Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

YWCA Missoula: Women’s leadership series deadline!

Canva Art

The YWCA has been doing some great work with women, including a wonderful program for Native women victims of domestic violence. And now the YWCA is offering a leadership series for women. Take note: The deadline to apply is rapidly approaching. Check out the details in the following press release:

YWCA Missoula’s bi-annual Women’s Leadership Series will be held Friday mornings from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. beginning September 25. Sessions will take place at the YWCA’s Planet Kids, which is located in the basement of Missoula Aging Services at 337 Stephens Avenue . Tuition is $500, and scholarships are available. Applications can be downloaded from www.ywcaofmissoula.org and are due by Wednesday, Sept. 9. To learn more contact Jen Euell at jeuell@ywcaofmissoula.org.

 The eight-week series is designed to reconnect women to their “best selves,” said Mullen, director of Women’s Leadership at the YWCA.

 “We ask women to do the difficult work of figuring out who they are and who they want to be in their lives and in the workplace,” said Mullen, who has managed and consulted with nonprofits and small businesses since 1979. “This process helps them clarify their ambitions and passions, as well as their leadership abilities.”

 Jen Euell, director of the YWCA’s girls leadership program, GUTS!, will co-facilitate the series with Mullen. Euell has worked to empower women and girls in various programs and capacities for more than 12 years.

 “Your best life and your best work are one in the same,” said Euell. “We want to help women realize don’t have to try to satisfy the demands of everyone around them, which is such a common problem among women.”

YWCA volunteer and past board president Anna Martello participated in the series last year.

 “The YWCA’S Women’s Leadership Training Series is a gift,” Martello said. “It is a rare and powerful opportunity to witness and experience the deep interplay of inner and outer life related to leadership. It was one of the most worthwhile steps I have taken to becoming a leader in my own life.”

 YWCA Missoula, founded in 1911, is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. 

 Jodi Rave

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.