WANDA E3 = Elevate
Of the 11 million single parent families with children under the age of 18, more than 80% are headed by single mothers, and 34% of those families live in poverty. California has the country’s highest poverty rate, with nearly one in five residents facing economic hardship when factoring in living costs such as housing. For over a decade, the Women’s Achievement Network and Development Alliance (WANDA) has been helping single mothers succeed through the three E’s – Education, Equity and Empowerment. Our clients are women who need a unique approach to overcome the numerous obstacles they face as single mothers and as women trying to succeed in an inequitable world.
To date, WANDA’s reach has targeted San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties serving women in annual cohorts of 15-35 members. Our outcomes are strong. Women are building self-efficacy in all aspect of their lives, investing in life changing assets, increasing their net worth and moving up the socio-economic ladder.
What if the 200 moms we have served over the past decade could increase ten fold in the next three years?
How can WANDA move the needle on harrowing statistics facing single mothers such as those above? How can we create a model addressing poverty reduction that utilizes the expertise of other nonprofits in the sector while maximizing philanthropic dollars to leverage impact?
We believe we have a solution.
To leverage our geographic reach and increase numbers served so that we can better reach the millions of underserved single mothers throughout the United States, WANDA is launching an ambitious new vision for program delivery that will support our ability to scale.
WANDA’s E3 model, Education, Equity & Empowerment, will incorporate =Elevate, a new system of program delivery that works directly to train multi-site based nonprofit partners in the WANDA program. To kick off the =Elevate partnership model, WANDA is launching a pilot with MidPen Housing in 2020. Through partnership, WANDA will train MidPen and support program activities for new moms at their residential sites in San Mateo and Santa Clara County.
“We are an Alliance!” – WANDA Alumna 2018
Please join WANDA as we evolve into a national organization with a best practice model for systemic change in poverty reduction for single mother families.