2022 Grantees – Total Grants $130,000
Accessity
Accessity’s mission is to open doors of financial opportunity, primarily to entrepreneurs of color, women, and immigrant entrepreneurs so they can build prosperous businesses and livelihoods for themselves and their families, while also strengthening our communities. Loans provided through this funding will support diverse women-owned small businesses as they contribute to vibrant neighborhoods, generate local tax revenue, and create jobs.
The Chicano Federation Women’s Small Business Development Program
The Chicano Federations Women’s Small Business Development Program is an eight-week childcare training program that provides women with the skills and resources to start a home-based childcare business, including preparing them for state licensing requirements. The goal of this program is to provide women with a unique opportunity to start their own business, while helping families in need of affordable childcare.
Logan Heights Community Development Corporation
Logan Heights CDC works to strengthen residents and businesses in Greater Logan Heights neighborhoods through community empowerment, education, economic growth, and housing development. The organization serves as a conduit to connect entrepreneurs with existing businesses, as well as provide access to agencies that can assist with resources like funding, financing, consulting and/or technical support. Logan Heights CDC also provides workshops, growth opportunities and more to help diverse women-owned businesses not just survive but thrive in their community.
Olivewood Gardens
Olivewood Gardens improves health and environmental stewardship by providing children, adults, and families from the community with the tools to make informed and healthy decisions in the kitchen, in the community, and for the environment. This grant will support the Kitchenistas Program and the development of educational tools and curriculum to support entrepreneurism, with a particular focus on San Diego County’s newly adopted Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) program.
San Diego Breastfeeding Center Foundation
The mission of San Diego Breastfeeding Center Foundation (SDBFCF) is to reduce socioeconomic disparities in breast/chestfeeding support by increasing access to qualified lactation consultants for low-income families. The San Diego Breastfeeding Center Foundation (SDBFCF) has developed a comprehensive strategic plan to facilitate growth to increase service capacity. This grant will help increase access to qualified lactation consultants for people of color and low-income families by training lactation consultants from the community and offering new parents free access to education about breast/chestfeeding.
Sister Cities Project
Sister Cities Project creates formal partnerships between affluent communities and underserved communities to create programs and events that allow the two areas to build true relationships. Funding will help establish a permanent framework for Entrepreneurship programs that serve Black Women Entrepreneurs in San Diego. San Diego is a launch market and the groundbreaking work done here has the potential to provide an economic equity and racial equality ripple effect that will change the lives of the over one million Black Women Entrepreneurs nationwide.
2021 Grantees – Total Grants $140,000
DETOUR – Depositing Empowerment Through Outreach & Urban Redevelopment
DETOUR is a mentoring program for girls of color. Our vision is to see equity and inclusion for teen girls of color in higher education and priority sector employment. Our mission is to increase access to education and employment opportunities for girls through our Focused And Naturally Confident Youth (F.A.N.C.Y.) Leadership programs (Expo, Leadership Academy, and Ambassador Internships.)
ElderHelp of San Diego
ElderHelp is a dynamic, values-based agency dedicated to improving the lives of seniors and their families. We provide community-based solutions through professional staff and nearly 500 volunteers committed to helping older adults live independently in their own homes.
March for Black Womxn San Diego
In 2017, Black Women in San Diego, led by Nyisha Green-Washington were inspired by Black Women’s Blueprint National Call to Action to march and meet to lift up demands for racial justice, to denounce the propagation of state-violence and the widespread incarceration of Black women and girls, rape and all sexualized violence, the murders and brutalization of transwomen and the disappearances of our girls from our streets, our schools and our homes; to advocate for political change focused on intersectional women’s rights issues like poverty, affordable housing, reproductive rights, immigration protections and must center on the most vulnerable.
North County Lifeline
North County Lifeline is a community-based human services organization that serves low-income and underserved populations in San Diego County. Every year Lifeline serves more than 5,000 members of our community through clinically-strong and evidence-based programs that focus on positive youth development, child abuse prevention and domestic violence intervention, housing and self-sufficiency.
San Diego and Imperial Women’s Business Center
The San Diego & Imperial Women’s Business Center (WBC) works to secure ECONOMIC JUSTICE and ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES for women by providing TRAINING, MENTORING, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT and FINANCING opportunities to WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS throughout San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Somali Family Services of San Diego
Somali Family Service, guided by its community champions, empowers immigrants, refugees, and other underserved communities in San Diego through its programs that promote health,
educational and economic success, and leadership development. Somali Family Service envisions a better quality of life for refugees, immigrants, and other under-served communities in San Diego. This vision is reached through fostering self-sufficiency, building healthy communities, and promoting equity.
2020 Grantees – Total Grants $120,000
Home Start
To effectively prevent and treat child abuse, Home Start addresses the conditions that can contribute to risky or abusive situations – poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, lack of affordable housing and unemployment – while concurrently addressing individual self-sufficiency and emotional needs.
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. In more than 40 countries and in 26 US cities, their dedicated teams provide clean water, shelter, health care, education, and empowerment support to refugees and displaced people.
Just in Time Foster Youth
Just in Time Foster Youth’s mission is to engage a caring community to help transition-age foster youth achieve self-sufficiency and well-being. They envision a future in which every youth leaving the foster care system has access to a community of caring adults after age 18. Just in Time Foster Youth believes forging consistent, lasting relationships is the foundation for the success of the youth they serve so they can thrive and enjoy productive, satisfying lives.
San Diego Center for Children
The San Diego Center for Children is the oldest children’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the region and provides evidence-based therapeutic, educational, foster care, and transition-age services to children and families struggling with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. With eight program sites and community-based services within hundreds of homes and schools across San Diego County, the center empowers over 1,000 people every day.
2019 Grantees – Total Grants $110,000
Crisis House
Crisis House is a Community Resource Center in El Cajon, California serving the poor and homeless. Their support helps clients overcome complex and challenging circumstances, including domestic violence, health conditions, and lack of access to food and housing.
Free to Thrive
As a Women Give Grant Partner, Free to Thrive will assist clients at Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility (San Diego’s women’s jail) with their housing needs by connecting them with emergency shelter, safe houses, relocation assistance, transitional housing and a case manager to oversee their transition.
Jewish Family Services
Jewish Family Services empowers people of all ages, faiths, and backgrounds to overcome challenges, set goals, and build more stable, secure, and connected lives. Our grant supports their Safe Parking Program (SPP), which aids homeless people living in their cars by offering person-centered, wraparound services that address the needs of each participant and support their transition to permanent housing.
San Diego LGBT Center
The San Diego LGBT Center provides many types of vital, direct service through its youth services programming that increase housing stability and improve the wellness and empowerment of LGBT youth.
2018 Grantees – Total Grants $110,000
Casa Cornelia
Our grant supported the Victim of Crimes program, which provides no-cost, quality legal services to indigent, undocumented victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and other serious crimes.
Casa de Amparo
Our grant supported programs that assist female foster youth and transition age youth as they age out of the system and make their way towards independence through one-on-one case management and trauma care, education support, and job readiness training.
MANA de San Diego
Women Give San Diego supported a mentorship program that guides Latinas from at-risk backgrounds from middle school through college and a leadership program for Latina professionals looking to advance in their careers.
UCSD Center for Community Health, Refugee Health Unit
Our grant supported a community-based participatory research study that will build collective understanding and knowledge of how gender (and other factors) has impacted economic, educational and leadership opportunities for refugee women and girls in our community.
2017 Grantees – Total Grants $100,000
Elder Help
For over 44 years, ElderHelp has advocated for San Diego’s senior population, believing that helping seniors age with dignity in their homes creates a stronger more vibrant community for citizens of all ages.
National Association of Women in Construction
The National Association of Women in Construction is a network for women in the field of construction. WGSD supported their annual volunteer-led camp that teaches fundamental skills within the construction field as well as excites young women about a profession that likely felt inaccessible to them previously.
Promises2Kids
Promises2Kids is a leading nonprofit organization originally founded over 35 years ago as the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego County. Since 1981, Promises2Kids has responded to the needs of foster children and provided support to children removed from their home due to abuse and neglect. Women Give supported the creation of the Women’s Leadership Learning Group, developed to specifically meet young women’s needs in aspiring to new career ambitions that have not been modeled previously.
Workshops for Warriors
The mission of Workshops for Warriors is to provide quality training, accredited STEM educational programs, and opportunities to earn third party nationally recognized credentials to enable veterans, transitioning service members, and other students to be successfully trained and placed in their chosen advanced manufacturing career field.Our grant supported the Advanced Manufacturing Training for Young Female Veterans, intensive training, career placement and mentorship towards machining or welding, graduating students into living wage and fast rising careers.
2016 Grantees – Total Grants $100,000
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of San Diego County
Big Brothers, Big Sisters provides children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. Funding will go towards Beyond School Walls, Sister-2-Sister workplace mentoring initiative that connects middle school girls from low socioeconomic communities to educated, professional female mentors in a workplace environment. Part of what makes this program unique is its service to “the 78 corridor,” one of two of the highest areas of concentrated juvenile human trafficking. In an effort to reduce risk for the vulnerable girls in the Oceanside, Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, and Fallbrook areas, this program provide this one year mentorship program to 60 young women each year, reaching a total of 120 girls.
Foundation for Grossmont & Cuyamaca Colleges
The Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges raises awareness and financial resources for the two colleges and the students they serve. In this case, Women Give will be supporting the Office Professional Training (OPT) program, a job training program for unemployed adults. OPT provides skills training, personal & crisis counseling, and job placement assistance to students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and age groups. Close to 90% of the students served in OPT are women. OPT trains unemployed and predominantly low-income women for professional positions that offer ladders to career advancement in Accounting, Banking, Insurance, and Administrative Support. Once the graduates obtain entry-level employment in their new industries, they are able to achieve greater economic self-sufficiency for themselves and their families. During the funding term, OPT expects to serve 80 students per year for a total of 160 people, graduating at least 80%.
United Women of East Africa
The United Women of East Africa is not only the pipeline to culturally competent health care services for East African women in San Diego, they are dedicated to making a positive and lasting change in the economic self sufficiency of East African women and girls. The agency has a history of success providing programs such as East African women savings groups (called “Baraka and Bilal”) which help women build entrepreneurial skills to start their own catering services and contribute to family household income. Women Give will be supporting the United Women of East Africa in providing work-readiness training, entrepreneurial training, career mentoring, and support to high-school age girls
Vista Hill
Established in 1957, Vista Hill will soon celebrate 60 years of leadership as a nonprofit corporation dedicated to creating stronger families in San Diego. Vista Hill has historically provided assistance to children and families in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disabilities, and currently serves over 20,000 individuals in numerous sites throughout San Diego. Women Give will support the “ParentCare Alumni Training Program,” an emerging component of Vista Hill’s ParentCare Family Recovery Center, which is designed as a “one-stop” resource for mothers recovering from drug/alcohol addiction. The Alumni program will provide mentorship and peer-based coaching opportunities for graduates of the ParentCare program, aimed at helping this highly vulnerable population of women attain employment or education leading to employment. The program is expected to serve 150 women.
2015 Grantees – Total 2015 Grants $100,000
Dreams for Change
The Safe Parking Program assists homeless living in their vehicles by providing safe parking lots for nightly parking with case management services.
International Rescue Committee
International Rescue Committee will leverage existing funding to assist more low-income refugee women recover from war and attain financial independence in San Diego through entrepreneurship as well as employment.
Leap to Success
Leap to Success helps women recover from abuse by increasing confidence, improving readiness and capacity to become employed, learn decision-making skills, create abuse-free relationships, and develop pathways to become employed and self-sufficient.
North County Lifeline
Project LIFE, a human trafficking prevention and intervention program, helps victims (99% are female) transition from victim to survivor with the ultimate goal of physical and mental recovery, and permanent self-reliance.
2014 Grantees – Total Grants $92,000
Community Housing Works: Women’s Achievement Club
Founded in 1982, Community Housing Works (CHW) is a national non-profit organization that helps people and communities move up in the world through opportunities to own, rent, and achieve. The Women’s Achievement Club is designed to transform the lives of 150-250 women by delivering asset building services that focus not only on providing knowledge, but the ongoing support and deep, committed partnership needed to empower real financial growth and capacity. The program is geared to bring our tried and true Financial Fitness classes, along with a comprehensive Financial Health Club, to women in need; working with and alongside valued partners such as ACCION, Girls Inc., Foundation for Women, Veterans Associations, and others to provide the mechanisms for whole communities to shape a shared value system of inter-generational financial independence and empowerment.
Nile Sisters: Certified Nursing Assistant Training Program
Nile Sisters helps refugee women and their families in San Diego County overcome barriers and become socially and economically self-reliant through education, training, and support. The Nile Sisters’ vision: “Establish a well integrated and productive refugee community in San Diego.” Mission: “To help refugee women and their families become socially and economically self-reliant through counseling, education, training, and support.”
Nile Sisters operates the Back2Back Skill Development Project (B2B) which can only be used to serve refugees who have been in the U.S. for less than 5 years. WGSD funding supports CNA training and comprehensive case management for 10 women who have been in the U.S. for more than 5 years, an identified need. The women are all low-income refugees living in Central San Diego. Training empowers the women to take the first step on the nursing career ladder.
San Diego Youth Services: STARS-General Operating Support
San Diego Youth Services has provided comprehensive services to youth and families for nearly forty years. While each program is unique, all programs are designed to support the mission of SDYS to help at risk girls become self-sufficient and reach their highest potential by investing in them, strengthening their families and building their communities.
The STARS program provides weekly trauma informed groups, independent living skills classes & intensive case management that helps victims gain access to medical care, mental health services, schooling & employment. STARS counseling groups seek to prevent adolescent girls from becoming re-victimized by CSE through building skills and knowledge of healthy sense of self, relationships, sexuality, decision-making, assertiveness and communication.
2013 Grantees – Total Grants $85,000
Casa Cornelia
Casa Cornelia provides pro bono legal services to indigent immigrant victims of human and civil rights violations, and to educate others regarding the impact of immigration law and policy on the public good. By removing barriers (poverty, abuse, fear) to quality legal representation, these women and their children are able to become independent of their abusive situation and enter the workforce and become engaged members of the community. Women Give funding will support approximately 200 women and their families.
Southwestern College Microenterprise Family Childcare Program
The Southwestern College Microenterprise Family Childcare Program creates economic self-sufficiency among socioeconomically disadvantaged Spanish-speaking women by providing no-cost certification courses on how to establish licensed childcare business in their own homes. Women Give support will ensure that approximately 30 women each semester (approximately 60 a year) are equipped for self-employment and entrepreneurship; their proven success also creates a ripple effect in the community, allowing other women with children to go to work.
Women’s Resource Center
Based in North County, Women’s Resource Center’s Transition House provides a case-managed, supportive environment for victims of domestic violence and their children, where women are able to focus on employment training, budgeting, money management, life skills, counseling, on-site education, and other supportive services. Women Give support will ensure that approximately 50 women and their children will move from shelter life to self-sufficiency in a safe, secure, stable living environment.
2012 Grantees – Total Grants $33,500
Grossmont College’s Office Professional Training Program
The Grossmont College’s Office Professional Training (OPT) program serves unemployed individuals who have been laid off or home with family members or they’ve changed careers or need to start one. Women Give San Diego has helped the Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges support the Office Professional Training program, specifically to underwrite the salary of the program’s counselor, Laurel Klotz. As a licensed Marriage and Family Counselor, Laurel meets with the students (both individually and as a group) regularly, providing personal/crisis counseling to help the students recognize and overcome barriers to their academic and employment success. Depending on the students’ needs, she connects her students to resources and outside agencies.
Barrio Logan College Institute
Barrio Logan College Institute developed Circulo de Mujeres, a gender specific support group for girls that meets weekly to discuss the challenges they are facing at home or in their community while expanding their future outlook with regards to education options and careers. Women Give San Diego has supported both the Circulo de Mujeres and the portion of the College Success Pipeline that serves girls only for two years. The Circulo de Mujeres provides a necessary space for female students to explore personal and academic issues critical to their healthy development. This component specifically tackles issues that detract from girls’ educational and career goals, such as coping with the negative influences in the underserved communities where the girls reside.
Foundation for Women
The Foundation for Women is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. The organization is currently operating microcredit programs in two regions; FFW USA Microcredit Program, with a pilot in San Diego, and FFW Liberia in Africa. Women Give has funded the San Diego Microcredit Program for 2 years. The FFW San Diego Microcredit Program utilizes the Grameen method (developed by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus), is serving the poorest of the poor with microcredit loans of $250, $500 and $1,000 and requiring prospective borrowers form groups of 5 that meet weekly.
2011 Grantees – Total Grants $46,000
Dress for Success
Dress for Success’s mission is to assist low-income women with job acquisition, job retention, career building, and life management. Women Give San Diego recently partnered with Dress for Success to help them meet their mission by providing much-needed equipment for their Women’s Workforce Center. This new state-of-the-art facility will provide four individual computer stations with internet access as well as a fax and copy machine. . The Center offers more than just help gaining a job, the goal is assist their clients to achieve their goal of economic self-sufficiency through gainful employment.
Just in Time for Foster Youth
Just in Time for Foster Youth is an organization that provides emancipated foster youth with opportunities for self-sufficiency through emergency support, essential resources, and caring personal guidance at critical junctures on their path to independence. Women Give has funded the development of the Career Horizons for Young Women program, which supports young women in their transition from foster care to independent adulthood. Career Horizons is a new program for the organization with the purpose of exposing young women to different career choices. In the foster care system, individuals have only been exposed to a few careers in their life: criminal justice, social work or teaching. The program is currently serving 20 young women who are just graduating high school, in the workforce, in college or a vocational school and are trying to decide on a career to pursue or are looking for a job.
S.P.I.N.: Supportive Parents Network
The Supportive Parents Information Network (SPIN) is a grassroots organization that has successfully taken on the enormous challenge of lifting women out of poverty in San Diego for the past 13 years. SPIN provides assistance in many shapes and forms to San Diego’s under class: women and children living at or below the federal poverty line. Women Give has funded SPIN for over two years. The funds will be spent on creating a model for sustainability for the organization. This will be accomplished through working with a consultant and the Board of Directors. One of their goals is to hire a new Director. SPIN is special in that their programs are led by, run by, directed by and utilized by the poorest women in our community. SPIN tackles important local social and political issues. Their advocacy work has gained a positive move forward for low-income individuals in San Diego. SPIN also runs a Tutorial and Scholarship program where every two weeks clients and their children (ages 3-17) meet at the First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley to support learning.