YWCA of Madison, Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Affordable Housing & Shelter
Everyone needs a place to call home—a safe haven and shelter from the storm, a place to settle and be nurtured. The YWCA has designed several services that address this need and help women and their families find their place in the world.
Children's Programs provide supervised activities, field trips, and holiday events on weekday evenings for young children living in the Third Street and Family Shelter Programs
Empower Home provides safe, supportive transitional housing for female survivors of domestic violence. Participants join the program through referral from Domestic Abuse Intervention Services.
The Family Shelter provides emergency shelter for up to 90 days to homeless families with children. Participants are referred to the shelter by the Salvation Army of Dane County.
House-ability provides permanent housing for homeless families who have requested shelter and have at least one disabled adult.
Housing For Single Women: The YWCA Madison’s downtown location features affordable apartments for low-income, single women, providing a safe and supportive permanent home in the heart of Madison.
Rapid Rehousing is a one-year program providing families with rent assistance for permanent housing and supportive case management services.
Second Chance Apartment Project: Through this program, homeless families are established in transitional, affordable housing with supportive services.
Third Street provides affordable apartments, a safe neighborhood for families, and support services for single female-headed families with one or two children, birth to four years old, or women in their last trimester of pregnancy.
Race & Gender Equity Programs
YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. In order to achieve our goals of a more equitable society, the YWCA Madison provides a spectrum of programming aimed at creating a more just and inclusive society. These programs include:
-Racial Justice Programs
-Restorative Justice Program
-Women’s Leadership Initiatives
Racial Justice Programs
Racism affects all of us, regardless of what we look like. The elimination of racism is an on-going process that requires persistence, commitment, and continuing dialogue between individuals and groups. The YWCA is committed to helping individuals, organizations, and companies in the Madison community improve race relations and find ways to eliminate racism through constructive dialogue and meaningful action. The YWCA achieves these goals through:
-Racial Justice Workshops are offered regularly in the community and upon request for groups, organizations, or businesses.
-Each year, the YWCA hosts a Racial Justice Summit that brings together community stakeholders to work on eliminating barriers that foster racism in our community
-For an intensive and cumulative learning experience, the YWCA offers a racial justice certificate program for participants who attend all three of the course levels and complete reading and online assignments between the courses.
Restorative Justice Program
The YWCA Madison uses Restorative Justice as a strategy to address the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The School-to-Prison Pipeline is a process by which students are removed from the school for disciplinary infractions. These students are often put on a path to the criminal justice system. The racial disparities in school discipline directly correlate with the racial disparities in the criminal justice system. We use restorative justice to provide alternative discipline models in schools to keep students in school and out of the justice system.
Women’s Leadership Initiatives
The YWCA Madison’s women’s leadership trainings aim to help women develop skills to help them advance in their careers while breaking down barriers that prevent women from attaining leadership roles. The YWCA Madison achieves these goals through:
-The Moxie Conference: Nerve and Know-How for Emerging Leaders - This women’s leadership conference aims to build tomorrow’s leaders and encourage them to draw inspiration from the Women of Distinction Award recipients who will be honored during the conference.
-YWomen Lead Series - This eight-month intensive leadership and career development series develops leadership skills to support personal growth and develop a leadership peer group. Attendees will gain fresh ideas and strategies to promote women’s leadership in their organization.
Job Training & Transportation
Women who participate in our training programs gain skills in economic literacy, as well as tangible job skills that allow them to have access to employment fields in which they have traditionally been underrepresented.
As we look at the impact of sexism and racism, women, and particularly women of color, experience adverse economic impacts. By focusing on empowering women economically, the YWCA Madison hopes to improve the economic wealth of individual families and our community.
Women’s economic empowerment speaks to a woman’s ability to make strategic choices, improve her economic situation, and alter existing power structures that create barriers to economic justice.
Economic empowerment is more than simply having a job. Our goal is to create economic justice that equals equity and fairness.
The YWCA Madison achieves these goals by providing:
-Employment and training programs, and
-Safe transportation solutions.
Where we work
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Login and updateAwards
Charles M. Hill Sr. Award for Housing Excellence 2013
Wisconsin Collaborative for Affordable Housing
External reviews

Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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YWCA of Madison, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 03/15/2019
Paula Steinhorst
Alliant Energy Center
Margaret Leitinger
Spherion
Term: 2015 -
Paula Steinhorst
Alliant Energy
Paula Steinhorst
Alliant Energy
Board leadership practices
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes