Collaboration Is Key to Assist Gulf Coast Women and Families

Collaboration Is Key to Assist Gulf Coast Women and Families
BPW/USA Partners with IWPR for Outreach and Release of New Research

Washington, DC, August 30—One year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast leaving residents to relocate and/or rebuild, many portions of the impacted states remain unchanged. In an effort to provide resources to impacted women and families of the Gulf Coast, Business and Professional Women/USA (BPW/USA) has launched partnerships with organizations that have created programs and outreach for this distinct population. Recently BPW/USA joined the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in a press call with Mississippi-area organizations to release new research regarding the impact of Hurricane Katrina on women and families.

“IWPR’s research bolsters the need for collaborations such as BPW/USA’s partnership that we announced in July to assist women and families of the Gulf Coast,” stated Nancy Jackson, national president of BPW/USA. “We hope to secure additional partners moving forward who can commit complementary resources to this partnership.”

BPW/USA is encouraging its 20,000 members across the nation to get involved by providing support as mentors and by directing them to available resources. As a result, members are ‘adopting’ women and families from the Gulf Coast region and identifying women who have re-located in their communities. BPW/USA is offering access to the BPW/USA Career Center and its online advocacy resources usually reserved for members.

IWPR’s briefing paper, The Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast: Multiple Disadvantages and Key Assets for Recovery, Part II. Gender, Race, and Class in the Labor Market, used federal data sources to examine demographic shifts in the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes and women’s employment, occupation type and earnings prior to the hurricanes- including the Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula metro area in MS, the Beaumont- Port Arthur metro area in Texas and in New Orleans and its broader metro area. In conjunction with IWPR’s report release, the audio conference call focused on the needs of women and families.

“BPW/USA recognizes that last year’s hurricanes are not just a disaster that impacted the Gulf Coast, but our nation as a whole,” said Deborah Frett, CEO for BPW/USA and BPW Foundation. “We are proud to undertake this type of outreach and support and are hopeful that we will secure more partners such as IWPR to do the same.”

Overall recommendations given in the briefing paper are:

• Ensure the right of return to residents
• Restore basic services
• Include women in the planning and rebuilding
• Expand education and training, including access to higher education
• Provide quality child care
• Increase earnings and provide work supports
• Continue data collection

BPW/USA, founded in 1919, is a multi-generational, bipartisan membership organization with a mission to achieve equity for all women in the workplace through advocacy, education, and information. Established as the first organization to focus on issues of workingwomen, BPW/USA is historically a leader in grassroots activism, policy influence and advocacy for millions of workingwomen. For more information visit www.bpwusa.org

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