Goals and Rationale
Community-based organizations serve as America’s safety net and gathering place. They provide a vast array of services, and at the same time, knit diverse populations together by creating spaces for democratic life, artistic expression and community building.
Women are often at the helm, taking on huge missions with few resources. In the best of times, they are generally under-resourced and overworked.
WiLCO has offered resources and training to six local non-profit agencies led by women in an effort to design and implement a project that will improve the lives of the women utilizing the organizations’ services.
The project also serves as a catalyst for women leaders to network and share their experiences, successes and failures with each other.
One of WiLCO’s major strengths is that the program can be replicated in communities across the country.
WiLCO’s Goals:
- Bring women leading community organizations together for leadership support and development
- Support an organizational project or inquire into an organizational question
- Encourage deeper levels of relatedness and support -- leader to leader and organization to organization
- Create a breakthrough result for the leaders, project or organization
Why Agency Teams?
WilCO asks each agency to develop a team of 2 - 4 women who are staff, board or volunteers.
- Change is difficult to institute in the best of settings.
- Teams provide more ideas and perspectives to investigate a problem
- And more investment and will power to implement a new idea.
Each Agency Received
- Project funding up to $5,000
- A student intern from Saint Mary’s College
- A consultant who is doing similar work at the regional/national level
- Four skill-enhancing workshops
- Five dialogue sessions
- A retreat with other women leaders in WiLCO