By: GWEN SHRIFT
Bucks County Courier Times
The Bucks County group sees a nice alignment with its goals and the White House Council on Women and Girls.
Amid the whirlwind of executive orders and appointments announced by the Obama administration, members of a Bucks County philanthropic organization picked up on one deceptively small, but refreshing breeze.
Before he set up the White House Council on Women and Girls two weeks ago, "I really think President Obama went to our Web site," joked JoAnn Perotti, an education strategic planner and incoming president of the Bucks County Women's Fund.
The White House group is charged with focusing federal agencies' attention on how policies affect women and girls. The bureaucracy is asked to improve the lives of this constituency, with emphasis on economic status, work/family balance, health care and violence prevention.
"This mirrors what we're doing in Bucks County," said Perotti. "It ties into everything (the fund) stands for, and we tie into everything they're going to do," said current board president Gayle Goodman.
"We have some nice alignment going on here," said fund executive director Kathy Beveridge. "I wouldn't be surprised if the administration didn't do something to take this to the people. We'll be all over that!"
The women's fund fulfills one of its main purposes March 26 with The Power of the Purse, a fundraising dinner at which $21,250 will be distributed to seven organizations that help women and girls improve their lives in various ways.
The list of recipients signals the 19-year-old fund's focus following what the group calls its "listening year," a period of intensive grassroots research into the needs of women and girls throughout the county.
Contributions are going to the First Response Team at A Woman's Place, the shelter for abused women; to ADHD Aware Inc. for a youth leadership project for girls with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to the BC Opportunity Council Inc. for a workshop program for low-income women and to Child, Home & Community, which provides career guidance to mothers still in high school.
The fund is also giving money to the Family Service Association of Bucks County for a program that helps women with rides to work; to Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County, which teaches construction skills to women; and to the Network of Victim Assistance for a youth leadership program.
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Besides distributing money, the fund established a speakers' bureau and an advocacy coalition working for "things that we need to change to enable women to be self-sufficient in our county," said Beveridge.
"All this recent work has happened within the past year and a half, envisioning the social-change focus of the fund, and basing it on the listening year, and understanding how we want to make change in our county by building gender equity."
The fund presents its research findings and suggestions for future work in two papers, "Improving the Lives of Women and Girls in Bucks County" and "Charting a Course to Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency: Recommendations on Housing, Health Care, Education, Employment, Child Care, and Transportation," both published on its Web site (www.bcwf.org).
The recommendations cover a broad range of potential change, from hiring a county-level director in charge of promoting affordable housing, to encouraging health screenings for low-income women, to getting donated cars for people who need them to keep a job.
Among other goals, the fund is promoting training programs for displaced homemakers, achieving flexible work schedules for parents in blue- and white-collar jobs and helping women get into higher-paying jobs commonly held by men.
The fund is also honoring four women: former state treasurer Robin L. Wiessmann; Lace Silhouettes Lingerie Inc. founder Karen Thompson; Helen LaKelly Hunt, who started women's foundations in New York and Dallas; and the late community activist Peggy H. Adams of Bedminster.
Comcast cable TV host Lynn Doyle is scheduled as master of ceremonies.
The event runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Spring Mill Manor in Ivyland. Tickets are $80 per person at www.bcwf.org/powerofthepurse.htm. Call: 215-345-5440 or event@bcwf.org.
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