Holly Jones Employee Homebuyer Assistance Program

As you know, after 16 years of service, our beloved Executive Director Holly Jones has been chosen to lead the entire Southeast Region of the YWCA USA. It has long been Holly’s desire to help YW employees purchase their first home. Over 77% of YW employees are women, but less than 30% of employees own their own home. The average employee tenure is 5 years.

In Holly’s honor, the Board of Directors has established the Holly Jones Employee Homebuyer Assistance Program (affectionately known as Holly’s Home Fund) to provide matching grants to eligible employees who meet certain criteria.

The YWCA of Asheville has a small endowment at the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. All gifts made to Holly’s Home Fund will go into the Endowment, and will be in Holly’s honor.

Our goal is to provide two eligible employees per year with matching grants up to $2,500 from the Endowment.

Help make Holly’s dream come true!  Click here to make a gift or a pledge today (indicate Holly’s Home Fund in the Message/Comment section). Your gift will live forever, and will help families today and far into the future realize the dream of home ownership!

If you’d like to include a personal note with your gift, we’ll make sure Holly gets your message.

Meet Angel!

Angel is the Assistant Director of the YW’s Afterschool program.  Angel is also the single parent of three children and a full-time college student.  Slowly but surely, she is also saving for a home of her own.

“I have wonderful children, a car, a full-time job, I’m getting an education…..and now I want to be a homeowner! I’m saving about $10/paycheck toward our house.  I’m going to try to be the first YW employee to complete the program and get a matching grant!”

Celebrating the Holidays and Our Staff

The YWCA Board of Directors hosted our annual staff Holiday Dinner last week. Staff enjoyed a wonderful meal served by the Board. Employees were honored for 5, 10, and 15 years of service.

Thanks to these employees for their dedicated years of service:

5 Years: Shawn Barger, Jan Cope, Robert Grant, Joe Jones, Mike Little, Frederic Miercort, Douglas Moore, Anna Rector, Alphie Rodriguez, Pat Sorrels

10 years: Wanda Harris and Mary Beth Herman

15 Years: Holly Jones and Patricia Tenant

Welcome Katherine Hensley

The YWCA would like to welcome Katherine Hensley to the position of New Choices Director. Katherine is a community advocate for mothers and children. She has worked as a Birth and Postpartum DONA Doula, Breastfeeding Peer Counselor in the NICU, and is an active voice for women in Western North Carolina. Katherine is the mother of four and an Asheville High Cougar! She enjoys mountain biking, heirloom sewing and playing outdoors with her family.

The YWCA New Choices program is structured to assist our participants move out of financial crisis and put the essential components of stability in place so they can become more economically self-sufficient.

Employees of the Quarter

YW Employees of the Quarter – words from their nominators:

Douglas Moore – Above the call of duty assisting others? Yes!  Good deeds? Yes. Upholding the mission of the YWCA? Yes. Doug always walks in the doors of the YW with a smile on his face and at the end of the day, leaves with a smile on his face.  In fact, Afterschool has nicknamed him “Cheesing” because he is always smiling.  Along with his constant, pleasant, happy, attitude, he will assist his co-workers whenever they call.  And…he does it with a smile. The children love him, the parents love him, the staff loves him. His commitment to his job, co-workers, and participants is well worth his deserving to be Employee of the Quarter. As a young person with the attitude and commitment he has, I commend him greatly. Thanks Doug!

Tangela Ballard-Bowman  - She goes far above and beyond to ensure that each and every participant in MotherLove (and sometimes even girls who aren’t enrolled in MotherLove) gets everything that they need for themselves and their child. She makes herself available to the girls 24 hours a day and I myself have witnessed her get out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to go be a support system to a young lady who was in labor. She ALWAYS makes sure that the girls have transportation for any purpose whether it be to a doctor’s appointment or to the grocery store for food. She has sacrificed hours with her family to be a listening ear to a in a family crisis. I believe that the YW mission statement is embedded in her DNA! She is truly a GREAT example of the YW and she lets the girls know that the sky is the limit. I’ve had the honor of seeing one birth in my five years here but Tangie has witnessed many. Though she biologically gave birth to 3 children; she is a mother to 30+!  Thanks, Tangie.

Congratulations!

Employees of the Quarter

Congratulations to the latest YWCA Employees of the Quarter, Mehgan McNeil and Carol Severance. Here is a bit about both of them from Development Director Tami Ruckman:

Mehgan McNeil, Preventive Health Care Counselor, has an ever so patient approach to working with participants at the YWCA and in the community. She brings professionalism and empathy to our clients situations and handles with care the concerns of our Preventive Health program. She is always supportive and on top of her game! She works hard to meet the needs of our clients and always has time to listen both to us and our clients.

Carol Severance, Club W Membership Coordinator, is the epitome of customer service.  She eagerly helps out where ever needed.  Members rely on her to greet them, console them, direct them and listen to them.  She always has a smile on her face.  She is committed to the YWCA and her members.  Carol treats this building like her home.  If there is hair in the shower, she picks it up.  If there is trash in the parking lot, she picks it up.  She takes great pride in the YWCA presenting her best face.  The month of January is very busy for Carol - she diligently compiled membership numbers and cheerfully toured all who came in to see the YWCA. She also stayed late and came in early to serve prospective members.

Employee of the Year

Last week was the annual YWCA staff party at Eleven on Grove. In addition to wonderful food provided by the Board of the Directors, staff were honored for 5, 10 and 15 year anniversaries and the Employee of the Year was announced. Staff anniversaries were: Amanda Beery – 5 years, Maritta Jones – 5 years, Kimberly Harrison – 5 years, Catherine Peck – 5 years, Tami Ruckman – 5 years, Tonna Davis – 10 years, and Ray Harrell – 15 years. We appreciate their service to the organization.

Here is some of what was said about the Employee of the Year:
The nominees for Employee of the Year were Wayne Hawkins, Kristine Weil, Jonathan Dudley, Pearlie Hampton, and Rachel Blattner. This year’s choice for Employee of the Year was selected because he has shown outstanding leadership in a task that is not within his job description.  While it is not expected that employees must do work outside their job to excel, sometimes there are opportunities for unique talents and leadership skills to flourish.  The YW was selected as one of only three Child Care Centers in the state to receive a playground designed by the NC State School of Design.  This was a great honor, and quite a challenge. 

The Employee of the Year has risen to meet the challenge.  He was part of the group of Child Care staff who went to meetings to help design the playground, and now is leading staff, parents and volunteers to bring the playground to reality.  He is beloved by the children that he teaches, their parents and guardians, and by his colleagues.  The 2010 YWCA of Asheville Employee of the Year is Jonathan Dudley. Congratulations!

Catherine Peck, Jonathan Dudley and Wanda Harris

Employees of the Quarter

From Development Director Tami Ruckman:

It’s a tie! The YWCA Employee(s) of the Quarter are…

Rachel Blattner, Preventive Health
Rachel is absolutely amazing! She works hard to meet the needs of participants and willing takes on extra task. She does not settle for mediocrity and is helpful in giving ideas and feedback to make both the Preventive Health department and the YWCA a better place. She works from her heart and is striving to find a balance between school, work and life. She has brought salsa joy to many departments and her passion is infectious. She truly lives and loves the YWCA. She is kind and caring and very patient and thoughtful with members and clients. She goes out of her way to make folks feel important and empowered. She is beautiful inside and on the outside – truly an asset to YWCA- willing to help out, take on projects. Whatever it takes to get the job done, Rachel is the person to do it!

Pearley Hampton, Afterschool
Pearley works well with the children, parents, and staff at the YWCA. She keeps a smile and makes everyone around her joyful by singing, dancing, and saying pleasant things. She helps in all groups of the afterschool and assists parents who may have questions even if their child is not in her group. She provides great customer service and is willing to go the extra mile to be sure that everyone is accommodated and that there is excellence in the program. She has especially helped her co-workers understand what was needed to be sure sanitation inspections are passed.

Congratulations, Rachel and Pearley!

Employee of the Quarter

Wayne Hawkins, YWCA Finance Director, was recently selected as YWCA Employee of the Quarter. Wayne is our unsung hero. He works diligently and quietly behind the scenes to keep us financially and legally viable. Thanks to him, bills get paid, employees get paid, grants get the reports they need, and the auditors are very happy with us as well as many, many other things that happen we do not even know about. Because of his presence and work, we can breathe a little easier. Wayne is always pleasant and loves the YWCA.  Congratulations, Wayne!

We had lots of other great nominations as well:
* Carol Severance, Membership Coordinator – nominated for volunteering to do things, taking on extra projects, her work with the participants
* Mark Strasser, Diabetes Wellness Program – nominated for his caring ways with participants
* Kim Harrison, Child Care Center – nominated for her work on the playground
* Rachel Herrick, FutureVision – nominated for her work on FutureVision and their recordkeeping system

Strive Not to Drive Winner

Recently, the City of Asheville’s Strive Not to Drive Committee awarded YWCA Diabetes Wellness participant Georgia Burt the “Golden Wheel Award.”  Georgia lives in East Asheville and attends AB-Tech daily for classes and still makes it to the YWCA 2-3 times a week to work.  She does all of this on Asheville City Buses.  Georgia is a great role model for folks that think they can’t move around the city on transit alone. She was presented the award by Mayor Terry Bellamy at the July 27th Asheville City Council meeting. Here is a photo of Georgia and her family with the award:

Employee of the Quarter

Jonathan Dudley, one of the teachers in the YWCA Child Care Center, is the latest YWCA “Employee of the Quarter.” One of the reasons he was selected is that Jonathan is showing outstanding leadership in working on our new Child Care Center playground. He has taken a role in helping the YWCA build the POD (Preventing Obesity by Design) Playground.  He was part of the group of Child Care staff who went to meetings to help design the playground, and now is working with parents and volunteers to bring the playground to reality. Jonathan is wonderful with the children, parents love him, and he is  a great colleague and friend. Congratulations!