Group that trains women in skilled trades holding fundraiser to help stave off looming funding shortfall
By Samuel Speciale
Staff writer
A fundraiser that could determine the future of West Virginia Women Work, a nonprofit that offers free skilled-trades training, is scheduled for Friday.
The event, called "An Evening with West Virginia Women Work," is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Friday at West Virginia State University's Economic Development Center in Charleston. It is part of a larger campaign to raise money and awareness for the struggling nonprofit and will allow donors to meet successful graduates.
The organization, which has helped lift hundreds of women out of poverty, has had trouble keeping cash flowing into the program and could soon close its doors if additional funding isn't secured.
"We haven't made an ultimate decision on that yet," said Janis Gunel, executive director of West Virginia Women Work. "We're still working, and we're not giving up."
West Virginia Women Work isn't guaranteed funding from the state or federal government and instead relies on competitive grants. Program officials say grant funding has diminished and that they'll need more help from state agencies, businesses and private donors to keep the doors open.
Gunel told the Gazette-Mail in July the organization did not have enough funds to stay open past 2015. She said staff would meet with state and federal officials in an attempt to "cobble together some kind of miracle."
Those meetings are still ongoing, Gunel said Monday. She hopes state agencies with available training dollars will be able to help.
West Virgina Women Work's 15-year-old job-training program serves between 80 and 90 women each year and prepares them for entry-level work in carpentry, sheet metal work, ironworking, highway construction and other industries. The organization has trained more than 800 women in West Virginia.
The program, which helps women find work in the construction industry, has an 80 percent job placement rate, the organization says. Graduates, 40 percent of whom are single mothers, go on to earn between $3 and $4 more per hour than the minimum wage, with the average graduate making nearly $25,000 a year.
According to West Virginia Women Work statistics, program graduates have paid $2.5 million in state and federal tax dollars they otherwise would not have been able to. The nonprofit also estimates its graduates entering the workforce saves the state and federal government more than $400,000 in public assistance payouts each year.
The organization hopes the fundraiser as well as the awareness campaign will showcase the benefits of the program and what the state would lose if it goes under.
Friday's event will include food, drinks and a silent auction. Tickets cost $15, whether purchased in advance or at the door. Tickets can be purchased by contacting Misty Mayville, program coordinator for the Kanawha Valley, at 304-720-1402 or misty@wcwomenwork.org.
Those attending the fundraiser also can sign a petition to save West Virginia Women Work.
The nonprofit has three training locations across the state in Morgantown, Martinsburg and Charleston and an annual operation budget of $400,000. It recently raised almost $3,000 through a crowdfunding campaign.
Reach Samuel Speciale at sam.speciale@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939 or follow @samueljspeciale on Twitter.