About Women's Bureau
Originally formed as a program of the city of Fort Wayne, the Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau moved toward nonprofit agency status in 1976 and received its 501(c)(3) designation shortly thereafter. All Bureau programs and services focus on its mission: Advancing women through advocacy, education, and economic empowerment. The Bureau is unique in that there is no other agency in the immediate area that is dedicated to both advocacy on women’s issues and the provision of services to women and their families. Over its 30+year history, the Bureau has provided services to over 450,000 persons in northeast Indiana. These services have included displaced homemakers programs, support groups for teen parents, life skills training, advocacy for incarcerated women, peer counseling services, and employment and training programs.
Today, the Bureau has three major program areas in operation, as outlined below:
Women’s Enterprise
This Women’s Business Center, partially funded through the Small Business Administration, provides entrepreneurial assistance and advocacy to women through business counseling and mentoring, technical assistance, networking, and business-oriented classes and workshops. Women’s Enterprise, implemented in 1999, is the first Women’s Business Center in the state of Indiana.
Transitions
Transitions is a drug and alcohol treatment program for women and their children (up to age 10), offering up to an 18-month continuum of services including residential treatment and continuing care. Opened in 1996, Transitions is the only long-term facility for recovering women and their children in northeast Indiana. The program is certified by the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addictions as an “Addiction Services Provider.”
Rape Awareness Program
The Rape Awareness Program was started in 1981, and is the only multi-service program of its kind in northeast Indiana. The program includes a 24/7 rape crisis hotline and crisis and on-going counseling services for survivors of sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, and domestic violence. Support groups for survivors are also available. Age-appropriate programs designed to prevent sexual assault are also offered; Assault Prevention for Teens (for middle/high school students); radKIDS (for children 5 to 12); and Get Ready for College (for college-bound women).
More About The Bureau
The Bureau has a long history of collaborating with other agencies. Examples include Promising Partnerships – a collaboration of 5 agencies working to bring permanent supportive housing to the Allen County community; Engaging Men Task Force – a collaboration of agencies working to get men involved in ending violence against women; Family Childcare Business certification – a collaboration between the Early Childhood Alliance and Women’s Enterprise.
The Bureau serves as a host site for free HIV testing.
The Fort Wayne Women's Bureau is committed to equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in all programs and services and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, color, national origin, age, ability, sexual orientation, political beliefs or socioeconomic status.
The Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau is accredited by Council on Accreditation for Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). This ensures that agency programs have met the highest standards of quality in their respective fields. Transitions is accredited for residential substance abuse treatment. The Rape Awareness Program is accredited for prevention services. This agency also meets all standards for charitable accountability of the Better Business Bureau.