Women's Resource Center of the Delaware Valley

817 helpline calls and emails resourced by a team of dedicated volunteers and supported by professional staff. Wrc's information & referral helpline serves the 5-county philadelphia region, connecting callers with wrc's services and programs, numerous community and governmental resources, and professional resources. Helpline services were transitioned to allow the volunteers and staff to answer calls and emails remotely from the safety of their homes beginning in march 2020 and continuing helpline services throughout the pandemic. Wrc continued our strategy of connecting people with information and resources via electronic means, producing and distributing or presenting more than 50 therapeutic blogs, video-recorded interviews with community resources, and social media features that reached 56,799 views. 1,667 individual counseling sessions (14% increase over prior year) were provided to 167 women, 41 couples counseling sessions were conducted with 5 couples, and 16 group sessions completed (10 with mindful clarity group, and 6 with the anxiety group) with a total of 16 women. Wrc's counseling services are provided on a sliding scale based on income; 34 women received counseling services at a discounted rate and 133 women qualified for free services. 209 legal consultations were provided pro bono by local family law attorneys for women in need of help with divorce, custody or support matters. 96% of wrc clients earn a low to extremely low income as defined by hud, and more than 53% are experiencing financial abuse by their partner or spouse. These two factors combined make it both difficult and imperative that the women obtain legal advice for any divorce or custody proceedings. Wrc's pilot financial stability services provided a total of 388 individual Resource coordination sessions, 39 financial coaching sessions, and 23 career coaching sessions for women seeking financial stability. the financial stability services are designed to support four key factors influencing financial stability for women: agency and resilience, education, income and assets. 185 middle and high school girls from 13 different schools throughout Delaware, chester, and montgomery counties participated in wrc's girls lead program, a 17-week experiential curriculum designed to bolster 4 key skills: communication, problem-solving, decision-making and conflict resolution. These skills have been identified as protective factors against teen pregnancy, bullying, substance abuse, depression, suicide and eating disorders. This year's curriculum was updated to include two additional sessions focused on mental health. Participating schools included: academy park high school, darby township school, fugett middle school, interboro high school, norwood middle school, phoenixville middle school, peirce middle school, radnor middle school, stetson middle school, springfield township high school, springfield township middle school tinicum middle school, and toby farms middle school. Wrc continued implementation of its multi-year diversity, equity & inclusion plan through the organization-wide diversity, equity and inclusion taskforce focused on strengthening the organization's capacity and responsiveness to meet the needs of an increasing diverse clientele.