Spotlight: WGC's Funding Partnership with HCC

Remarks by WGC Advisory Board Member Alison Canning at WGC's March 6, 2024 Annual Celebration & Pink Party:

I am so proud of the long-standing and growing partnership between the WGC and Howard Community College. 

We all know that educating women and girls can create a ripple effect of greater good that holds the key to unlocking brighter futures and empowers women to reach their full potential. Education gives women a pathway to learn the power of choice: how to advocate for themselves and think about how they want to live their lives, what they want to do, and who their role models are. Providing women with access to education, training, and resources enables them to challenge traditional gender roles and break down barriers

Our State of Women and Girls in Howard County underscores what we know - that poverty rates are higher for Howard County women if their educational attainment is a high school graduate or less. Once women attain bachelor's degrees or higher educational degrees, the poverty rate for Howard County women becomes lower.

5 Ways We’ve Partnered

I want to share 5 ways that the WGC has partnered with HCC and has served as  “a lifeline” to women at HCC through the years:

• Scholarships: Our partnership with HCC began when the WGC first started over 22 years ago with the WGC providing scholarships for women returning to the workforce. Those scholarships continue today through an ongoing multi-year grant and we’ve supported over 50 women through the years to attend HCC to further their education, including providing a stipend for books and other resources.

• Career Links: WGC donors, through our Big GIve 2022, provided HCC with a grant to Career Links, which helps students during a time of crisis and provides them with emergency funding so they can stay in school.

• CAC Partnership: In 2022, WGC partnered with HCC to support their new partnership with the Community Action Council with the goal to support the education of 25-30 CAC clients whose children attend their head start program and are moving forward with their education by enrolling at HCC and participating in the Career Links (CL) program.

• Workforce Development and Skilled Trades Center: In 2023 WGC pledged multi-year support for the new Workforce Development and Skilled Trades Center that will support women in these industries that are traditionally male-dominated. 

• Feminine Hygiene Product Drive: And finally, last year at our Annual Celebration we launched our partnership with HCC as part of our Feminine Hygiene Product Drive that supports students through the HCC Food Pantry. ​The WGC has chosen to continue our focus on this because it's a need that is easily and often overlooked.

Our data tells us that:
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• 29% of girls miss school due to lack of supplies needed
• 39% cannot provide period products for themselves, and
• Some are forced to use towels and plastic instead of proper supplies.​

We know that there is a link between period poverty and gender education gaps … and we have partnered with HCC to provide an opportunity for students to donate products if they can, and to take products if they need to. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happened this past year:

• You all helped us give HCC 25 pounds of feminine hygiene products at last year’s Annual Celebration.
• There were approximately 2,360 pantry visits by women and HCC provided feminine hygiene items to at least half of those visitors (1,180 women).
• HCC’s goal is to provide a box of products to each woman who needs it, and our  feminine hygiene drive partnership should allow HCC to come close to that goal in the next year. 

Thank you all for donating products today in our new boxes that will support students at HCC. In fact, rather than purchasing marketing “swag” for this event, we have chosen to invest that money in these new, sturdier, more visible boxes for our 2024 Feminine Hygiene Product Drive. They are making their debut today and you will start to see them around town at all library branches, at CA gyms, and at local businesses like The 3rd, Vectorworks and Bra-la-la. And, we’ve raised over $6,000 to provide to our partners to purchase products for their clients, and we invite you all to continue participating by donating products and donating money as we continue to grow this important effort.

We appreciate our long-standing partnership with Howard Community College!

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