This Ends When We All Begin.
Begin today by supporting women and gender-diverse people like Joan!
Joan’s story is hard to read, because, while it’s a fictionalized account, the story itself is real. It’s one shared by many women and gender diverse people.
Joan’s story is not about bad decisions. Homelessness is not about personal failing; it is the result of a social safety net so frayed that more and more women are falling through it.
“My story didn’t start when I became homeless.”
Before Joan became homeless and found her way to YWCA Cambridge, she had built and lived a whole life.
She had worked as a teacher. She had been married. She had shared meals and weekends with her husband. She had planned for retirement.
But everything changed when she lost her home and there was nowhere she could afford to live.
Rising housing costs. Increasing grocery prices. Eroding tenant protections. A disintegrating social safety net.
Together, these pressures create a perfect storm that is pushing more women and gender-diverse people to rely on our programs and services to get by.
When Joan arrived at the YWCA Cambridge Women’s Emergency Homeless Shelter, for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t facing everything alone.
She had somewhere to go. Someone to turn to. And a place to begin again.
At YWCA Cambridge, this commitment takes shape in our work to help create a safer world for women, girls, and gender diverse people. Your gift will create change through the following programs:
Affordable and Accessible Summer Camps
Youth Leadership Programming
Women’s Emergency Homeless Shelter
Employment Services and Financial Literacy Programming
At the core of our mission is a drive to advance gender equity. We do that through violence prevention programming, crisis intervention, empowerment, and relentless advocacy.
There are many women and gender diverse people with a story like Joan’s. But we can write better endings to those stories. Considering beginning today by supporting women and gender-diverse people like Joan with a donation to support our work.
STORY DISCLAIMER: Although Joan’s story is a fictional portrayal, her circumstances and outcomes are shared amongst the many women and gender diverse individuals that experience homelessness right here in Cambridge.