Why is the YWCA talking about social justice and racism now?
The National YWCA, while still being strongly supportive of direct services to women and families, is now reclaiming its traditional focus on advocacy and creating systemic change to empower women and eliminated racism. By changing the logo of the organization they can effectively distinguish and communicate the YWCA mission to communities across the country. Although our primary focus continues to be on direct services, advancing social justice and eliminating racism has been an unspoken intent for our local YWCA programs. We are moving toward a Fall 2009 decision to formally adopt the YWCA national logo which includes the words “Empowering Women. Eliminating Racism.” While our messaging and program development has consistently focused on the empowerment of women, we have not been as intentional about aligning our programmatic impacts and outcomes with an eye toward eliminating racism. As a part of our communication efforts we are highlighting our broader mission and our historic root
