Mission

The mission of the Women's Center is to build alliances with campus and community groups in order:

• to promote equality

• to increase women's self-reliance

• to heighten the understanding of women's contributions to all societies

The Women's Center carries out this mission by designing programs that encourage participation, including performances, discussion, exhibitions; by involving women and men of diverse races, classes, ethnic origins, sexual orientations, and age groups in creative activities contributing to public education, research, and policy development; and by producing informative and coalition-building publications.

History

Since its inception, the Women’s Center has contributed to the university through grant funded projects, ongoing programs, and individual stand-alone programs.

The Center has shown leadership in key areas at the University, including securing external funding of $1.2 million to establish the PEACC Program and over $96,000 for the KTAP Program for single parents.  Additionally, the Center provides valuable programming on women’s issues at the University and in the Community. 

1993 the Center won funding from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation for the Louisville American Festival Project, “a nationally recognized coalition of artists and sponsors who use the arts…to build understanding between diverse people and forge community alliances.”

 1999 the Center won a USDOJ Grant to establish the UofL PEACC Program. Over the next six years, this funding grew to a total of $1.2 million.  According to the University’s online Sexual Harassment Prevention policy the Women’s Center is a “resource [which is] available” to provide informal advice about resolving situations in which “discriminate[ion], including sexual harassment” may have occurred. http://louisville.edu/hr/affirmativeaction/sexualharassment/resources.html

2008 the Center won a grant from the Commonwealth of Kentucky to provide “supplemental work-study like grants” for UofL students who are recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.