YWCA K-W: A Case Study

Established in 1905, the YWCA K-W has successfully operated as a charitable organization that strives to provide multi service and community based programs for women and children. This organization is governed by a body of directors which include fifteens individuals from different professional fields such as counsellors, social workers, and doctors. While this organization employs professionals, to be financially sustainable YWCA K-W utilizes grants, donations, investments, and program revenues. With this is mind, YWCA K-W aims to foster “an equitable world where women, families, youth, and children thrive in inclusive communities”. K-W’s mission statement includes the promise to “support the enrichment of the lives of women, families, youth,

and children”. By generating programs and services that are aimed at leveraging the resilience of youth and women, while promoting safer families, community outreach initiatives, and capacity building, the YWCA K-W team hopes to create a deep sense of belonging in community remembers from collectivist contexts.
More importantly, YWCA programs and services are designed in a manor which takes into account multifaceted topics like childcare, youth recreation, emergency and supportive housing for women, prison-based counselling, and other specific issues that affect women and families.

Being one of the largest social service agencies in the Waterloo region, the following specific programs are offered: homelessness and housing, psycho-education support, community outreach, early childhood education, youth development, summer camps, and annual conferences for girls. While YWCA has set programs for beneficiaries all year around, they are always looking for ways to provide more supportive housing, and adding more programs for women and young girls.

This semester, I will be completing my placement at YWMCA in the “Homelessness Assessment and Support” department as it is something that I take great interest in. The team at YWCA is anticipating my assistance and inputs in the following areas: developing budgets, housing plans, permanent housing, supporting in any necessary paper work. In addition, I will be learning and utilizing the “Vulnerability Index- Service Prioritization Decision Assistance” which is a tool used to determine the person’s/families depth of

need.
After completing my international placement at HOPE NGO in Karachi, Pakistan, I am looking forward to working with a local organization such as YWCA. Throughout my time at HOPE, not only was I able to enhance my skills and knowledge, but also become more aware of controversial issues around the world that are often overlooked. Even though I am a little nervous for this placement due to time constraints, I truly believe that I can provide YWCA with an exceptional completion of tasks because of my previous experiences working with vulnerable populations. In addition, this placement relates to my overseas experience as well GSE overall as it focuses on unprivileged individuals and women’s empowerment. At my time at HOPE, many of the projects I worked on included homelessness and women’s empowerment. Even more, both topics were discussed in GS398 many times. It is clear to me that over time, I have enhanced my knowledge on homelessness and women’s empowerment and I am excited to explore more deeply.
All in all, fulfilling my placement requirements at YWCA will give me an opportunity to deeply understand some of the hardships of a charitable organization while enhancing my skills further in the non profit world. It is worthy to mention that I am a committed, passionate individual, who is ready to not only give back to the community, but gain experience to solve some of the world’s toughest problems in the future.