#WEmpowerTampaBay |
Okay, I am just going to say it. The Tampa Bay Community Rocks! I want to give a shout out to all our community partners for your consistent support, active engagement, and innovative ideas. We are immersed in a busy season of summer activities and gearing up for our 29th Annual Gourmet Feastival. Frankly, we did not know what to expect this year after last year’s special event hiatus. No surprise, this community has come roaring back. Pardon the pun, but everyone seems hungry to get together and just celebrate. Tickets are selling, great restaurants are participating, and we are receiving generous support for this event. Thank you all!! Throughout the pandemic, our incredible team has continued to provide essential services. Here are just a few ways we spent our time during the past 18 months: Our Women’s Business Centre, funded in part by the SBA, received a $420,000 supplemental grant to help small businesses navigate the impacts of the Coronavirus. We served more than 1,000 entrepreneurs and helped scores of women to access capital through the PPP and EIDL loans. We opened a satellite office in St. Pete and continue to serve six counties on the West Coast of Florida. We now offer programs in Spanish.Our Counseling & Wellness Program is one of the few affordable mental wellness programs in the area staffed by licensed therapists. Thirty-eight percent of the people we serve make less than $14,000 each year. We fill an important niche by serving those who cannot afford even the deductible for insurance. Other agencies including The Spring, the Crisis Center, Metropolitan Ministries and Gracepoint often refer to us. We’re proud to be their partners. As you know, anxiety, depression, divorce, grief and other every day issues increased in the past 18 months for people of every age. Our counselors offer preventative measures so that everyday stresses do not reach the crisis point.Our dedicated teams in our Construction Services Division which ably manages Hillsborough County’s Owner-Occupied Rehab Program, continued its work in helping low to moderate income seniors while our Senior Home Improvement Program worked onsite, often in some deplorable conditions, to do emergency home repairs and retrofits. They did not miss a single day despite the pandemic! Our team also made hundreds of reassurance calls to make sure our community’s older adults did not feel isolated. More than 2.2 million women reportedly left the workforce during the pandemic. Our Tampa Bay Works for Women Program is helping unemployed or underemployed individuals to transition back. Most of our clients need the kind of extra help and emotional support that they cannot get anywhere else. We help them to overcome significant barriers to success. We even graduated our latest class of Women Building Futures participants who now have earned accreditation and OSHA certification to work in construction. We could not do this work without the support of our wonderful community partners. We hope you will join us for the Gourmet Feastival on Sept. 22nd. And, watch for more exciting news from us by summer’s end. Cheers,Ann |
Make a Lasting Mark at The Centre for Women Make your mark at The Centre for Women by purchasing a brick paver which will be positioned along the pathway to our entrance. Everyone who purchases a paver for $100 will have the opportunity to put a custom message on the brick. |
Tampa Bay Works for Womenattended a community resource fair and job fair hosted by Matt Ball with the Florida Department of Correctionsto promote services and outreach in the community. Tampa Bay Works for Women provides 1-on-1 career coaching, resume assistance, job search guidance, and resources to clients in need of sustainable careers.If you or anyone you know needs these services, send them our way! We love helping our clients achieve their goals.Tampa Bay Works for Women Program Manager, Suzie Schneer, represented The Centre for Women in May at the Rotary Club of Tampa luncheon. The Rotary Club of Tampa provided The Centre for Women a $5,000 grant for our Women Building Futures program. Suzie shared photos from our most recent class and spoke about how big of an impact that grant made on our program.Thank you, Rotary Club! |
The Tampa Bay Women’s Business Centre created a video to help promote our services in Spanish. WBC Program Coordinator, Charisse Medina, organized the video shoot and spoke about the wonderful array of services that we offer in Spanish. Our team is bilingual in English/Spanish which enables us to offer free coaching services and webinars in Spanish. Over 30% of Tampa Bay speaks Spanish and we are working diligently to share our WBC resources to accommodate more female entrepreneurs in the Tampa Bay community. Special thanks to video creator Vanessa Caahuas, owner of Lincencia Para Divertirse TV El Centro de Negocios Para las Mujeres de la Bahía de Tampa (WBC) ha creado un video para promover sus servicios en español. Nuestra Coordinadora del Programa, Charisse Medina, coordinó la grabación del video y habló sobre los maravillosos servicios que ofrecemos en español. Contamos con personal bilingüe, que nos permite ofrecer consejerías personalizadas para negocios y seminarios virtuales en español completamente gratuitos. Más del 30% de la población de Tampa son hispanoparlantes. En el Centro de Negocios Para las Mujeres de la Bahía de Tampa (WBC) estamos trabajando diligentemente para compartir nuestros recursos y servir a las mujeres hispanas emprendedoras y sus negocios. WBC En Español |
Pavel Ramirez Mata, Videographer; Charisse Medina, Program Coordinator; Vanessa Cahuas, Reporter and owner of owner of Lincencia Para Divertirse TV; Finley, Intern | WBC Program Coordinator Charisse Medina being interviewed by reporter Vanessa Cahaus about the Spanish services offered at the Tampa WBC. | ACTION! Pavel Ramirez Mata, Videographer; Vanessa Cahuas, Reporter and owner of owner of Lincencia Para Divertirse TV: Charisse Medina, Program Coordinator, Tampa WBC. |
BECOME A MEMBER OF THETAMPA BAY WOMEN’S BUSINESS CENTRE! When you become a member of the Tampa Bay Women’s Business Centre, you join a group of extraordinary entrepreneurs and businesses. Anyone is welcome to join – from solo entrepreneurs, to small businesses and large companies. It’s an excellent opportunity to promote your business to new customer base. Your company’s logo and information will be visible to Tampa Bay WBC website, our social media platforms and 12,000+ email database. In addition, your membership enables you to join a selected group of business professionals to network and enjoy exclusive membership benefits. As part of your membership you will enjoy the following benefits: Your business logo and contact info listed in our membership directoryFeatured in one of our monthly newslettersFeatured post on our social media platformsFree attendance to one Mastermind group ($300 value)Quarterly “member’s only” networking eventAccess to all recorded Tampa Bay WBC webinars |
JOIN TODAY! | ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPCurrent client one-year membership: $250Current client of the Tampa Bay WBC and working with a business coach, volunteer mentor.Executive one-year membership: $500Open to any small businesses, large company or other organization that would like to promote their business and enjoy our exclusive membership benefits. |
FIFTH THIRD BANK SPONSORSWOMEN BUILDING FUTURES |
Fifth Third Bank is helping women to learn the construction trades. We pleased to announce that Fifth Third Bank has granted The Centre for Women $10,000 to support our Women Building Futures Program. In announcing the gift, Executive Director Ann W. Madsen said: “Our continued partnership with Fifth Third Bank helps to make our essential services possible. We are grateful to Esther Marshall and all of our friends at Fifth Third Bank for their consistent support of our programs which are designed to are designed to empower, educate, and elevate women and girls.” For more than four decades, expanding access to workforce training opportunities for under-resourced women and assisting them to become employed in living wage jobs has been at the core of our work. Women Building Futures is a unique program created to help women explore higher paying career options in the growing construction field. The Centre for Women created the program in 2015 to help meet the market demand for construction workers and provide new opportunities for women to pave their way to economic prosperity. The 15-week program contains more than 80 hours of classes to learn carpentry, drywall, painting, block masonry/finishing, flooring, and construction administration. Graduates who successfully complete all requirements will earn certifications from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) and OSHA 10. |
WOODWORKING CLASS FORWOMEN BUILDING FUTURES GRADUATES |
Master Craftswoman Kate Swann, founder and director of the Florida School of Woodworking, has arranged for our Women Building Futures graduates to participate in a complimentary woodworking class on Saturday, July 10, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. During this class, students will learn to make an artisanal cutting board. Kate is a master craftswoman of fine wood furniture and sculptural works. Her unique artwork are recognized as signature works: published, collected and widely known. As the founder and director of the Florida School of Woodworking, she oversees the curriculum, classes, and mission of the school. |
Her knowledge and skills come from many years of running Franklin Street Fine Woodwork, a custom design company she co-founded over twenty years ago. Passionate about the artisanal crafts, she works to inspire and motivate students to achieve new levels of accomplishment in fine woodworking. The Women Building Futures Program at The Centre for Women helps women learn the construction trades. Graduates earn accreditation from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) as well as OSHA certification. If you are interested in more information, contact Suzie Schneer, Manager of Tampa Bay Works for Women at The Centre for Women, email: sschneer@thecentre.org. |
#Gratitude to the DeBartolo Family Foundation |
A huge thank you for the DeBartolo Family Foundation for its support of the Centre for Women with a gift of $5,000. “This support comes at a time that is most needed,” said Ann W. Madsen, Executive Director. “There is no question that the pandemic has turned workplaces upside down over the past year. Women have been most negatively impacted and are more likely to have been laid off or furloughed during the Covid-19 crisis. Estimates are that 2.2 million women had to leave the workforce in 2020.” Mental wellness issues have grown exponentially. Women are worried about their family’s health and finances. In addition to those concerns, job loss, grief, burnout, anxiety, divorce, and depression are real issues taking a toll on women in the workforce. As the world begins to get back to normal, many women are still struggling with aftereffects that have hampered their careers and jeopardized their financial security. The pandemic intensified challenges that women already face in the workplace. Working mothers have always had to work a double shift — a full day at their jobs, followed by hours spent caring for children and doing household chores. School and childcare interruptions placed even a greater burden on working moms as many became responsible for virtual learning as well. “Our heartfelt thanks to the DeBartolo Family Foundation for quickly responding to help us meet the needs of women in our community.” |
PLEASE VISIT OUR EVENTS PAGE ON OUR WEBSITE TO SEE UPCOMING WEBINARS AND WORKSHOPS |
TUESDAYS4 Weeks in July 6-7 PM ESTFREEREGISTER | Many of the clients served in our counseling program are parents who are often struggling with the enormous tasks involved in raising a child. As we approach July 25th’s National Parent’s Day, we are pleased to be hosting The Parent’s 2021 Survival Series-Charting a Course for Success. This series was made possible by funding from The Spurlino Foundation and is open to the entire community. The series will provide effective tools to elevate parents in turbulent times and beyond. Five professionals will explore responsible parenting from varied perspectives while recognizing the varied challenges parents face. The series will confirm that participants are not alone, that they are resilient and can incorporate new ideas to help themselves survive and to enable their children to thrive! |
And, please remember The Centre for Women, Inc. in your will. If you have already, please let us know.Contact Ann W. Madsen, Executive Director at 813-210-9705 or amadsen@thecentre.org |