Women’s Mentoring Network: Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Poverty
By Annimari Ollila
Women face a higher risk of poverty than men in the United States. The risk is especially high for single mothers and their children. Poverty has significant implications in these women’s lives. For example, UN Women states that women living in poverty are at greater risk of violence and sexual exploitation. Poverty is also often inherited across generations; if the children live in poverty they are at greater risk of low-income lives as adults. Women’s Mentoring Network aims to break this intergenerational cycle of poverty. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, this non-profit aims to help low-income women and their families by providing free career, educational, and personal resources that help them in their economic empowerment. The Kota Alliance sat down with Lana Gifas, Executive Director of Women’s Mentoring Network since 2015, to talk about the organization that has enabled women to gain confidence and new skills in finding a job or to move forward from low-income paycheck to paycheck lives. Gifas tells that Women’s Mentoring Network was founded almost 30 years ago:
- Women’s Mentoring Network was founded already in 1990 when our founders conducted a survey with 200 women in welfare in order to better understand their needs as well as their personal obstacles regarding their self-sufficiency, for example illiteracy and domestic violence. After the survey, a very successful small pilot project was launched during which 10 women were mentored for one year. Women’s Mentoring Network has also been nationally recognized as a Presidential Point of Light for their work in addressing social issues in their community.
Today, Women’s Mentoring Network provides their clients with one-on-one in-office services and help them to become stronger individuals regarding several aspects of their lives. For example, the organization helps women in their financial literacy, employment, as well as life skills by providing Life Skills Workshops. Women’s Mentoring Network is a multi-generational organization that also works with the children of the families that they serve. For example, they assist the high school and college students in these families with achieving their goals during and after their studies. The organization also recently started a tutoring program for elementary school and middle school students. In addition, Women’s Mentoring Network has a food pantry so that low-income women have one less thing to worry about.
-By focusing on these several key aspects of these women’s lives, we can break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, Gifas says.
Helping women in such a wide spectrum requires a lot of resources and Women’s Mentoring Network is lucky to be well connected state-wide in Connecticut.
-People know us here. There are two of us working full-time and we have interns and over 100 volunteers helping us, which is an integral component of our work. We have managed to get several collaboratives, for example food and school collaboratives, during the recent years, which I’m really happy about, Gifas rejoices.
As a small organization without government funding, Women’s Mentoring Network faces the challenges with funding in a very competitive environment. Despite this, they really hope to grow and expand their important work to other areas in order to be able to provide free services to low-income women living in these areas.
-Right now we are having talks about expanding to other states. We would also love to come to New York one day, Gifas says.
At the moment Women’s Mentoring Network is hosting an inspirational speaker series Women Inspiring Women together with Dress for Success.
-We are really happy to have collaborated with Dress for Success in organizing Women Inspiring Women speaker series. Women who come from low-income backgrounds and have succeeded in life share their inspiring stories. If you are from a low-income background and hear a person, who is from similar background, tell how they have succeeded in life, it will encourage you to thrive and to believe that you can do it as well.
Helping women to believe in themselves is at the core of the organization’s work. For Gifas, it is easy to come up with the most rewarding aspect of her work:
-Helping the women and to see their confidence grow. To be there for them, to believe in them, and to support them when they have nobody else to do so.
You can support the work of Women’s Mentoring Network by donating here.
You can also follow them on social media:
Website: https://wmninc.org
Women’s Mentoring Network is The Kota Alliance’s new Partner Organization.