YWCA has new mission

Flint's YWCA has been around for 103 years. Its mission was and continues to be empowering women and eliminating racism. What's changed is how the YW accomplishes its mission, according to Harmony Langford, director of operations and fund development for the YWCA of Greater Flint.

She was the featured speaker at the East Side Business Association meeting March 30.

"How we look today is very different than how we looked in the 1920s," Langford said. "Then single women came to us for housing as they moved into the city to work in our factories."

"In the 1930s and 1940s the YWCA built its first camp for women, Camp Tyrone, that integrated African American women. In the 1950s the YWCA was known as the big sisters organization mentoring its members and in the 1970s the YWCA's focus turned to the elimination of racism and with health and wellness issues," Langford said.

At the turn of the century the YWCA was recognized as the gym and swim place.

"We taught half of Genesee County how to swim," Langford quipped. "But we also recognized that other organizations were offering the same services. So we turned our attention to issues that weren't being addressed — like domestic violence."

Last year about 600 women and children were served at the YWCA's Safe House, according to Langford. Their crisis phone line answered more than 2,000 calls about domestic violence.

Their goal is to provide legal advocacy, counseling and necessary supportive services for battered women and their children as they move them toward self-sufficiency, independence and freedom from abuse.

"Last year we researched another need in the community — foster kids coming of age and becoming homeless," Langford said. "When a foster child turns 18 the state stops paying the foster family and many of these kids become homeless."

With the research clear that foster girls needed a place to continue their education in a safe environment, the YWCA opened Nina's Place with the help of a federal grant. Nina's Place, named after Nina Mills, a founder of the Flint YWCA, is a bridge to independence for young women ages 18 to 20 who have aged out of foster care and are without family support. Girls receive safe and secure housing in downtown Flint which includes a furnished room, laundry and kitchen facilities and 24-hour staff support.

The girls also receive counseling and mentoring including employment assistance and financial skills education. Applicants must be 18 to 20, employable or attending school, drug free and motivated to become independent. There are seven girls participating in the program with space for four more.

"We want these young women to succeed and become tax-paying citizens who contribute to society," Langford said.

The organization is holding its biennial YWCA Women of Achievement Awards at 5:30 p.m. May 12 at the Whiting Auditorium. Contact the YWCA at (810) 238-7621 or www.ywca.org/flint for more information.

Harmony Langford has been at the YWCA for four years and received her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Detroit-Mercy. She is completing her master's degree in public administration at UM-Flint.