equipoise news volume 13
Fall 2009
Welcome back from your busy and beautiful summer! Leaves are turning color so fast here in the mountains, it takes our breath away, and the temperature is on a downward slide despite our very determined efforts to leave out geraniums overnight.
As noted in our last news, this is our time of “noodling.” We’re trying to determine where we’ve been, what we’ve accomplished and what we’d like to focus on in the coming months. Your input has been key, and Susie Scott, of Yellowbird Resources, has faithfully recorded your responses and suggestions. We’ll have a full report from her by year’s end. Thank you all for your contributions; they are invaluable to us as we plan our next steps toward equipoise for all the women and girls of the state of Wyoming. Please keep those lines of communication open no matter what time of year you have your great idea!
Let’s get to the news. You can follow progress on various topics through the links below:
Wyoming Council for Women’s Issues: 2009 Wyoming Woman of Distinction Award
Our Documentary: Don’t Fence Me In
Wyoming Council for Women’s Issues
One of our valued partners is the WCWI, appointed by the Governor and supported with funding from the Wyoming State Legislature. The council works to improve the quality and equality of life for Wyoming Women by focusing on employment practices, educational opportunities, home and community, and legal rights and responsibilities.
And each year, the Wyoming Council for Women’s Issues accepts nominations for a once-in-a-lifetime award known as the Wyoming Woman of Distinction Award. Nominees are evaluated for their impact on women and/or families in the areas of education or employment, community outreach, health and wellness, and legal issues.
The 2009 Wyoming Woman of Distinction Award was bestowed upon our own Mickey Babcock, president and founder of The Equipoise Fund. It was presented on October 2 at a luncheon held at the Teton Science Schools. Many of Mickey’s friends and colleagues spoke about her many contributions to Wyoming women, including Womentum member Amy McCarthy, who applauded Mickey’s boundless determination.
Mickey stepped to the mike after receiving her award, a watercolor painting by Dayton artist Alice Fisher, one of the women profiled in Don’t Fence Me In. Mickey called on all those assembled to step into their lives and ASK questions. An acronym, ASK stands for authenticity, strength and kindness, and Mickey said that when we speak from our passionate core, we use that authentic voice, the one given us by the Creator. The challenge is to use it both with strength and with kindness.
Three other women were finalists for the award: Debra Farris of Casper is a business development specialist with the Small Business Administration. She has a long history—13 years!—working as one of Burlington Northern Railroad’s first female employees and as a Native American Affairs representative.
Mary Martin of Jackson has been actively involved with so many organizations that we’re amazed that she has time for her own life. She’s a mover and shaker with Rotary Supper Club, Rotary of Jackson, Friends of Pioneer Homestead (an eldercare facility), the Latino Resource Center, the Center for Resolution (mediating disagreements before they reach the courts), the Hispanic Family Resource Center, Teton County Red Cross, the Tri-County Senior Meals Board and Business and Professional Women.
And Lisa Gossett of Laramie is a social worker specializing in foster care and adoption. She joined the Casey Family Programs in 1996, after working at Laramie’s Cathedral Home for Children, and serves there as a clinical supervisor. She is also a founding member of the Wyoming Citizen Review Panel, and she works tirelessly to improve the lives of injured and abused children. She is a valued mentor and role model.
There are 13 members of the council, each representing nine judicial districts with four at-large members. There is also one ex-officio member. And the participants and supporters of The Equipoise Fund want to thank each and every one of them for recognizing Mickey’s valuable contributions to the conversation of making life better for women. More information about the WCWI can be found at http://www.wyomingwomenscouncil.org/index.htm
Don’t Fence Me In
Our documentary film continues to move around the country, wowing audiences in every community where it screens. We’re extremely proud to be selected as a semi-finalist in the Moondance International Film Festival to be held in Boulder, Colorado on Sept. 25-27. No screening date has yet been announced, but you can check the schedule as soon as it’s posted at http://www.moondancefilmfestival.com.
The film most recently appeared at the Estes Park Film Festival in Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 19th and won the honor of Best Documentary. More info about that festival can be found at: http://www.estesparkfilm.com/home.html. Having grown up around strong Wyoming women,” says cinematographer Charlie Craighead, “I'm especially happy to see this film succeed in telling people about our state's greatest natural resource!”
Wyoming Women’s Foundation
Wyoming women have blazed trails since the first woman who crossed the prairie before statehood. Wyoming was the first state to grant suffrage, the first to install a woman governor, the first to empanel an all women jury and had the first town to be run by an all-women council.
In celebration of this spirit, the Wyoming Women's Foundation is producing its first project to commemorate women trailblazers, a publishing partnership with the Casper Star-Tribune. Entitled “Blazing Trails: A Tribute to Women Who Have Set Wyoming Ablaze,” the project will profile women named through a statewide identification process. One profile per week will run for a year in the Casper Star-Tribune newspaper. Through their “Newspapers in Education” program, these profiles will also be available for use in classrooms in a newsprint version all over the state. The compilation of all 52 profiles will be available in limited quantities as a hardcover or softcover book.
Should you know the perfect woman to be included in this project, please submit her name along with a brief explanation of how she fits with the mission: To celebrate and draw inspiration from the qualities of those women who took action, blazing the trails of change for Wyoming women and girls. You can submit your candidate to Richelle@wycf.org. For more detailed information on the process, please visit http://www.wywf.org.
In addition to this project plan, WYWF is continuing WAGE training. Since April 2008 WYWF has been offering trainings around the state. These workshops focus on the personal consequences of the wage gap and reveal how each individual can affect her own wage and/or salary by knowing the going rate for a position and advocating for herself in the interview process. As WYWF continues to invest time in this process, more and more workshops are happening around the state:
October 17th in Cody, hosted by Women Business Experience
October 21st on the Wind River Reservation, hosted by the Wind River Development Fund
October 22nd in Evanston, hosted by BOOST
November 2nd in Rawlins, hosted by the Carbon County Library
November 18th at University of Wyoming, hosted by SLICE
Please contact Katie@wycf.org if you have an interest in hosting a workshop in your area.
And that’s not all. Work continues on gathering information about workforce and childcare issues from communities around the state. Sarah Mikesell-Growney, Program Director for WYWF, is traveling the state to learn what challenges face different Wyoming communities. One of our most powerful findings has been that a lack of quality childcare options is a large barrier to families’ success. 67 percent of children younger than six years old have working parents. That figure rises to 77 percent among families with children aged 6 to 17. Of these children, just considering those aged from under one year to age twelve, 40,293 children need daycare in a state that offers only 17,564 licensed childcare slots. It is irrational to think that women can maintain their jobs, let alone their productivity, when they have to worry about who will feed their children and monitor their children’s safety.
As a result, WYWF is working to learn what different communities around the state are doing to address the need for quality childcare options. The childcare industry currently generates roughly $43.3 million in direct personal income to childcare personnel, and expanding the industry would result in an annual economic contribution of $173 million in economic output and add up to 5,513 jobs. Those additional jobs would generate $105 million in annual employment compensation. That’s Wyoming jobs that bolster Wyoming’s economy, a win-win all around.
Please visit the Web site for more information on this important topic: http://www.wywf.org.
Womentum
Working to promote systemic change through action philanthropy, the new Womentum Mentoring class was named at a kick-off event on September 10th, held at the Murie Center in Grand Teton National Park. Mentors and mentees got to know each other a bit by sharing something that represents their leadership style, and these leadership gifts will be given to women in the Teton Area CLIMB Wyoming program.
Over the next nine months, Womentoring program participants will meet one-on-one—mentor and mentee—and attend two speaker events. One unique component of the Womentoring program is the small group dinners, designed to support participants who often find that their connection is reinforced in this setting through the additional opportunity of community-oriented group mentoring. The program concludes with its Harvest Celebration on May 13, 2010.
Mentees include: Machelle Dabel, Sydney Daniels, Claire Fuller, April Hankey, Ellie Levins, Christina Moran, Valley Peters Bradley, Charlotte Quesada Krugh, Kjera Strom and Lisa Watts. These women will be paired with their mentors, who include: Jean Barash, Kelly French, Carol Gonnella, Barbara Herz, April Landale, Susan Marsh, Sue Mason, Katie Pierce, Mimi Slaughter and Melissa Turley.
In addition, Womentum will sponsor an event featuring Jennifer Lowe Anker at the National Museum of Wildlife Art on November 11th. Ms. Anker has authored Forget Me Not, a memoir celebrating her many roles as a woman, mother, sister, daughter, friend, climber, widow and wife. Be sure to mark your calendar for what should be an important and deeply moving event.
One more thing. Ernie Labelle’s words recorded at Mickey’s celebration deserve repeating:
Mickey,
You are our wind of hope
The brilliant star of our happiness
And a bright light of inspiration to all of us
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