WELCOME WOMEN IN CHARGE
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Union Avenue Christian Church is pleased to welcome WOMEN IN CHARGE as our newest outreach partner to our community. Women In Charge is an adult literacy program committed to giving women in crisis or transition the skills to take charge of their lives — to heal the spirit, build confidence, and educate women in need so that they may provide a better life for themselves and their children.
The nonprofit organization, founded in 1993 by Victoria and Jack Sharp, had previously been located in University City (in the the former home of the St. Joseph School for the Deaf). When the owner of the building decided to close the facilities, the wind of the spirit directed the leadership of Women in Charge to make its way to Union Avenue. The group will be using rooms 208 and 209 as secure office and counseling spaces. They will share use of rooms 210 and 211 with our faith formation programming. The mission of the group meshes well with our mission-focused use of our facilities, and it will operate smoothly next to our other mission partners, Union Avenue Opera, West End Players Guild, and Pure Catering. Here’s a look at the transformation of one space that had been costume storage for Union Avenue Opera — from left, it went from this … to this … to this … to, finally, this.
An Overview
Women in Charge offers Adult Education, GED preparation, individual and group counseling, parent mentoring, yoga, computer classes, and several others, including an on-site children’s program to participants’ children ages eight-weeks to five-years old. It offers classroom instruction in small groups, with one-on-one tutoring. Most of the classes are individualized, allowing each woman to progress at her own speed. Women In Charge is a HiSet site — High School Equivalency Test — providing its program participants the same academic achievement as a typical high school graduate. The HiSet exam consists of five tests in Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts Writing, and Language Arts Reading. To pass the HiSet test, a score of a minimum of 8 on each test, and a total score of 45 is needed.
Math
Women in Charge’s math program is designed to help each individual progress at her own pace. After taking the initial math test, each woman sits down with the Math teacher and evaluates her strengths and weaknesses. Many women have a “math phobia” and are frightened or embarrassed to discuss challenges they may have in mathematics. WIC’s program works one on one with each woman to help build confidence and apply math skills to their everyday lives. We work on improvement by building skills in communication, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Language Arts-Reading
WIC’s reading program helps women build skills in comprehension, sequence, cause and effect, interpretation, predicting, and summarizing. The women are divided into small groups by comparable reading levels so they get the individual attention to improve reading techniques. The authentic stories, articles, poems, and books that are read relate to the women’s everyday life. WIC focuses strongly on vocabulary and encourages women to engage in outside reading whenever possible.
Language Arts-Writing Part I (Grammar)
This section of WIC’s language arts program is devoted to improving every woman’s basic knowledge of the English language. Everyone starts at the basic level, defining parts of speech. Fundamentals such as nouns and verbs are mastered before moving onto more complex grammar. We work individually and in groups developing skills in sentence structure and mechanics. This class strongly encourages the women to learn from one another by using standard grammar through everyday conversation.
Language Arts-Writing Part II (Essay)
WIC’s writing instructor helps the women learn the skills needed to produce a persuasive essay. From topic sentence to organization to details, the women increase their understanding of the necessary steps involved in writing a structured essay. They also focus strongly on brainstorming and categorizing ideas by writing about their own thoughts and interests.
Social Studies
WIC’s social studies program discusses current events every week which encourages women to become more aware of the world they live in. Group facilitators lead lively discussions on politics and important cultural issues and focus on how they can become more active and involved citizens. In addition to reading short essays, we also have hands-on activities such as games and videos which teach fundamentals in history, geography, and economics.
Science
WIC’s science program focuses on the study of the world around us and everything in it. Every time we try to figure out how something works or why something happens, the women are thinking scientifically. During this class, the women develop reading and thinking skills, apply different learning strategies, and “self-discover” or inquire. Group facilitators lead open group discussions, lively experiments, interactive computer lessons, and debates over scientific theories to have a better understanding of scientific topics such as plant and human biology, physics, chemistry, and earth science.
Women in Charge has an outstanding track record, with more than 90 percent of its participants progressing in the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE) — compared to the federal target of 47 percent. On average, participants who have completed 60 hours of instruction have gained an average of 2.5 grade levels in reading, 2.4 grade levels in language, and 2.8 grade levels in math.