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Ensuring that we are focused on our mission! By Shari Harrell, Interim Executive Director              The YWCA Board of Trustees met on December 1, 2020 at the Kent State Trumbull Campus with an outside facilitator to continue the process to bring us out of our two year transition into a future of hope, vision and focus.  We have continued to learn from this valuable experience, and to delve deeper into our strategic plan to insure that we are true to our mission as we design our services and programs and seek funding to facilitate them.             We hold true to the mission of empowering women and the elimination of racism, wherever it exists.  Within that mission we further developed our vision for the YWCA of Warren.  The vision of YWCA of Warren is to be recognized as a community leader in improving the lives of  young girls, women and their families, and to serve as a pioneer in leading this community to understand and appreciate human diversity in all its forms.             We have worked diligently to strategically determine the steps that will lead us to our vision, and they are as follows: First and foremost, we need to insure that the community knows that the YWCA is open and serving this community.   Now that we are rebuilding our staff they will be active participants in committees that help to serve women and children in this community.  Furthermore, and most exciting to us, is that we are going to begin an image campaign that will allow us to share with the community how the YWCA has proudly chosen to again focus our services within our mission. Secondly, we will develop programs directly related to the mission of the YWCA.  More importantly, we are driven by the interests and needs of this community.    We will empower women by creating programs that enhance their leadership and personal growth. We will empower women to enter careers which used to be predominantly male driven, such as plumbing, electrical, construction, etc.  We will empower girls through exposure to quality leadership trainings and opportunities to be a part of Peer Mentoring, a Girls Café, and YW-Teens.  We will work to eliminate racism in this community by forming a coalition of diverse members who will provide a broad base of expertise and sensitivity in the creation of a cultural diversity and sensitivity training.  This culturally rich and stigma free training can later be provided to schools, businesses and other organizations to insure that we are addressing the differences in culture that exist here in Trumbull County. Thirdly, we will remain a fiscally responsible organization.  We have already begun to seek funding through grants and foundations that will help to support the programming that we have designed.  Fourthly, we will continue to encourage people to play legal lotteries online. Playing lotteries online at reputable sources can be rewarding and lucrative. We aim to help people by raising awareness of online resources such as ohio lottery results and playing the lottery online.  Lastly, we will maintain an effective and dedicated Board of Trustees that is representative of this community.  Additionally, we would like to develop a Junior Board of young women who will take part in fund raising efforts that benefit programming for the youth in this area.