Newsroom
Look for us in the news!
Women’s Foundation Seeks Applicants for Girls’ Philanthropy and Leadership Training Program
(September 18, 2009 – Tucson, Ariz.)—Twenty high school-aged young women in greater Tucson have an opportunity to participate in Unidas, a girls’ philanthropy program sponsored by The Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona. Applications will be accepted through September 18, 2009.
At the conclusion of this comprehensive training, the young women will be more knowledgeable about community needs and resources and how to take action. Participants will graduate with valuable leadership and consensus-building skills and will be empowered by their ability to fund programs that they believe are doing compelling work for young women and girls in the community.
Unidas participants discuss social justice issues facing young women and girls with community experts and conduct additional research and analysis before selecting a focus issue for their grant. They will lead a grant-making process, including creation of a request for proposal, application review, site visits, and allocation of up to $7,500 to local agencies.
Unidas applicants should have an interest in women’s issues and philanthropy, and be between the ages of 14 and 19 years old. The program is open to young women who attend any high school in the greater Tucson area, those who are not currently enrolled in school, and home-schooled students.
The Unidas program is an ongoing collaborative effort with community supporters whose mission is to foster equity and opportunity for women and girls. WFSA has more than 16 years experience in making grants in southern Arizona.
For more information contact the Women’s Foundation at 622-8886 or unidas@womengiving.org. Information and applications are available online at http://www.WomenGiving.org.
Meadows new chair of WFSA Board of Directors, seven new members join
(July 29, 2009 —Tucson, Ariz.)—Sarah Meadows, associate general counsel for the Tucson Airport Authority, is the new Chair of the board of directors of the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona (WFSA). Her term runs from July 2009 through June 2011.
The board also includes seven new members: Stephen Cornell, director, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, The University of Arizona; Mary Keane, community volunteer; Clyde Kunz, Chief Development Officer, Arizona Theatre Company; Antje Lear, community volunteer; Maria Lopez, recent Tucson Magnet High School graduate; Nancy Weeks, community volunteer; and Dari Zwart, University High School student.
The mission of WFSA is to foster equity and opportunity for women and girls. One of more than a hundred women’s funds globally, the foundation advances women’s leadership and philanthropy by raising, managing and granting money to meet the unique needs of women and girls. The Women’s Foundation is a support organization of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.
Status of Women report highlights high graduation rates, high poverty rates
(April 29, 2009 —Tucson, Ariz.)—It’s good news and not so good news. College graduation rates and poverty rates among women in Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties have increased.
Women now earn the majority of bachelors, masters and pharmacy degrees from The University of Arizona, and have achieved parity with men when it comes to law and medical degrees. But women are still significantly more likely than men to live in poverty, with 47 percent of female-headed households with children in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties living below the poverty line.
As a follow-up to its 2000 report on the status of women in Arizona, the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona (WFSA) today released the Status of Women and Girls in Southern Arizona at the WFSA annual luncheon. In attendance were more than 800 people to honor philanthropist Helaine Levy and learn more about the Foundation’s fundraising and grant-making. The report highlights women’s education, earnings, health, criminal justice involvement and civic participation in the three-county area served by the Foundation. It will be updated annually.
“With this report, we want to document the social, economic, and educational progress women have made, and the challenges they still face,” says WFSA Director Laura Penny. “This information is critical for non-profit and government services to address community needs, as well as to policymakers at the city, county and state levels.”
The report also highlights the difficulties rural women have in accessing healthcare, including the lack of obstetric/gynecological physicians in remote areas of all three counties, and the increase in the number of women and girls committing crimes.
“At the Women’s Foundation, we are using the results of this research to inform our grant-making,” Penny said. “Based on the data about women and poverty, we have launched a new grant, the Equity and Opportunity Fund, to help women achieve economic self-sufficiency.”
Founded in 1992, the Women’s Foundation has invested more than $1.2 million in organizations that promote equity and opportunity for women and girls in Pima southern Arizona.
To view an executive summary and the full report, go to the homepage.