Explanation
BACKGROUND:
This ordinance authorizes the Director of Development to execute a grant agreement with IMPACT Community Action, in an amount up to $210,000.00, for its “Women’s Empowerment Initiative, Sojourn” program.
According to Columbus, OH data, women are more likely than any other group to have attended some college or received an Associate’s degree. Despite their educational attainment, women are still the most likely to live in poverty, making up 24% of Columbus' poorest residents. The Coronavirus pandemic has put individuals, especially single female head of households at an increased risk of falling deeper into poverty. To lift women out of poverty, public, and private entities must join forces, and implement solutions that address the myriad ways that structural and societal racism uniquely burden women. It is imperative that we are intentional about programs and services that alleviate barriers. If not, the present trajectory perpetuates a lifetime of poverty for themselves and their children.
To lift women and children out of poverty IMPACT Community Action’s Women’s Empowerment Initiative, Sojourn will be a transformative program, resulting in job creation, reduction in poverty, and the elimination of barriers to employment for women in Columbus, OH. This program will impact a minimum of 20 women over 7 months. Research proves, investing in women with multiple barriers to self- sufficiency achieves lasting returns for families and the communities they reside within.
The structure of the Sojourn Women’s Initiative is to build a community that encompasses ideas, information, resources and structured projects that support rapport and unity among women who have been marginalized by circumstances, choices, systemic racist policies, and generational cultural norms, that have served to economically, socially, psychologically disadvantage them over decades. Before progress can begin to take place, certain truths have to be materialized, to assis...
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