History
1905 YWCA is organized in San Jose. Headquarters and women's residence open.
1914 YWCA building opens, with an indoor pool. It is the first community center for women in the Santa Clara Valley.
1918 YWCA establishes Girl Reserves, which provides organized activities and leadership development for 12- to 18-year-olds. After the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, it offered classes in democracy and the responsibilities of citizenship.
1920s YWCA participates in the founding of the Community Chest, forerunner to the United Way. YWCA also establishes a lunchtime lounge for women workers in the canneries, who previously had to eat in empty boxcars. An addition is made to the building providing a residence for nearly 100 young women.
1930s YWCA expands services for working women, with vocational counseling, classes, clubs and the Business Girls League. The organization also champions wage and hour protections for women.
1940s The Hi-Spot for Teens opens in the YWCA basement and becomes a wildly popular hangout and a model for youth-leadership programs. The YWCA introduces programs answering the needs of young women and mothers who had become isolated in the growing suburbs. The first YWCA nursery provides baby-sitting so mothers can attend a wives' club. YWCA also launches Ladies' Day Out, another program for suburban housewives.
1960s Working with the San Jose Unified School District, YWCA launches the Young Mothers program, the first high school classes for pregnant teens to help them progress toward a high-school diploma.
1970s YWCA launches classes for children in ethnicity and multiculturalism and expands programs in East San Jose. The YWCA began its victim-support program and has since become the largest rape-crisis hotline program in the Santa Clara Valley (APIS). YWCA publishes a directory of black-owned businesses in San Jose and expands outreach to Spanish-speaking women, children, and families.
1980's Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) awards program begins, a fundraiser honoring successful Santa Clara County female executives and the companies that employ them for their outstanding achievements.
1990s YWCA holds its first Professional Women's Luncheon and 1,000 people attend. The YWCA mounts a $3,000,000 capital campaign and, together with additional city, state, and federal funds, opens Villa Nueva the week of March 22, 1993. This $13 million facility provides a YWCA child care center, 63 low-income apartments, and houses the offices of the YWCA of Silicon Valley.
2004 Six men join the YWCA Board of Directors.
2005 YWCA celebrates 100 years of service and opens on-campus Rape Crisis Center in partnership with Stanford University.
2006 Social and Racial Justice program is launched.
2007 TechGYRLS® and MyStrength® programs are launched. The YWCA expands into space in the Milpitas Sobrato Center for Nonprofits campus.
2010 The Support Network for Battered Women merges with the YWCA.