| $1 Million pledged for women and girls by Women 4 Women directors, founders
"The Fund for Women and Girls" will enhance Louisville's competitive position as it works to attract economic development investments that create high-quality jobs for local residents. Most of the cities that compete with Louisville for those investments already have vibrant local or state women's funds. "If we want to improve Louisville's economy, we must move more aggressively to improve the lives of women and girls," said Women 4 Women Board Chair Diane Cornwell, a CPA and president of The Starfish Group. Women 4 Women's goal is to raise $10 million for the fund by 2010. Such an endowment will ensure that there is money available to address the unique needs of women and girls for generations to come. Those needs relate to financial self-sufficiency, education and employment. Addressing them is vital, Cornwell said, noting that Louisville's Competitive City Agenda identifies an "urgent" need to lift working families out of poverty and develop a better-educated workforce. "More than 70 percent of the households in poverty in our community are headed by women," said Women 4 Women Executive Director Ann L. Coffey. "Helping women helps entire families. Helping families helps neighborhoods. Helping neighborhoods helps schools. And helping schools helps our economy. It's that simple." Each member of the Women 4 Women board made a pledge to the fund, said founder Elaine "Cissy" Musselman. See Larger Board of Directors Photo "The Women 4 Women board is very diverse and everyone found a way to give," Musselman said. "That says a lot about the commitment of women leaders in this community to finding solutions to the problems that affect us all." | |
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"As long as 50 percent of our population is underutilized, underserved and has fewer benefits, we will not become a great community, now or in the future," Riggs said. Since it was founded in 1993, Women 4 Women has invested more than $1 million in dozens of local organizations which serve women and girls. It also published the groundbreaking Benchmark 2000 report, Louisville's first look at the status of women and girls in our community. Since Benchmark, the board's "Bold Goals" for improving the health and economic well-being of women and girls were adopted by the Mayor's Office for Women, with whom Women 4 Women partnered on the 2005 Women's Summit earlier this month. Women 4 Women also has partnerships with the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University on a program for middle school girls, Fit4Me, and the National Center for Family Literacy and the Jefferson County Public Schools on a financial literacy initiative for families and children. To reflect its determination to take its work for the community to a higher level, Women 4 Women recently developed a new tagline—"Bold Goals, Bold Solutions"—and launched a new logo with an oversized, stylized 4. Bisig Impact Group and Creative Alliance donated creative services which enabled Women 4 Women to develop the tagline and logo. "The symbolic meaning of the '4' in Women 4 Women is working for our community—on issues that will have a positive impact for the entire community," Coffey said. Women 4 Women: bringing together a city of champions for women and girls through partnerships, programs and financial support. Read other coverage about the fund: Business First The Courier-Journal Until next time, Ann L.Coffey Women 4 Women Executive Director | |
Board Members