Women's Leadership Initiative Unites Mercer County Women

Candace Braun

A new organization has started in Mercer County, led solely by women. The Wo- men's Leadership Initiative (WLI) was developed last May by board members of the United Way. The organization is comprised of Mercer County women who want to use their money and talents to help out those less fortunate in the area.

According to Lilly Palmieri, co-chair for WLI, the forming of the organization mostly came from the passion of the women. "A lot of these women wanted to get involved, but they didn't know where the needs were," she said. "This is a central place for them to come."

Last Friday, October 10, the new organization held a "Rise and Shine" breakfast, to help interested members and non-members get more information about their first project, "Children-At-Risk." Approximately 50 women came to the event, and many additional who couldn't attend sent letters asking how they could get involved. According to Janice Carson, senior vice president of the United Way, almost 300 women in total are now on the mailing list for the organization.

"Children-At-Risk" was chosen as the group's first project at its initial meeting in May. Approximately 70 women attended the breakfast, showing interest in the different areas of involvement the new organization offers.

At the end of the breakfast, women had the opportunity to choose what they'd like the group to focus on first: children in poverty, low-income families, seniors in need, or children at risk. The latter had the most responses.

Now, after establishing its current goal, the group is preparing for various projects throughout the holiday season that will help children in poverty areas, such as Trenton. At their most recent breakfast, the WLI board members asked women to sign up for various action teams, such as the Conflict Resolution Workshop, Children-at-Risk, and the Ho- liday Project.

The Children-at-Risk Action Team plans activities for the organization to take part in that will help youth in poor living conditions. The group will help young teenage girls living in poverty conditions, some with children, to find a way to support themselves, or to find a place that they can receive the support they need. While the team is just beginning to brainstorm, short- and long-term projects are now in the planning stages.

The Holiday Project enables women without a lot of time to commit to participate in one portion of a project at Thanksgiving or Christmas . Thanksgiving volunteer activities include adopting a family, or donating time or food for a family that can't afford a Thanksgiving dinner. The project has many different areas in which volunteers are needed, such as collecting, sorting and dropping off the food, putting food baskets together, and delivering the baskets to various agencies.

At Christmas volunteers will also adopt families, only instead of collecting food, they will collect gifts. Different responsibilities will include picking up, sorting and wrapping toys, and dropping them off at agencies.

The biggest project the group is working on is the Conflict Resolution Workshop. Chaired by Jane Kozinski, a group of women will learn how to conduct a workshop for the Trenton City Girls/Studio 2B Club, whose members are 11 to 17 years old. The first half of the workshop will teach the women how to instruct the girls on making the right choices, and how to deal with different conflicts. The second half, which will take place in the latter part of November, will involve the volunteers teaching the young girls how to become good listeners, how to cope with peer pressure, how to control anger in conflict situations and how to prevent conflict from escalating. Each of the workshop's four parts will run approximately two hours.

"I can't wait to do this, I'll learn so much," said Ms. Palmieri.

Finding the Funds

One of the problems the United Way is currently ¬fighting to overcome is the economic strain on the organization. According to Janice Carson, senior vice president of development for the United Way, the organization has received less money this year than it has the past two years. Because the United Way gives money to several agencies, she says it has been difficult to meet the basic needs in the community.

"These are difficult economic times," said Ms. Carson. "People just aren't able to give as much." Over 70 volunteers in the community decide together where the funds raised will go. "We fund all the mental health and treatment programs for children at risk," said Kitty Krider, one of the group's members. "The problem is, we can't fund preventative programs."

Preventative programs are programs that prevent poor living conditions before they start, explained Richard O'Grady, an employee of the N.J. Association of Children's Residential Facilities. "Our society as a whole seems to be reactive when it comes to children," he said at the recent WLI breakfast. Mr. Grady talked about families with young teenage mothers who need guidance, but often end up in poor conditions because they don't have it.

However, the Women's Leadership Initiative is working on correcting this problem. "We have ideas we haven't taken off the drawing board yet," said Ms. Palmieri. "There are so many things that can be funded by an umbrella organization like the United Way."

For information on how to join the Women's Leadership Initiative or the United Way, email Janice Carson at janice.carson@uwgmc.org.