Celebrating 120 Years At Our Annual Meeting
Happy 120th Birthday YWCA Spokane!
Yesterday, on April 13th (YWCA Spokane’s official birthday) from 3-5pm in the beautifully remodeled Central Library meeting space downtown, we gathered with our staff, board, volunteers, and community partners for YWCA Spokane’s Partners In Progress Annual Meeting. Each year, we hold this public meeting to gather with our community, reflect on achievements made over the past year, and honor key partners in our work.
Awards & Recognition
This year, it was our honor and privilege to recognize the following individuals and organizations for their incredible contributions to our work and mission at YWCA Spokane.
- 2023 Community Partner Award Recipient
- Hamilton Studio
- 2023 Mission Impact Partner Award Recipient
- Deborah Svoboda
- Honored Program Volunteers:
- Our Sister’s Closet Volunteers:
- Amalie Day, Jill James, Mary Gentile, Lori Williams, Suzanne Bettinger, Liudmila (Mila) Eggerman, Sarah Gillespie, Jennifer Noyes, Avery Phillips, Liz (Elizabeth) Laubscher, Connie Curtin, Jessica Peters
- Domestic Violence Safe Shelter Volunteers:
- Jon Maroni, Providence Spokane Shared Services Mission Ambassador Group, Jennee’ Pool , Aimee Nordendale, Jasmine Averill, Dave Boab, Elizabeth Bowen, Kelly Branson, Elise Burton, Chris Chung, Mackenzie Dire, Lori Hallet, Lisa Hill, Bradley Hilliard-Lythgoe, Cora Lillis, Makenna Lillis, Sarah Lohr, Penny McAnally, Tina Mintyala, Roy Rangel, Joy Sturgis, Heather Sulpizio, Sasha Wellington, Julia Williams
- Racial & Social Justice Committee Volunteers:
- Tamika LaMere
- Women’s Opportunity Center Volunteer:
- Gail Daehlin
- Our Sister’s Closet Volunteers:
2023 Community Partner Award Recipient: Hamilton Studio
Over the past several years, Hamilton Studio has gone above and beyond to support our mission at YWCA Spokane. Each year they contribute their time and talent to help caring individuals in Spokane connect with our work and become part of our community.
Through the pandemic, their support was critical to our agency. Because of their partnership and endless support, we were able to pivot during the shutdown and hold our most important fundraisers of the year, An Evening In Tuscany and Women of Achievement awards, virtually. The virtual events were stunning and well attended due in large part because of their beautiful photography, sound, and film work. We couldn’t have been more grateful for their support!
As things have calmed from the pandemic, Hamilton Studios continues to support our mission. Most recently they have been a key partner with the celebration of our 2023 Women of Achievement awards and 120th birthday celebration. As one of our Mission Partners, we are deeply grateful to them for their ongoing partnership and support.
2023 Mission Impact Award Recipient: Deb Svoboda
The Mission Impact Award is a nomination-based award that provides staff members with an opportunity to celebrate and honor a “behind-the-scenes” community member who is helping to further the work and mission of our agency and who is making an incredible difference in our community.
Deb Svoboda is a volunteer with the Y, serving on the Racial and Social Justice Learning Community since 2021, and supporting staff efforts in the domestic violence program when called upon since 2012. Deb is an advisory board member for M.i.A.-Mujeres in Action, and played a supportive role in the development of the agency with Hanncel Sanchez and others. She is a current board member for the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition and a member of the SRDVC since 2020. Deb participates in the Vulnerable Adults Task Force organized by Lutheran Community Services NW.
Deb had a rewarding twenty-year social work career as an advocate with domestic violence and sexual assault crisis agencies in Pennsylvania prior to moving to Spokane in 2012. Her current day job is as an Associate Professor and current Graduate Program Director at the EWU School of Social Work. She is happiest having a cup of tea and working alongside others to change the world for the better.
“It is truly an honor to celebrate Deb in this way”, states Erica Schreiber, Director of Community Engagement at YWCA Spokane. “She has been an instrumental partner over the years in so many different ways. We are grateful for her dedication to the wellbeing of our community.”
2022 Annual Report
View Report
In addition to celebrating valued partners to our agency, we also took a look at highlights and achievements from our 2022 Annual Report.
Last year, we housed, nurtured, educated and walked along side over 14,000 individuals during 2022. We also returned to in person fundraising events after a pause due to COVID. After two years of pandemic related constraints, we looked to 2022 to review our programming and address where we were experiencing gaps.
We recognized that to really live into our mission to eliminate racism that we needed to dedicate full time staffing and leadership to the work. We added an Equity Coordinator to our staff to focus on our social justice work and to collaborate with other community organization to raise up the work of eliminating racism. As part of this expansion, we established a new department focused on engaging our community in this work. Through awareness, education, and prevention efforts centered around the intersections of inequity, poverty, and intimate partner domestic violence, our new Community Engagement department works to promote community collaboration and action that furthers the mission of YWCA Spokane. Which in turns helps to prevent future harm in our community.
A Special Gift For Our New Endowment
YWCA Spokane is honored to announce the Johnston-Fix Foundation as the first organization to seed its new endowment, the YWCA Spokane Forever Fund. Much like how Harriet Fix left $100,000 to the YWCA in her estate, the Johnston-Fix Foundation is matching that $100,000 to lay the foundation for the Forever Fund. Their generosity creates sustainable funding that will provide a fearless future for those who access YWCA Spokane’s services in perpetuity. YWCA Spokane is proud to have the Johnston-Fix Foundation as a partner in their mission to eliminate racism, empower women, advance social justice, help families, and strengthen our community.
Reflecting on our History & 12 Decades of Impact
This year, we also had the opportunity to celebrate our agency’s 120th birthday!
Susan Virnig, past YWCA Board Chair from 1989 to 1990, joined us as our special guest. She shared stories with us from our agency’s past that covered six milestone moments that covered how we stood up to opposition and persevere in our commitment to our mission over the last 12 decades.
Photos From This Special Day
2023 Mission Partners
Mission Partners of YWCA Spokane are committed to bringing peace, justice, freedom, and dignity to our Spokane community, creating a foundation that allows for real and lasting change every day. Together, we will work to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families and strengthen our community. Their critical financial support bridges the gap between the expenses we incur while serving clients and the grants we receive from state, local, and private parties. These invested leaders embody our mission. Their commitment and dedication bring the promise of support and hope for those struggling with poverty, trauma, homelessness, and despair. With this help, we harvest the potential to build upon our accomplishments from the past and grow the health and sustainability of our critical programs well into the future.
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If you or your organization would like to learn more about becoming a Mission Partner to YWCA Spokane, please contact Dana Morris Lee at 509-742-0111 or email danam@ywcaspokane.org. Thank you!
By: Erica Schreiber