MAY – JUNE 2022
May Birthdays
1 Sasha Bowers
2 Kayla Hylton
2 Patricia Murray
3 David Lubin
3 Pierre Pipkin
6 Tiya Walker
7 Adrienne Lee-Garland
9 Danyel Brown
10 Kathleen Athey
10 Montavious Cowart
11 Nichole Maddux
18 Angela Walls
20 Annette Reyes
21 Shantanna Aburokbeh
21 Laura Miller
22 Bridget Baker
22 Bryan Williams
28 Lisa Skelly
30 Danny Hook
31 Sabrina W. Horton
31 Nakita Wilson
June Birthdays
4 Anne Cronin
4 Marie Lundy
6 Kate Croteau
10 Phillip Grissett
11 Nancy Conkel
12 Christine Hickernell
13 Diana Yates
14 Gabriella Caroselli
15 Jaqueline Cherry
19 Joseph Glandorf
20 Stacy Hough
20 Christine Loveless
23 Kristopher James Ross-Wilcox
24 Don’Tayeja Barnes
24 Marilyn Muniz
25 Cheryl Struble
26 Rolana Kinzer
26 Evelyn Williams
May Anniversaries
1 YEAR
Kaleena Wiseman
3 YEARS
Rolana Kinzer
5 YEARS
Yvonne McBroom
6 YEARS
Tamika Brown
Barbara Freeman
Adrienne Lee-Garland
15 YEARS
Donna Connelly
22 YEARS
Mandi Buchwald
June Anniversaries
1 YEAR
Sasha Bowers
Nichole Maddux
Jennifer Roundtree
Sherita Smith
Shannon Cleo Thomas
Nathaniel Ward
3 YEARS
Ryan Kennedy
4 YEARS
Jacqueline Cherry
Amber Jacott
12 YEARS
Jerry Cobbs
20 YEARS
Stacy McLain
Gabriella Caroselli
Site Director – YKP
Regina Clemons
Chief Program Officer – Housing
Craig Alexander Hylton
Program Assistant – YKP
Christian Noel Johnson
Program Manager – LSJ
Valerie Lackey
Safety & Security Assistant – Family Center
Pamela Wilson
Engagement Specialist – Women’s Residency
We love celebrating our team promotions within YWCA Columbus
Congratulations to Mandi Buchwald and Helen Tewolde and their new roles as YKP Gahanna Coordinator and YKP USN Coordinator, respectively.
Team Announcements + Updates
The Gender Unicorn: Gender & Sexuality 101
Course Description: Explore the complexity and depth of gender, including gender identity, gender expression, and sex assigned at birth; along with sexuality and the LGBTQIA+ acronym.
If you were unable to make the live training, please set aside some time to view the recording and complete the evaluation by May 13th. This will be the final extension.
All employees regardless of how they participated in the training, will be required to complete a mini-knowledge check/evaluation which will serve as documentation that they completed the training.
2022 Virtual Women of Achievement Event
On April 27th, we virtually hosted our 37th annual Women of Achievement Event where we honored six women as Women of Achievement and three as Women on the Rise. The event raised over $600,000 to support YWCA Columbus programs. Thank you to the entire Advancement team for making the event successful! A special thank you to Lea Goldsmith, who was hired in the middle of planning for the event. Thank you also to the staff who tuned in. In case you missed it, you can view the full event here.
Easter Weekend at the Family Center
All of the YWCA Family Center’s 127 children received Easter baskets, an amazing response from the community! We are so thankful to so many of our staff who stepped up and helped the children and parents enjoy the weekend activities.
Additional Updates
Two partners will be setting up tables outside the Family Center building, giving information about jobs. The Franklin County Clerk of Courts will be here on May 4 from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM and Amazon will be outside May 6 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM.
We currently have been utilizing a mobile cart that goes around to the neighborhoods here at the Family Center. This cart is utilized to help sign up families and children for Charity Newsie clothes right now. The cart also holds information on services offered in the ERC and job opportunities.
Entrepreneurship Education in Action
Over the past 6 months, the YWCA Kids Place programs have been learning more about entrepreneurship education with the help of Wagi Labs curriculum and the assistance of the Ohio Afterschool Network. Kids created pitches in response to the prompt, “How can we build community and bring people together?” We had three rounds of voting, one at the program site, one virtually with our community partners, and one final round on our social media channels. Congratulations to our winner, the Colorful Creators. You can watch their winning pitch HERE, and watch them learn that they won “the whole thing” HERE.
You can watch all the youth pitches HERE!
Our staff also had a pitch contest to help others understand the opportunities and challenges of teaching entrepreneur education in afterschool. Congratulations to our three Entrepreneur Education Site Director pitch winners. First place, Loren Beckett (Chapelfield Site Director), Second place Anne Cronin (Robert Frost Site Director), Third Place, Rene Call (Mark Twain Site Director).
A New Bright Futures
The Leadership & Social Justice (LSJ) Department has been busy redeveloping the Bright Futures program into a series of four foundational social justice workshops for girls in middle school and high school! Throughout the month of April, the LSJ team facilitated the program with 14 amazing young women leaders from The Black Girls’ and Young Women’s Collective. Each week the LSJ team led meaningful training workshops on how to understand and disrupt systemic oppression and take up roles of leadership needed to advocate for social change.
Throughout the program, we engaged the young women in topics such as:
- Identity, privilege, and oppression
- Systemic oppression with a focus on race and racism
- Gender, sexism, and intersectionality; and
- Leadership, power building, and change-making
To close the pilot program, the 5th week was set aside to conduct a focus group. During this time, The Collective provided valuable feedback on how the Bright Future’s Program can be improved to make an even bigger impact. Overall, the pilot was a huge success and we can’t wait for the second pilot this fall!
YWCA Policy Team Updates
YWCA Columbus’s Policy Team has been meeting with legislators to advocate for funding to renovate the landscaping and exterior of the Family Center and to update our legislators on YW’s updated advocacy priorities, which now include education rights and teaching honest history, as well as LGBTQ+ rights, with a focus on transgender healthcare.
Teaming Up with Groundwork Ohio
On May 18th from 12:30-2:00 PM, we will be joining Groundwork Ohio for an advocacy day and family celebration at the Statehouse. Click here to learn more and RSVP!
Save the Date
AAPI Heritage Month Discussion
Friday, May 20th at 12:00 PM. Click here to join the Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83267963827
Please join us as we recognize Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with an internal conversation led by YWCA Columbus’ LSJ team. We will discuss the following videos. Tigger warning: there are images of violence, racial slurs, and hate crimes in these videos. Please watch at your own discretion.
Staff & Alumni Book Club
Thursday, May 26th at 5:00 PM: Get your copy now and join us for a discussion of “You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience” by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown. RSVP today!
This anthology is a space to recognize and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black life and Black possibility, a space that gives Black humanity breathing room.
Listening Circles
Friday, May 27th at 12:00 PM (virtual) or 2:00 PM (in-person at the Family Center).
Please join our LSJ Team as we hold space to recognize the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and process our feelings on state-sanctioned and systemic violence. This event is open to staff of all ethnicities!
YWCA Columbus in the News
Lalitha Pamidigantam was quoted in this Columbus Dispatch write-up about House Bill 327. (March 2022)
Columbus Parent interviewed Christie Angel and Nichelle Harris on YWCA Columbus’ mission of youth development and early education, social justice, and housing work. (April 2022)
Amelia Robinson leads a panel discussion of all past WOA honorees about empowering women (April 2022)
Jessica Wichtman-Will was interviewed on radio station Joy 107.1 about our 2022 Women of Achievement event (April 2022)
NBC4 Columbus shared a brief story on YWCA Columbus’ 2022 Women of Achievement (April 2022)
#WomenofAchievement posts, shares, and stories flooded social media on April 27th and April 28th, including mentions by 10TV’s Tracy Townsend, Shannon Hardin, and The Columbus Foundation (April 2022)