Thank God for the YWCA

In a stately old downtown building that still bears images of elks on many of its brass door knobs, women in trouble find refuge.

It is also a place where young children find nourishment for the body and the mind, immersed in a warm, nurturing educational environment that prepares them to eventually enter public school ready to meet the challenge and defy the odds that were against them from birth.

The building, at 512 W. Fourth St. in Fort Worth, was constructed in 1928 and was originally the Elks Club Hotel. Since 1954, it has been occupied by an organization that has been touching the lives of women for more than 100 years.

The YWCA has long been more than a roof and a bed for those seeking shelter and guidance and hope when faced with the some of life’s most difficult and unpredictable circumstances.

Few people today who attend meetings, weddings or parties in the Y’s elegant Great Room — a space often rented out on weekends and evenings — have any idea that just beyond those walls miracles are happening in people’s lives.

Until a recent visit to the building and a guided tour of the programs offered by the YWCA, I was unaware of the scope of its mission and the work that goes on every day in a place I thought I knew well.

The Y offers two residential programs, one for women who are transitional homeless, divorced or the victims of domestic violence who have no other place to go. The other, My Own Place, is for young women "who age out of foster care" at 18 and need help moving to independent living, said Judi Bishop, executive director of YWCA Fort Worth & Tarrant County.

The first girl who showed up for My Own Place, three years ago arrived in a cab, Bishop recalled.

"Everything she owned was in a black plastic bag," she said.

Bishop explained that many of the young people who come to the program have been "couch-surfing teens," meaning that they stayed mostly wherever someone would let them spend the night, often sleeping in a different place each evening.

Women can stay in the My Own Place program for up to two years, with two requirements: They must work and go to school.

In both residential settings, which provide comfortably furnished single rooms for the women, they are taught life skills and given financial training and computer instruction.

At the other end of the spectrum, the YWCA is working to touch lives at an early age in a way that is sure to have an impact far beyond what most would predict for the children served.

Through three early childhood development programs in downtown, Poly and Arlington, the Y is providing extraordinary child care and education for homeless children and those of the working poor. In fact, the Y is the only child-care facility for the homeless in Tarrant County, Bishop said.

The homeless kids are picked up from shelters and taken to well-equipped and superbly staffed facilities where they are treated with extravagant care. Those looking through the windows of those classrooms would never guess they were looking at poor children, and that’s exactly the way Bishop wants it.

At the time I visited, there were 95 children in the downtown facility, 120 at Arlington and 60 in Poly.

In addition to the academic training, the children eat breakfast and lunch together, family-style, with the teacher, learning to use silverware and simply pass food to someone, Bishop said. They also play house, getting lessons in laundry and vacuuming.

There is a development plan for each child, and there is a concentrated effort to work with the parents in the process. When the kids get to kindergarten in public school, they are indeed ready, and they are tracked for the first three years after enrolling in school.

Now with all that, you would think the YWCA had enough on its plate. But with the slogan of "Eliminating Racism; Empowering Women," it’s no surprise that the agency has created a Department of Racial Justice, which began operation in 2006.

Throughout the year, the department conducts dialogues on diversity in which individuals (in groups of 10 to 12 people) commit to engaging in discussion on race twice a week for four weeks. Since January, more than 250 people have taken part, said Marcy I. Paul, director of racial justice.

Many organizations in town have bought into the idea, and that program is growing.

Operating with all volunteers as facilitators, Paul said, "our goal is to get up to where we would have 10 to 12 facilitators and have six groups going at the same time."

I was overwhelmed by all the good things happening through this venerable organization, located just a block from my office.

The next time you pass the old building or happen to be in the Great Room for an event, just think about all the great work going on inside and beyond those walls, and then thank God for the YWCA.