YWCA BerkeleyOakland

Financial Literacy: Young Women Financial Literacy Program (YWFL): serves high school and young adult aged girls and women through the Young Women and Money Conference, two bi-annual Financial Empowerment Summits For High School Girls, online workshops and interactive modules for self-guided learning. The YWFL program addresses the need to educate women in financial basics to increase their financial independence and economic success. The program provides girls and young women ages 14-30 in Berkeley, Oakland and the greater East Bay with financial education and programs covering budgeting, credit and investing other other topics designed to empower women with the tools, knowledge and support as they navigate through their financial worlds and careers and build financial independence. Youth leaders plan programs and build on their leadership and coordinating skills while exploring how existing systems create barriers to generational wealth and economic success for BI&POC individuals.

TechGYRLS Program: Female volunteers teach science and technology concepts to third to fifth grade girls (primarily students of color) in Oakland public elementary schools. The goal is to foster an interest in STEAM and provide mentorship. Mentors deliver inspired curriculum to participants and through the hands-on science projects, demonstrations, career exploration and SEL (social emotional learning, they begin to seem themselves in STEAM fields and enter into lucrative and life sustaining careers. To deal with the COVID-19 climate and potential school closures, we have the ability to offer hybrid programming and can provide students with science projects that can be done at home. Girls Group Mentoring Program (GGMP): Matches female mentors with Berkeley and Oakland middle school girls (prioritizing lower income and BIPOC students) for girls-only after school mentorship and relationship building. Mentors work with participants on a weekly basis to address issues of participants' choosing while focusing on empowering themselves through advocacy.

Workforce Development and Empowerment: The Workforce Development program has three active community programs under its umbrella: Strive, Strive Teen, and Career Coaching. The YW Strive/Strive Teen program provides workforce development training- including resume preparation, cover letter writing, conflict resolution, digital literacy, and customer service- to individuals (primarily women and people of color) without a four-year degree or access to job training/mentoring. The program seeks to empower women with the skills, training, knowledge, and confidence they need to enter the workforce or seek a promotion. Simultaneously, the program is dedicated to eliminating racism by focusing on delivering its curriculum to people of color and other marginalized groups- including formerly incarcerated folks, domestic violence survivors, and immigrants- in order to promote equity in the job search and the career realm. In addition to the Strive sessions, Strive participants get free access to Career Coaching workshops. Through a curated curriculum created by the YWCA Berkeley/Oakland Career Coach, workshop attendees will work through topics such as finding a job in their prospective industry, learning how to sell their skill sets, and working towards a satisfying career of their choice.

The Racial Justice Advocacy Program (RJA) consists of college students and rising community leaders, many of whom are people of color, who are interested in advancing racial and gender justice through policy and ongoing anti-racism learning. The RJA program supports young leaders in developing the tools they need to advocate for change and research upcoming legislative actions that support racial and gender justice. The Program hosts two voter registration drives for those impacted by voter suppression and communities of color in the East Bay. The RJA program also organizes various social justice campaigns designed to foster cultural understanding and increase the equal protections and equal opportunities of people of color through issue education and advocacy.

Racial Justice Campaign to raise awareness about institutional and structural racism in our communities and to build community among those who work for racial justice. RJA members will increase the number of young women activists involved with social change. They will deepen their understanding and knowledge of the legislative process and advocate for issues important to the YWCA goals and to themselves as members of their own community.

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