HAVE A CUP OF JOE WITH JOE – Go WEST With Women’s Enterprise Skills Training Of Windsor Inc.
In 1993, the Pet Shop Boys had the number one “dance song” on the U.S. Billboard charts, GO WEST.
It is an uplifting anthem-like song capturing the famous 19th Century phrase, “Go WEST, young man, go WEST!”
I think of this each time I travel past the Herb Gray Centre For Nonprofit Excellence at 647 Ouellette Avenue in Windsor and see the large sign at the top of the building for the Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor Inc. (known as WEST). This makes me smile and sing out: yes, indeed, Go WEST !
WEST exists to supply training for women to improve their employability in the workforce and/or further their education.
Since 1987, WEST has provided 50,000 women in Windsor Essex with support and programs to aid them in securing employment, enhancing their skills, along with providing newcomer and immigrant women with services designed to help them adapt and integrate into Canadian culture and their new community.
This not-for-profit organization has grown from its beginnings in 1987 to a current staff of 60, mostly under the leadership of Rose Anguiano Hurst, WEST Executive Director for the past 27 years.
And she is doing an amazing job!
Hurst and her team are definitely doing something right as federal and provincial funding and grants keep coming their way.
On March 18, 2021, Irek Kusmierczyk, Member of Parliament for Windsor-Tecumseh, announced that WEST was receiving $1,648,837 in federal funding for their Young Women in LEAD (Leadership, Education and Development) program to provide 120 young women with hands-on skills training and on-the-job experience.
Kusmierczyk stated: “Women’s Enterprise Skills Training (WEST) of Windsor Inc. is a fantastic example of a community organization creating long-lasting change in the lives of Canadian women.”
Next, an early Christmas present for WEST arrived on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 when community members, participants, staff, and board members of Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor Inc. gathered to celebrate the $150,000 Resilient Communities Fund grant they received from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF).
“Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor has been providing essential training services to those women in our community who need it most, for many years now,” says Lisa Gretzky, MPP Windsor West. “The organization was clearly deserving of this Resilient Communities Fund grant from OTF, and I congratulate everyone involved.”
Hurst adds: “This grant came at the right time to complement our return to in-person services. The Resiliency Fund grant offered the funding for the solutions we identified; we needed to offer an improved environment with innovative training solutions in a safe environment, so we can continue our work helping some of the most vulnerable in the community support their employment and training needs.”
Powered by the OTF grant, the funding was used to support the organization to rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. This was achieved through supporting staffing costs, renovations, and equipment purchases for safe in-person delivery of a digital skills training program. New equipment included upgraded computers, desks, and chairs, along with other technological enhancements, including a Smartboard.
According to Hurst, the OTF grant has also aided with other strategic enhancements, including updating a communications strategy to improve the organization’s work and outcomes. This plan will serve as a blueprint for the organization to proactively promote its programs reaching target audiences, and further the organization’s impact throughout the community.
One of the exciting WEST initiatives is Women In Skilled Trades. WEST has forged solid partnerships with stakeholders such as St. Clair College and labour unions like Unifor Local 444. Over 280 women have already been trained with job ready skills to enter the skilled trades’ workforce.
On International Women’s Day — March 8, 2023 — WEST presents their 17th Journey Toward Success Awards and International Women’s Day Gala, with this year’s theme, Embrace Equity.
The event at St. Clair College Centre For the Arts includes a terrific meal, music by Six Degrees, a silent auction and raffle. Tickets are $90 and can be ordered online.
This special gala is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate not only International Women’s Day, but the many successes of WEST in recent years.
In addition to the awards segment, WEST is thrilled to have as their guest speaker, Carolyn Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Windsor Detroit Borderlink Limited – Windsor Detroit Tunnel.
I was able to catch up with this very busy woman and asked her for a preview of her remarks. Here’s what she shared . . . “I am honoured that the Board of Directors of WEST has chosen me to deliver the keynote address at their 2023 International Women’s Day Gala. This year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity.”
Brown continues: “Equity is a journey, not a destination. As a woman of colour, whose family immigrated to Canada in the 1970s, my hope is that in sharing the road to my accomplishments and the challenges and opportunities that have placed an imprint on my career, that in my remarks the audience will hear something familiar, something inspirational and something that gives them ‘food for thought’.”
Biz X magazine is proud to sponsor WEST’s initiatives and their contributions to our community and congratulates them for their recent grants and federal funding.
We hope to see many of you at the gala on March 8 as we collectively sing out, “GO WEST, GO …!”
