YWCA Greater Lafayette Receives Grant from Google.org to Empower Women and Underserved Americans

For Immediate ReleaseContact Tracy Hurd765-427-4119

YWCA Greater Lafayette has received a grant to implement its Empowerment Suits You program for the local community as part of Google.org’s $5 million-dollar commitment to YWCA USA.  YWCA Greater Lafayette is proud to be a member of the inaugural cohort of grantees at 12 local associations in eight states that are using the grant to improve job training programs and increase access to digital skills for women and underserved Americans.In making the announcement of grant recipients, Alejandra Y. Castillo, CEO, YWCA USA , said: “YWCA is thrilled to partner with Google.org as we work to create innovative approaches to workforce development and forge new ways to bring the future of work and skills development to women and communities of color across the country.”As part of YWCA Greater Lafayette’s ongoing mission to eliminate racism and empower women, Empowerment Suits You, a workforce development program created to empower economically disadvantaged survivors of domestic violence and other marginalized populations, provides job readiness and training initiatives. The current program includes, career advancement, resume development, financial literacy, job searching, essential skills, and a boutique to suit clients with clothing for interviews and work. The program utilizes Allstate ‘Moving Ahead’ curriculum for financial literacy.Allison Beggs, President and CEO of YWCA Greater Lafayette, said her organization pursued this grant to give Empowerment Suits You clients access to training that could lead to a career in IT or other higher paying employment opportunities.With this grant, YWCA Greater Lafayette will follow a workforce development model created by YWCA McLean County (Bloomington, IL) that focuses on digital skills training for women and people of color, with the goal of increasing vocational opportunities by providing essential digital and workforce skills.Beggs said: “We envision this grant as an investment in our clients as well as in our local economy. This is a commitment to the upskilling and re-skilling of a traditionally overlooked workforce.”Empowerment Suits You includes services offered through a Match-Saving program, housing assistance, financial literacy education and career services. The program also benefits from the Betty Nelson special interest grant for Literacy and NOW Grant through the Community Foundations of Greater Lafayette, the 1^st Source Foundation and the Allstate Foundation. The boutique, which relies heavily on volunteers, has been inundated with donations of clothing, shoes and accessories.“Although we had to close our building because of COVID-19, the program still assisted about a dozen women via telephone and remote connectivity to help them successfully interview and find employment,” Beggs said. “We continued to serve our domestic violence clients with great success. We look forward to actively engaging clients in person to meet its incredible potential. We look forward to building other partnerships in our community and serving other marginalized populations.”###

About YWCA Greater Lafayette

YWCA has served the community since 1929 and continues to be committed to the financial and economic empowerment of the women, girls, and people of color we serve. ?To learn more about our programming, visit www.ywcalafayette.org.

About Google.org

Google.org, Google's philanthropy, supports nonprofits that address humanitarian issues and apply scalable, data-driven innovation to solving the world's biggest challenges. We accelerate their progress by connecting them with a unique blend of support that includes funding, products, and technical expertise from Google volunteers. We engage with these believers-turned-doers who make a significant impact on the communities they represent, and whose work has the potential to produce meaningful change. We want a world that works for everyone—and we believe technology and innovation can move the needle in four key areas: education, economic opportunity, inclusion and crisis response.