The Fort Wayne Women's Bureau Announces New Leadership Strategy, Mission, and Name
Annual Greeting 2010
Important elements of the Women’s Bureau were revamped in 2009 and those changes were officially unveiled at the Bureau’s Annual Meeting at the I&M Conference Room at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, 3211 Stellhorn Road in Fort Wayne.
Important elements of the Women’s Bureau were revamped in 2009 and those changes were officially unveiled at the Bureau’s Annual Meeting at the I&M Conference Room at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, 3211 Stellhorn Road in Fort Wayne.
With good food and conversation, members, board members, and staff gathered to hear more about the Bureau’s new leadership, updated mission statement and name change. The Triad pointed to successes since officially launching the collaborative leadership model in November of 2009. It was explained that the Bureau’s new mission of “Advancing women through advocacy, education, and economic empowerment” is a better reflection of the agency’s current work and future goals than the older mission. And it was revealed that the words “Fort Wayne” were officially dropped from the agency’s name to better reflect our broader geographic focus as we work to help all women throughout Northeast Indiana.
For more details, please call 424-7977 and ask for an annual report.
On INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY...
Fort Wayne Mayor Declares Girls and Women in Sports Day
Fort Wayne Mayor Declares Girls and Women in Sports Day
Fort Wayne - On March 8th - on International Women's Day and in the midst of Women's History Month - Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry joined the Fort Wayne Women's Bureau, Fort Wayne Community Schools, the Fort Wayne Derby Girls, Fort Wayne Aquatics, and the Elmhurst High School Girls Basketball team to remember the importance of sports in the lives of women and girls.
The Mayor read a proclamation recognizing that women and girls have a rich tradition of sports, and should be honored with continuing support for sports equality and increased access in Fort Wayne and in the state of Indiana.
Did you know that 82 percent of executive businesswomen played sports, with the majority saying lessons learned on the playing field contributed to their successes? The day celebrated their stories and made note of how girls and women have benefited from Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the statute prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funds.
Feminist, 81, trains passion on history
Published: February 21, 2010
Reprinted with permission.
sunday profile
Feminist, 81, trains passion on history
For years, she was on the lines of local political activism, marching at rallies and escorting women to an abortion clinic. These days, 81-year-old feminist Joan Uebelhoer spends little time on the streets, and her pet project is organizing a library of local women’s history.
But her car’s bumper sticker reflects her lifelong philosophy: “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”
Many who know her would agree that she hasn’t always been well-behaved. But in their eyes, that’s a good thing. “You love her or you hate her,” local activist Cat Voors says, laughing. “She’s got some detractors, but most of us just think the world of her.” Voors, who met Uebelhoer in 1992, calls her a best friend and mentor who is “like my other mother.”
Uebelhoer grew up in Fort Wayne as Joan (pronounced Jo-ann) Daley, the daughter of a union organizer. After graduating from Central Catholic High School, she headed to Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, where she majored in math and biology, and found the nuns to be a bit more liberal than those here. She returned to Fort Wayne and taught math at Forest Park Elementary School and Bishop Luers High School. And with her late husband, Jim, she raised five children.
Uebelhoer helped found Fort Wayne Feminists in the 1960s and the women’s studies department at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in the 1970s, where she taught part time for 30 years. She also served as Allen County auditor, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Indiana and director of the Allen County office of the Division of Family and Children. Despite her years as an abortion-rights activist, she says she was arrested only once, in the 1980s, and she didn’t end up in jail. She was accused of hitting a woman, which she denies. But she admits that sometimes her temper almost got the better of her.
“My son says the only reason I’m non-violent is because I’m short, because I do get angry sometimes,” she says. And she has angered plenty of others. She keeps a drawer full of “evil wishes” and death threats she has received over the years. Despite that downside, she says: “I miss the streets. I haven’t been doing much marching lately.” Although arthritis has slowed her a bit, she still has a passion for social justice.
Creating a library
One major goal is to create a women’s history library at the Fort Wayne Hedge School, 2513 S. Calhoun St., which she helped found last year. So she’s in the process of combing through more than 400 books and various papers in her home.
“I’ve got the history of the feminist movement in my file cabinets. Part of me wants to have it all together someplace; part of me doesn’t want to give it up,” she says. “My kids are so glad. When I die, they don’t want to have to go through this stuff; … the whole house is full of this stuff,” she says. Not that she has any intention of leaving anytime soon. There’s still too much work to do for the cause.
The statistics on violence against women haven’t changed much, she says. And the numbers of female legislators in Congress aren’t anything to write home about either, she says. “It does frustrate me. I was crazy enough to think you could make changes, and it would be over, but it’s not anywhere near over,” she says.
She found the 2008 election – in which Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (“a caricature of everything we didn’t want women to be”) sparked a national debate about women’s roles – especially illuminating. “It was amazing there was that much sexism still afoot. It was very disappointing. I thought we had moved on past some of that. Some think women are not able to do some things, like lead a country. Other countries seemed to have got past that, but we haven’t,” she says. “Surely we can find a woman, before I die, to be the president of the United States. That would be great. Little girls need to know that’s something you can be when you grow up,” she says.
Role models
She lists the late feminist theologian Mary Daly and Victoria Woodhull (the first American woman to run for president in 1872) among her role models, as well as “any of the good ol’ girls” who had “the nerve to say what they thought.” She met Daly years ago when she gave a speech in Fort Wayne, and Uebelhoer picked her up at the airport. “I thought lightning was going to strike at her speech. … She (was) a very shocking woman,” she says, adding that Daly’s book “Pure Lust” is a great one to take on planes when you want to attract attention.
When Voors took her first women’s studies class at IPFW, Uebelhoer was her instructor. “She just floored me,” Voors says. “She speaks with a sense of humor. She’s got all the information in her head. You couldn’t win an argument with her; she’s as sharp as a tack.”
For her part, Uebelhoer is always surprised whenever a former student tells her, “You changed my life,’” as many have done over the years. “All I did was give them a sense of themselves,” she says.
Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau board member Leslie Raymer, who met Uebelhoer at a teen rally about 36 years ago, calls her a visionary. “Joan has always been a powerhouse of social action and getting things done. She used to joke that she got so much done because she only needed four hours’ sleep,” she says.
“She has great ideas about methods of moving things forward in ways that honor each participant. Joan’s gift is (the idea) that we all belong, whether we fully understand the issues or are a newcomer,” Raymer says.
If Uebelhoer had her way, we would all be socialized the same way in childhood, regardless of our gender, learn more about women’s roles in history and enjoy equal pay and representation.
“There is a gender class, and people sometimes don’t see that. We really do regard men as better than women,” she says.
Get active
Even some of her IPFW students, those with an interest in such issues, didn’t always know the whole story, as she discovered. After she showed “Iron Jawed Angels,” the HBO film about early suffragists, in class, some of her students were in tears. During discussion, some said they weren’t sure whether they could have done the same things as Alice Paul – namely getting arrested and going on a hunger strike in jail. “It’s hard to be an activist,” she says. Her advice to young feminists: get active.
When she’s not living up to her reputation as a rabble-rouser, most of her free time is spent organizing the library and writing speeches. She also portrays suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton at schools on request. She enjoys gardening, plus spending time with friends and deciding “what we need to do with the world,” she says. Sometimes, she even listens to right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh, because “it’s good for my blood pressure,” she jokes. A sense of humor is critical for any feminist, or anyone willing to spend a lifetime working for social change, as she has tried to do.
“I want to get it done before I go. I’ve threatened not to go until we get it done, but I don’t know if that’s going to work,” Uebelhoer says. “It’s a strange feeling; I’ve never been old before. To have everybody in any kind of power (be) younger than I am, that’s a funny feeling.”
FWPD Releases January Rape Stats
February 3, 2010
According to the Fort Wayne Police Department, four people reported rapes in January. Law enforcement believes only 10 to 20 percent of rapes are reported, so our community may have had up to 40 rapes in January.
Transitions Family Clinician adds Certified Recovery Specialist to her Credentials
January 20, 2010
Jule Godsey has worked in the mental health field for more than 20 years and already has a Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Saint Francis. She was recently invited to participate in Indiana's Certified Recovery Specialist Program, a rigorous training program that requires 2,000 hours of work experience and 120 hours of education. After completing the program and passing the examination, Godsey is now certified to provide services to adult alcohol and drug-involved individuals.
Godsey's latest certification will serve her well as she continues working for Transitions, a program of the Fort Wayne Women's Bureau. It's a residential program for addicted women with children. It is the only long-term facility offering gender sensitive addiction treatment, self-sufficiency skills, and family reunification for recovering women and children in northeast Indiana. Transitions recognizes that more than addiction issues need to be addressed, that recovery is a process, and that building and strengthening support systems and relationships are important for women in treatment and recovery.
Transitions served 39 women and 37 children in 2009. Three drug-free babies were born in the program. Two women received their GEDs; eight women were gainfully employed.
Godsey has worked at Bi-County Services, Easter Seals ARC, Allen County Youth Services, and Washington House. She's a member of the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Counselors (NAADAC), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Indiana Counselors Association (ICA). Her passion is to touch a life and teach a mind, and to change the world one person - and one day - at a time.
Women's Enterprise has New Director
Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly Dec. 14, 2009
The Fort Wayne Women's Bureau announced Monica Hughley is the new director of its Women's Enterprise program, which promotes the growth of women-owned businesses in the community.
Most recently, Hughley was the director of Syracuse University's Southside Entrepreneurial Connect Project and Innovation Center, the Women's Bureau said in a statement. She previously was president and owner of Brown Holding Group LLC, a chemical distributor, and was a senior sales representative at Mays Chemical.
Women's Enterprise offers business counseling, mentoring, training, and technical, financial and procurement assistance. Since its start in 1999, Women's Enterprise has served more than 3,000 men and women.
"There has never been a more important time to help others in our community become self-employed," Hughley said in the statement. "By increasing opportunities and independence for the women and men of our community, Women's Enterprise at the Fort Wayne Women's Bureau helps create new jobs within northeast Indiana, and that's sorely needed in today's economy."
Click HERE for the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly article.