES WOMEN’S RIGHTS
When the YWCA began its work in the mid-19th century, it met many needs of women at that time, for example, women who were:
· alone in a new city, friendless, with no place to live
· facing discrimination
· in search of a job or already at work in an unhealthy workplace
· unable to pay for nutritious food
· in need of new employment skills
· in need of recreation
· in need of sex information and medical services
Today, women have some of the same needs, e.g. affordable housing, job skills, employment, child care services, friends, and physical fitness.
SELECTED SIGNIFICANT DATES
1858 / First Association in the U.S. “Ladies Christian Association,” New York City.1859 / Boston first uses YWCA name.
1860 / Twenty-one students, teachers and needlewomen take up residence in the first boarding house for young girls, New York City.
1864 / Philadelphia organizes the first day care center in the U.S.
1869 / In the face of “unreasonable prejudice and misinterpretation,” Cleveland opens The Retreat, a residence for unwed mothers.
1870 / First instruction in typewriting for women, New York City. The opening of an employment bureau managed by a paid secretary is announced by the Young Ladies Christian Association in New York City.
1873 / The first Student YWCA organized by Normal University, Normal, Illinois.
1891 / Kansas City opens the first public cafeteria anywhere in the U.S.
1892 / Clubs for girls organized for the first time on an Indian reservation.
1893 / Brooklyn opens the first school anywhere to train women for practical nursing careers.
1894 / The American Committee joins with Great Britain, Sweden and Norway to found the World YWCA. The first American secretary to work on foreign soil arrives in India.
1911 / Bilingual instruction for immigrant families.
1913 / The National Board, YWCA, creates a Commission on Sex Education.
1915 / The YWCA organizes the first interracial conference ever held in the Southern states of the U.S.A., at Louisville, KY.
1918 / The YWCA’s Social Morality program becomes the official Lecture Bureau of the division on Social Hygiene of the War Department in order to “cultivate an attitude of honest, open, scientific interest in the subject of sex.”
1918 / The U.S. Ordinance Department asks the YWCA to service a million and a half women working in war plants. The YWCA sets up 20 service centers near munitions factories.
1919 / For six weeks women physicians from 32 countries consider the physical condition of women, their emotional health, and their immature attitude toward sex. The YWCA convenes and finances this first gathering of medical women: The International Conference of Women Physicians.
1920 / At the first national industrial conference in Washington, D.C., 65 elected delegates, representing 30,000 YWCA industrial members, agree to work for “an eight-hour law, prohibition of night work, and the right of labor to organize.”
1934 / YWCA support of legislative measures to provide for dissemination of birth control information under authorized medical direction dates back to 1934.
1942 / The YWCA extends its services and personnel to Japanese/American women and girls incarcerated in 10 Relocation Centers during World War II.
1946 / Convention of the YWCA of the U.S.A. unanimously adopts the Interracial Charter, in which the YWCA commits itself to work for an end to racial injustice.
1960 / The opening of the YWCA cafeteria to blacks in Atlanta in December marks the first desegregated public dining facility in that city.
1965 / The Office of Racial Justice established to campaign against discrimination of minority groups.
1970 / Convention votes the ONE IMPERATIVE: TO ELIMIATE RACISM WHEREVER IT EXISTS, AND BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
1973 / The 26th National Convention holds a silent march and sets up a defense fund to protest the treatment of American Indians at Wounded Knee Reservation, S.C.
1983 / The YWCA of the U.S.A. celebrates its 125th anniversary.
1985 / Convention votes to provide resources and assistance in coordinating work on public measures to prevent unwanted adolescent pregnancy and childbirth among women of all ages and economic levels.
1988 / Convention adopts a new national symbol and Core Program that give identity and cohesiveness to YWCA program.
2001 / Convention votes to adopt a NEW YWCA Structure through the Change Initiative.
COMMUNITY INFORMATION
1. YOUR COMMUNITY
Name of Community:Population:
a. Is the population increasing? [ ] Decreasing? [ ]
b. Is there a United Way or other federated plan for agency funding?
Yes [ ] No [ ]
c. Is there a Council of Social Service Agencies or other community planning organization? Yes [ ] No [ ]
Please describe the diversity of the population in the community – racial/ethnic, economic, religious, with percentages, where available.
2. LEADERSHIP
What leadership roles do women carry in the community? (Political, business, professions, United Way, etc.)
3. NEEDS AND CONCERNS
a. What are the needs and concerns of women and girls in your community?