April 26, 2004
An economic agenda | For 25 years, Gilda Nardone has helped women move into the workforce
By Michaela Cavallaro
The name change alone says volumes: When the organization was founded in 1978, the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community, which celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Augusta Civic Center May 6, was known as the Displaced Homemakers Project. A pilot program funded by the Maine Legislature and housed at the University of Maine at Augusta, the Displaced Homemakers Project was aimed at women who were "thrustˆ
into the labor market, and were in many cases ill-prepared to make that transition," according to Gilda Nardone, its first ˆ and only ˆ executive director.
Nardone laughs as she remembers those early days, when the organization's entire budget and, thus, her salary, was $10,000, and when the concept of helping women move into the workplace provoked sustained, often acrimonious debate in the State House. (The subject was so contentious that Nardone and the program's creator, then-state Rep. Merle Nelson of Portland, were denied a second round of funding when they went back to the Legislature a year later; the program did not receive state funding again until 1990.)
But Nardone is serious about the problems that generation of women faced. "The work environment did not recognize the skills they might have gained in those years as homemakers and volunteers," she says. "A lot of our work was to help [women] realize that they had gained skills, and that those skills were transferable."
So Nardone began offering simple support groups and individual meetings to women entering the workforce. The emotional support was important to that first group of clients, she remembers, but equally valuable were more pragmatic matters, such as advice on how to go back to school as an adult, or suggestions on how to explain to potential employers the relevance of managing a household budget to a job that required accounting skills.
Over the years, the program, which was renamed in 1994, added services to reflect the changing needs of women in the workforce. A series of career and life planning courses, which Nardone describes as "helping people identify who they are, what they're skilled at and how to match that with a career field," was the first significant development, and it remains a key part of Women, Work and Community's offerings. What Nardone describes as a wave of entrepreneurship in the early 1980s led to new programs that help participants decide if business ownership is right for them.
Today, in addition to career planning and microenterprise programs, Women, Work and Community also offers training in community leadership development and asset development, which includes both basic financial literacy education and a program that helps low-income families save money by matching their contributions toward a specific goal, like buying a house or returning to school. The organization has 33 employees in 18 locations across the state, and its budget is $1.6 million, raised through a number of private foundations as well as the state.
All along, Nardone says, men were ˆ and still are ˆ welcome in Women, Work and Community's programs. She's seen a growing number of men participating in the career planning programs, in particular. The organization's niche, she says, is providing comprehensive, step-by-step assistance to individuals trying to determine their place in the Maine economy; people who simply need a workshop on employment law or technical assistance on patent applications, for example, are referred to other service providers. "It feels like this work, around economic security for women and their families, is really important," says Nardone when asked why she's stayed with the organization for 25 years.
"I feel like we're part of a larger group of people working together for this kind of change ˆ part of a larger effort for economic security and quality of life in Maine."
Nardone laughs as she remembers those early days, when the organization's entire budget and, thus, her salary, was $10,000, and when the concept of helping women move into the workplace provoked sustained, often acrimonious debate in the State House. (The subject was so contentious that Nardone and the program's creator, then-state Rep. Merle Nelson of Portland, were denied a second round of funding when they went back to the Legislature a year later; the program did not receive state funding again until 1990.)
But Nardone is serious about the problems that generation of women faced. "The work environment did not recognize the skills they might have gained in those years as homemakers and volunteers," she says. "A lot of our work was to help [women] realize that they had gained skills, and that those skills were transferable."
So Nardone began offering simple support groups and individual meetings to women entering the workforce. The emotional support was important to that first group of clients, she remembers, but equally valuable were more pragmatic matters, such as advice on how to go back to school as an adult, or suggestions on how to explain to potential employers the relevance of managing a household budget to a job that required accounting skills.
Over the years, the program, which was renamed in 1994, added services to reflect the changing needs of women in the workforce. A series of career and life planning courses, which Nardone describes as "helping people identify who they are, what they're skilled at and how to match that with a career field," was the first significant development, and it remains a key part of Women, Work and Community's offerings. What Nardone describes as a wave of entrepreneurship in the early 1980s led to new programs that help participants decide if business ownership is right for them.
Today, in addition to career planning and microenterprise programs, Women, Work and Community also offers training in community leadership development and asset development, which includes both basic financial literacy education and a program that helps low-income families save money by matching their contributions toward a specific goal, like buying a house or returning to school. The organization has 33 employees in 18 locations across the state, and its budget is $1.6 million, raised through a number of private foundations as well as the state.
All along, Nardone says, men were ˆ and still are ˆ welcome in Women, Work and Community's programs. She's seen a growing number of men participating in the career planning programs, in particular. The organization's niche, she says, is providing comprehensive, step-by-step assistance to individuals trying to determine their place in the Maine economy; people who simply need a workshop on employment law or technical assistance on patent applications, for example, are referred to other service providers. "It feels like this work, around economic security for women and their families, is really important," says Nardone when asked why she's stayed with the organization for 25 years.
"I feel like we're part of a larger group of people working together for this kind of change ˆ part of a larger effort for economic security and quality of life in Maine."
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