PROGRAM:
Dawn shared that she's been a member of Rotary for two years now and is excited to talk about her day job with her fellow Rotarians.
The Iowa Women's Foundation (IWF) isne of 140 women's funds around the glob. It is committed to improving the lives of Iowa's women and girls through economic self-sufficiency and works to break down barriers stand in the way of that self-sufficiency. Key strategies they employee to identify and break down barriers include research, grantmaking, media outreach, community development and public education.
Dawn also shared that 70% of Iowa's female headed households are struggling economically, 40% are living in poverty and 30% can't cover basic expenses. So, the IWF started researched "why?" the above are true. This resulted in a state-wide tour by the IWF: SHE MATTERS: We Listen and Iowa Wins. That tour led women across Iowa to identify six barriers to their economic self sufficiency: employment, childcare, housing, education, transportation and mentors. They then went back to the communities and asked which barrier those communities would work on first. Nice communities identified child care as their #1 problem - both affordability and access.
Dawn also shared that the US Chamber of Commerce also agrees that child care is a key need - they consider the present situation a crisis. In Iowa, 75% of households with children under the age of 6 have both parents working outside the home. The national average is 66%. Paired with that, there's a shortfall of 359,377 spaces for childcare - 12,856 spaces in Johnson County alone. Additionally, Iowa has lost 40% of its child care providers over the past five years. Johnson County has lost 17% of its programs in the last 5 years. There are waiting lists of 50-70 children in certain places.
This means that on average, 1 in 2 children go without access to affordable child care. After identifying these shortfalls, the IWF asked, "how can we build community solutions to address this?" The plan is to move forward through community leadership, advocacy and grantmaking. In those three areas, they have identified six possible solutions. These will be a starting point for the conversations in the 18 (so far) communities IWF is working across Iowa to build plans with. On IWF's part, they will also be working through advocacy to build a collective voice around the issues. They will be working as a grantmaker to build a Child Care Collaborative Fund to fund projects that work to increase the availability of child care.
Dawn's call to action for us as Rotarians is to share with 3 people what you learned today; volunteer for an organization that works to improve the lives of women and girls in your community and/or financially support the work of an organizaiton that is making a difference in the lives of women and girls. She then addressed a few questions, centering around creative ways to approach the barrier of child care, including using empty buildings around Iowa, finding ways to increase day care provider pay and more. Rtn. Art Nowak asked Dawn how a Rotarian might give to the IWF and she said that Rtn. Ann Parker (new director of operations for the IWF) or Dawn would be happy to talk to anyone who wants to support the work of the IWF. You can contact her at
dawn@iawf.org or 319.774.3814.
President McKay thanked Rtn. Wiand for her presentation and opened the floor for questions.
The meeting ended at 1:00 pm as President McKay led the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.
Singing: America the Beautiful was led by Rtn. Bob Crane with Rtn. Devin van Holsteijn on the piano.
Please forward any newsworthy items and/or photos to Jon Brown or Janice Baldes to include in the weekly slide decks emailed to members prior to each meeting and shown just before Rotary meetings at the Club. You can send information to: Janice Baldes
janicebaldes@gmail.com or Jon Brown at
mjonBrown@taxesplusiowacity.com
It is our policy to have all members silence their cell phones before the meeting and refrain from answering their cell phones during the meeting out of respect to the speaker and fellow members.
Our Greeter, Rtn. Azeez Butali, announced visiting Rotarians and Guests.
Guests:
Rtn. Thais Winkleblack - Christy Fehlberg
Rtn. Kelly Drowne - Carolyn Rosenquist
Rtn. Christina Kimerle - Volunteer for and High School Participants in the Distinguished Young Women
- Kelsey Foster, Volunteer
- Ashlyn Haack - Davenport
- Rebecca Abdullah - Bettendorf
- Sydney Hildebrand, Winterset
- Marisa Rethman, West Des Moines
- Saireshma Balakrishnan, Linn-Mar
- Kelsey Lyons, Ankeny
- Laurel McGonegle - Urbandale
Program: Rtn. Tom Cilek; Attendance: Rtn. Azeez Butali
