Soroptimist in the news
Local Soroptimists fight for women and girls
by Matthew Hall
Times Editor
Many local non-profits work to help residents improve their lives, but few groups pursue the causes of women and girls with as much dedication as the Soroptimists.
Soroptimist International is a non-profit service group dedicated to helping women and girls improve the quality of their lives. Members are all professional women who meet on a regular basis to help support women who are trying to improve their lives.
Liz Stephens, incoming president of the Windsor branch, said the Windsor club chose to sponsor refurbishment of a room in the YWCA safe house as a means of creating community among women. “Our main mission is to improve the lives of women and girls in the community and throughout the world,” she said. “We wanted to focus in our local community as much as we can and we found out that they really needed a kitchen and found out that it was really a good cause for us because they are women in need.”
The Windsor club helped repaint and reequip the kitchen in a way that fostered a sense of security. “We made it more open, more homey feeling,” said Stephens. “We wanted the women to feel that they could sit at a table and interact with each other.”
Windsor Soroptimists also participate in an annual Women’s Opportunity Award. The award is given to a woman who is enrolled in an educational program to help boost her education, skills and employment prospects. To be eligible, women must be the primary financial support for their families and actively enrolled in class.
Soroptimist Kelly Monhoff-Croman said the award often helps a woman who is struggling with the financial impact of escaping a bad situation. “Usually the reason they receive the award is she’s a single parent who’s left a domestic violence situation,” she said. “This money can kind of help ease that burden for a semester.”
Recipients of the Club award also have a chance to receive additional money from regional and district organizations.
The Soroptimist organization also tackles issues related to human trafficking, including sponsorship and promotion of workshops, seminars and movies designed to raise awareness of domestic violence and human trafficking.
Monhoff-Croman said a surprising number of young women find themselves in a potentially abusive situation. “The more we talk about this type of stuff, the more people step up and say ‘hey, I was in that situation,’” she said. “That’s one of the things we do best is just talking about it so they know they shouldn’t be ashamed.”
Stephens said the Windsor club is always looking for new projects and welcome new members to their monthly meetings. For more information, email siwindsor@soroptimist.net or visit http://siwindsor.org/
—————————————————————————————
Article written by Chris Smith, Press Democrat
This was in the Press Democrat today in Chris Smith’s column
“IT BEGAN HERE in 1978 when Sonoma County’s Commission on the Status of Women created the nation’s first “Women’s History Week” to encourage schools to dedicate classroom time to the contributions of women.
Two years later, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the advent of National Women’s History Week and a group in Santa Rosa founded the National Women’s History Project.
This week, project Director Molly Murphy MacGregor and eight other local women are flying to D.C. to take part in 30th-year celebrations of the women’s history initiatives that started here and went global.”
It is great to see that Commission on the Status of Women’s mission statement is “to promote equal rights and opportunities that enhance the quality of life for all women and girls and to address issues of discrimination and prejudice that negatively affect women in Sonoma County.” They were a partner in the well-attended Human Trafficking event that Soroptimist International Clubs helped to orchestrate in July 2008, which makes sense as our missions are very closely related.
Sonoma County’s Commission on the Status of Women http://www.sonoma-county.org/hr/cid/csw.htm is still active while, I believe, that the Napa County Commission on the Status of Women was disbanded in late 2005. I guess they thought that women in Napa County were A-Ok. Interesting…
