Turning Listening Into Action
BCWF Releases Report, Converses With Legislators

In June, the Bucks County Women's Fund (BCWF) completed a year of listening throughout the county to assess the needs of women and girls. Our purpose was to stimulate more effective strategies to improve their lives through our own initiatives and by involving our legislators, local agencies, and the public.

The BCWF focuses on and engages women and girls because women are the primary caregivers of families and, we believe, the central organizers of communities. We know that when we help women, women in turn help families and communities.

The Report of the Listening Year: A Blueprint for Action
In the course of the year, we heard about many significant issues that negatively impact women, girls, and families. These issues are enumerated in our Report of the Listening Year: A Blueprint for Action, including a review of the overall status of women in Pennsylvania, areas of inequity, and barriers to women achieving self-sufficiency.

The challenges of today's economic environment are magnified for women who are single heads of households. The widespread perception of Bucks County as a place of wealth and privilege often hampers the ability of residents and
others to recognize the needs that exist throughout the county.

By listening to women, girls, agency leaders, and other experts, we identified three critical areas of need in which the BCWF and others can work strategically to improve the lives of women and girls. They are:

1. Economic security and self-sufficiency for women: empowering women, enhancing their safety, and removing barriers to their self-sufficiency.
2. Next generation leadership: nurturing the personal development of women and girls to build self-esteem and enhance skills and experience in leadership, advocacy, and philanthropy.
3. Access to information and services: empowering women to help themselves and their families get what they need to improve their quality of life.

Now it is time to take action. The substantial needs associated with each of these areas require multiple strategies and extensive collaboration to tackle the large and complex challenges we face. Recognizing that we have to be strategic in our action, the BCWF will:

• concentrate our activity in three key areas: grantmaking, education, and advocacy;
• target maximum, long-term impact, by executing, funding, and encouraging strategies that have the potential to bring about systemic change (those initiatives that change ideas, assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors that are harmful to women and girls or impede their ability to achieve to their potential); and
• engage individuals, groups, agencies, and legislators throughout our county in strategic philanthropy, education, and advocacy to bring about positive and lasting change for women, girls, families, and communities.

The document title reflects our true intent: action. We have made a blueprint for change. Working in collaboration with legislators, like-minded individuals, and other women's organizations, we believe we can contribute to a healthy, just, equitable, and prosperous Bucks County in which all people can thrive.

The Conversation With Our Legislators
On Friday, October 3, the BCWF and five community partners gathered with legislators and citizens to share the outcomes of our report as well as six issue papers produced by the Coalition for Women's Economic Justice to provide an in-depth gender analysis of issues affecting women's economic self- sufficiency. Our goal was to inspire action to build awareness, build equity, remove barriers to self-sufficiency, and accelerate women's lives toward safety and stability. "This is the most comprehensive effort by the women's organizations in Bucks County to speak publicly with one voice about the needs and problems of women and girls, and to find women-led solutions to those needs in partnership with each other and with our elected officials," said Nancy P. Morrill, moderator of the forum and 2008 recipient of the Bucks County Women's History Month Award.

Other partners in the forum included the League of Women Voters, AAUW, the Bucks County Commissioners' Advisory Council for Women, and the United Way of Bucks County which provided funding for the forum.

Legislators applauded these efforts and the resulting documents that suggest concrete opportunities to promote systemic change.

���This will be valuable information for legislators to consider when crafting legislation and casting votes," said State Senator Chuck McIlhinney. ���It will also help raise awareness at the community level that there are Bucks County women and girls in need of support."

BCWF and WEJ findings drew attention to significant needs that often go unacknowledged within and outside of Bucks County. Kathleen Welsh Beveridge, executive director of the Bucks County Women's Fund, urged forum participants to use these findings to help ���bust the myth" that Bucks County has no needs. ���This county's reputation as a place of wealth and privilege often obscures the reality of many who live here," she said. ���From all that we have heard over the course of the public forums we conducted last spring, we can say with certainty that it is valid and important to focus efforts and funding here in Bucks County."

Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, LCSW, echoed this comment. ���One of the most important facets of the Women's Fund is its willingness to look beyond the traditional needs of middle and upper class women. Rather, the Women's Fund is accepting of the reality that there are women and girls, in this county, who struggle financially and emotionally. I believe they play a key role in assuring that every community meets the needs of these women who represent various economic classes, racial compositions, and age groups."

Susan Hauser, convener of the Coalition for Women's Economic Justice, emphasized that a major reason for looking at these county-wide issues with a gender lens is the crucial realization that economic challenges affecting our region today are taking their greatest toll on women���many of whom carry primary responsibility for caring for children and other family members, in addition to working outside the home. Hauser also asserted that helping women become economically self-sufficient results
in improved outcomes for families and communities.

Donna Byrne, executive director of A Woman's Place and a participant in the WEJ Coalition, agreed. "When women's lives improve, everyone benefits," Byrne said. ���I have seen this time and again through my work at A Woman's Place. I'm excited about bringing the Bucks County community together to discuss these issues and look forward to increasing momentum in addressing the barriers to women's economic self-sufficiency in our region."

Economic self-sufficiency was a primary focus of the BCWF report and the WEJ issue papers, emphasizing the critical need to create more opportunities for women residing in Bucks County to earn a living wage through improved educational opportunities, better transportation, and more access to affordable, quality child care.

���Women are such an important part of our economy and our job market, and we must pursue public policies that are female-friendly if we want to continue to compete in the global market," said State Representative Marguerite Quinn. ���That is why I have been promoting a piece of legislation I introduced last fall to provide an employer tax credit to small businesses that offer child care to their employees. Child care should not be a barrier to a woman's economic self-sufficiency."

Although Congressman Patrick Murphy was unable to attend the forum due to a vote on the Emergency Economic Rescue Act in Washington D.C., his Outreach Director, Larry Glick, brought word from the Congressman who applauded the leadership of BCWF, WEJ, and their collaborating partners in ���taking steps to create opportunities and remove barriers."

A statement from Congressman Murphy said, ���While Bucks County Women's Fund and others are leading the way in Bucks County, I am working hard to make sure folks in Washington know how important these priorities are. Among other things, I fought for an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program and voted for billions of dollars in tax relief through the refundable child tax credit. There is more work to be done, and I am proud to partner with these great organizations."

���Working on issues that affect women, children and families is fundamental to the work we are doing at United Way of Bucks County to create lasting changes that advance the common good," said Sharon Barker, senior vice president at United Way. ���We were happy to fund the production of the reports provided today as part of the Conversation with Legislators, and we look forward to continuing this dialogue through a series of ���Town Hall' style meetings to further explore these important issues."

Both reports can be downloaded from our Publications section, click here. The Report of the Listening Year includes information about how individuals can take action to build equity for area women and girls.

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