Program areas at YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago
Child and adult care food program (tummy) through nutrition training and monitoring, the Ywca child and adult care food program (cacfp)/tummy provides technical support, supervision and monetary reimbursement to assist home-based/family child care providers in purchasing, preparing and serving healthy meals and snacks daily to all children, ages 0-12 years, participating in their programs.
Crisis intervention and advocacy -the Ywca operates the 24-hour rape crisis hotline for the city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Staffed by 40-hour trained staff and volunteers, the hotline provides crisis intervention and resource referrals to callers. The Ywca also provides medical and legal advocacy to survivors of sexual assault, providing trauma-informed support as survivors seek medical services and engage with the criminal justice system. Ywca Metropolitan Chicago is the largest provider of sexual assault support services in the state of Illinois. Through these services the Ywca staff seeks to improve the emotional, social, behaviorial and physical health of those served.
Early head start - the purpose of early head start is to expand high-quality early learning opportunities in the years before preschool. The Ywca's approach using a child care partnership model supports communities to increase the number of early head start and child care providers that meet the highest standards of quality for infant and toddler care.
Other programs include sexual assault counseling and prevention education, early childhood education services, parent mentoring and home visiting services, youth programming including stem education, and economic empowerment services. Professional, licensed counselors provide confidential individual and group counseling to child and adult survivors of sexual assault and their non-offending family members. The Ywca is also a leader in delivering sexual assault prevention education for students in pre-k through college, as well as to faculty and administration. The Ywca assists parents and families in their search for quality and affordable child care through individual counseling and referrals. Through home visiting and parent support and education, the Ywca ensures healthy cognitive, emotional, physical, language and social development of the child and their family. The Ywca provides hands-on experiential stem education for youth. And the Ywca's economic empowerment institue helps individuals gain skills to build a career or start their own business.