At the YWCA of Silicon Valley

The first four months of 2008 have been extremely busy for the YWCA of Silicon Valley. While we continue to provide services to a diverse community throughout Santa Clara County, we are busy raising much-needed funding to sustain those services while educating the public of our needs and accomplishments.

Our Planned Giving committee, made up of community leaders and Board members, has been busy formalizing a program for people interested in investing in our future.  Planned Giving can be as simple as remembering us in your will, or more involved if you so choose.  Watch for more information in the coming months. 

In March, we changed the name of our Villa Nueva Child Care Center, located at our Third Street headquarters, to the Mary Riley Davidson Child Care Center. This dedication, focused on the continuing support of one of our legacy donors, Charles Davidson, memorialized his mother for her love and respect of children.  We are proud of the new name and of the program itself, as it reflects our mission of “it’s all about the kids!” in providing safe, affordable and culturally-diverse child care. (click here)

We then celebrated a fabulously successful 6th annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event in April as we focused on Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  Over 400 walkers, (both men and women), put on women’s shoes to lightheartedly call attention to the serious subject of sexual violence in our community, raising over $35,000 to support our violence-prevention programs and our assault victims. It was a record-breaking event!  For more information and pictures, click here.

Also in April and in support of sexual assault awareness, we again partnered with the City of San Jose to support Denim Day…or “Jeans to Work”…on April 23rd.  Denim Day has become a worldwide outcry against sexual violence in response to a 1999 Italian Supreme Court decision to overturn a rape conviction because the victim wore jeans!  The court ruled that jeans could not be removed without the victim’s help, therefore, she played a part in her assault.  This is just one example of an all too common practice of blaming the victim for a sexual assault. (click here)

On April 22nd, we hosted our first-ever Toy Drive to support our Supervised Visitation Program (click here).  All day long, people drove up and dropped off puzzles, dolls, books, board games Lego’s, blocks, hula hoops, musical instruments and a host of other treasures, filling our entire lobby with fun-filled items to support our program.  We are tremendously grateful for the outpouring of community participation.  And watch for our first-ever “Dress for Success” gift card drive to support our Youth Services program (click here) as they learn socialization skills and prepare for jobs and college.

As you can see by the various programs above, our services come in many forms.  And all of them, even the ones not mentioned this time, require continuous funding.  So, please consider giving to the YWCA in whatever way you can.  You will clearly make a difference to the over 24,000 individuals we serve each and every year.     

Support women, children, and families in Santa Clara County through your tax-deductible gift to the YWCA of Silicon Valley. For more information on how your donation benefits our community, or to make a donation, please click here. The YWCA of Silicon Valley is a non-profit entity under section 501(c) (3) of the IRS code, EIN: 94-1186196.