Women are Moving What Matters: The Allen County Women and Girls Study

As the Vice President of Philanthropic Services for the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, Alison is responsible for collaborating with people on their personal philanthropy, developing and implementing strategies for growth and helping elevate philanthropy throughout the community. For the last two years, she’s been working to complete the first study on women and girls in Allen County since the early 70’s. Our community has never has a Women’s Fund, and the steering committee decided early on that a study was necessary to guide the direction the Women’s Fund would take. In the first part of the episode, Alison shares with us a little backstory of how they designed the study and why they chose the five areas of focus – employment, education and training; access to resources for physical and emotional health and well-being; caregiving responsibilities; personal safety; and understanding girls’ futures. You can find more information about their research here. The results were released this past Wednesday, on August 27, 2020, in an Executive Summary titled Moving What Matters. The rest of Alison’s interview examines the results of the study and how that information will be used to better the lives of women and girls in our county. If you would like to follow along in the Executive Summary as we go through it, you can download it from the Community Foundation website. During the discussion of caregiving responsibilities, Alison mentions that there are childcare deserts in Allen County. Here is the link she references. If you would like to learn more about the Women’s Fund or get involved, visit cfgfw.org, and follow the Women’s Fund on Facebook and Instagram. Our featured song this episode is by Rosalind and the Way, a five piece, Fort Wayne-based Americana band fronted by Fort Wayne singer-songwriter Cassie Beer. Rosalind & The Way plays original songs that tell stories of love, homecomings, lessons learned. This song, called “Legend or Myth,” is the title track of their 2018 studio album. The song wrestles with the tension of two approaches to greatness: one being the constant curation of a public persona, the other a choice to own the mess and mistakes along with the beauty and victories.  Although Rosalind and the Way often play shows locally, they have just stepped back from public shows to record their next album, and we’re excited to hear what they create next. You can find their music on Spotify, or by visiting their website at rosalindandtheway.com. And make sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates on new releases and upcoming shows. Have you enjoyed our content? Would you like us to make more? We’ve just launched our Patreon, and would be super grateful if you hopped over to www.patreon.com/womenarefortwayne and showed us some love. We’re offering three tiers of membership for very small amounts each month. Each tier comes with new ways to engage with the Women Are: Fort Wayne community and our mission to build bridges, break silos, share stories, and promote empathy. The money we make off our Patreon will go straight into creating more (and better) content, starting with the launch of our weekly livestreams so we can share more of what’s going on in various pockets of the Fort Wayne community. Women Are: Fort Wayne is a production of Monstrous Regiment Media and distributed by WBOI in Fort Wayne. Our show is sponsored by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne. This episode was written and produced by Stephanie Gottesman and Traci Henning-Kolberg, and edited by Adam Blackburn. We appreciate you subscribing, rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can also visit us at womenare.us, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can check out other content from WBOI on Facebook. Until next time...thanks for listening!