YWCA, now as then, is empowering women

Back in the early 1900s, local church women began talking about ways to help the young women who were flooding into Winston-Salem to work at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Hanes Knitting.

Most of the new arrivals were single and had little education or experience of the world. They needed guidance and support.

In 1908, Winston-Salem women established the Young Women's Christian Association on Main Street, where the women could study sewing, typing, cooking, English, arithmetic and other skills they would need to thrive. The Reynolds and Hanes companies provided money for the center.

The center's goal was to empower women and to create future leaders, said Florence Corpening, the chief executive of the YWCA of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County.

This year, the local YWCA is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and Corpening said that the organization's mission has not changed, although its programs and services have evolved as women's roles have expanded.

Classes in cooking and typing might not sound progressive today, but in the early 20th century, they were important skills for women who were living on their own for the first time, Corpening said.

The early YWCA provided women the same thing that the organization later provided to single mothers, such as Lea Loftis, who moved to Winston-Salem in the 1980s -- a social network and support for working women.

Loftis, who is currently on the YWCA board, said that the organization has been an important part of her life since 1983, when she first came to the YWCA, because it provided decent and affordable child care.

"I felt totally safe at the YWCA for my child," she said.

In time, she went on to take exercise classes at the YWCA, and she got to know the staff and other class members, some of whom became friends.

The YWCA always supported the advancement of women, whether through pushing for social change, helping them to enjoy the company of other women or to support them economically, Corpening said.

During the Depression, the YWCA hired women and girls to make rag rugs, and the organization took part in other social programs.

In the 1940s, the women of Hanes Hosiery organized one of the area's first women's basketball teams through the YWCA. The organization also began offering fitness programs, Corpening said.

The original YWCA was on Main Street, but it eventually moved to Church and West First streets. A new YWCA opened on Glade Street in 1942 to accommodate the organization's growing roster of programs.

In 2007, the Gateway YWCA opened near the corner of Salem Avenue and South Main Street. The Gateway YWCA was planned as one of the anchors in a neighborhood revitalization plan that will include shops, apartments, restaurants and businesses.

Jane Martin, the president of Makin' It Work Pronto!, a marketing and communications company, said that the YWCA has been a part of her life since she was a teenager here in the late 1960s. She also is on the YWCA board.

Martin joined the Y-Teens in 1966 and 1967 as a student at North Forsyth High School. In addition to putting on dances, the group raised money for such projects as buying furniture for the school office.

"It taught me excellent leadership skills that I'm not sure I'd gotten thus far in life," Martin said. "I think it polished me. And more than anything, it showed me that you could be a leader.

"It got you out of the classroom, out of the family, in an organization where you had to develop your own identity."

Improving race relations also has been an important part of the YWCA's mission since its early days, Corpening said.

In 1917, a YWCA branch was organized to provide guidance to black women and girls. The programs it offered were similar to those at the original YWCA.

In 1953, a joint YWCA-YMCA for blacks opened on Patterson Avenue. That organization had many of the same programs that the other Y's offered.

In the 1970s, the YWCA board of directors voted to create one YWCA for black and white women on Glade Street. Martha Young served as the merged organization's first black executive director in 1976.

The YWCA's interest in race relations has continued with its Sisters Undivided program, which brings together about 10 women a year for classes, discussions and socializing, Corpening said.

The program has been popular, Corpening said, because women tend to embrace change more quickly than men, and women are more willing to undergo the rigorous self-examination that is often needed to break down stereotypes.

Corpening said she does not think that the YWCA's mission will change much in the years to come. She said she wouldn't mind people becoming more aware about the scope of the organization's work.

"Yes, the YWCA does run fitness centers and aerobics classes and swimming," she said. "But, we also provide life-skills building for adjudicated and high-risk children, housing for women recovering from addiction, race-relations education and so many other services. Our focus may be women, but these issues really affect everyone in the community."

■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.