Title: From "Nowhere to Go" to Transforming Lives: How a Champaign County organization is scaling up to help women in Illinois.
Description:
In Illinois, women who come out of recovery programs or incarceration wanting to create a better life for themselves find limited systems and support. It is not surprising that a 2018 Prison Policy Initiative Report found that recently incarcerated people are ten times more likely than the population at large to be homeless. The title of the report says it all: Nowhere to Go.
Women in Need (WIN) Recovery, a small but growing organization headquartered in Champaign County, provides safe housing for formerly incarcerated women and women in recovery, while equipping them with vital life skills to transform their lives and rejoin the community as productive members. WIN Recovery was founded in 2018 to support women whose physical, mental, and emotional needs go unmet before and after incarceration or treatment programs. It is one of the founding members of the national Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) Housing Network, created by A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL), an innovative, internationally acclaimed reentry model that addresses root causes of trauma and addiction and fosters a healthy living foundation for women in need.
Join Executive Club member Emily Cross Vayr and Bethany Little, founder and Executive Director of WIN Recovery and herself a formerly incarcerated person in recovery, to learn about the challenges facing women in Illinois and how WIN Recovery is expanding to meet these needs.
About the Speakers:
Bethany Little MSW, QMHP, has a Bachelors in Communications and Masters in Social Work with a concentration in Mental Health from the University of Illinois. She is the founder and Executive Director of WIN Recovery program in Champaign County.
Emily Cross Vayr is the Chair of the Board of Directors of WIN Recovery and has leadership experience with a variety of nonprofits in Champaign County, including Champaign County CASA, Junior League of Champaign-Urbana, the University YMCA, and YWCA.
Registration Information:
This event will be hosted in person at the iHotel in Champaign
and
on ZOOM for those who would prefer to attend virtually
**Where to Find Your Zoom Link:
Each registrant will receive 2 reminder emails prior to the luncheon. You'll find the Zoom meeting information in those emails, as well as in your confirmation email which you will get immediately upon registration.
Registration for in person is $18.00 and includes lunch.
Registration to attend in person will be available until noon on Thursday, November 11. After November 11, registration switches to "late registration" at a price of $25.00. Registration via Zoom is free and will close on Wednesday, November 17th, at 12:00 noon.
Luncheon Start Time:
11:30 a.m.: Registration and Networking
11:45 a.m.: Lunch is served
12:00 p.m.: Meeting/Program begins in person and Zoom Call Starts
Non-Members: If you are not a member of ECCC and wish to attend as a guest, please contact Janice McAteer, Outreach Chair, to register.
