Looser proud of YW’s accomplishments

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

YWCA of Van Wert County Executive Director Stacy Looser can look back on three years of significant improvements in the YW’s programs and services as she prepares to start a new phase of her life.

Looser, a Delphos native, is leaving her YWCA position this Thursday to take a job with Target stores in the Nashville, Tenn., area and eventually marry her longtime boyfriend, who is in the military.

Characteristically, Looser takes little credit for the changes that have happened since she took over as executive director in early August 2010, noting that “90 percent” of the service and program improvements came from a meeting she held with staff soon after taking the YWCA job.

“Our accomplishments are all items from wish lists the staff came up with soon after I came here,” Looser said, adding that she views her role as taking those items and turning them into a practical vision for the organization.

In doing so, the YWCA executive director said she took the part of the YWCA’s motto that deals with empowering women to heart. “The staff is strong, the board is strong, they just needed someone to show them they could accomplish their goals,” Looser said.

One major accomplishment for the YW came in the first six months after Looser became executive director, when the organization received a Family Housing Grant it had been denied a year before. The grant allowed the YWCA to make improvements and open up the former Van Wert Woman’s Club clubhouse on South Washington Street.

“This was a battle, due to the grant being denied, and we worked hard to finally obtain grant funding for this project,” Looser said, adding that opening the South Washington Street house allowed the YWCA to include fathers in the Transitional Housing program for the first time.

“We had heard the horror stories about fathers having to sleep in their cars, ‘couch hop’ with acquaintances or find a bed at the Lima Shelter, the closest facility for homeless men,” Looser said. “This is a need the YWCA took very seriously and was proud to address for the first time ever in our area.”

Men who stay at the South Washington Street house are also part of the YWCA’s transitional housing program and must do the same things the women in the Transitional Housing do, including keeping their living space clean.

“We are not a ‘kick your feet up’ kind of place,” Looser said, adding that, to “earn” a bed in the YWCA’s Transitional Housing program, men and women must also participate in the Career Development Center program.

Looser said the goal of the program, developed by Transitional Housing Director Jamie Evans and her staff, is to: “support and empower the underserved homeless men and women of our community through education as they move towards their goal of attaining employment and independent living.”

The program offers educational opportunities, including high school equivalency programs and higher education, while also helping participants create and maintain professional resumes, prepare them for job interviews, maintain an updated list of area job postings, and provide online job application support.

Looser said she was particularly proud of the YW’s career development program, especially since 80 percent of women housed at the YWCA did not have their General Educational Development (GED) diploma when she became executive director. Today, nearly all of those in the program have their GED.

Also part of the career development program is a “Career Closet,” which provides women with an assortment of clothing, shoes, jewelry — and even makeup — in a variety of sizes that women can wear to job interviews. The Career Closet was created by Van Wert High School English teacher Kathy Taylor and her students as part of senior projects at the school.

The newest addition to the Transitional Housing program is a domestic violence services unit that includes a 24/7 hotline. A grant from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office helps fund the program, which also included security upgrades at the YWCA. Women involved in that program must also participate in the Career Development Center.

Transitional housing was one of the YWCA’s two big programs to which major improvements were made while Looser was executive director. The other is the Summer Food program, now in its 18th year, and the biggest change there has been a complete renovation of the YWCA’s kitchen to accommodate the many meals prepared there for the program.

“This was a huge undertaking, but one we knew had to be completed,” Looser said. “Truthfully, our kitchen was getting to the point that, if upgrades and repairs weren’t completed, we could not have served meals to children in the Summer Food Program.”

That would have been a huge loss to the community, since the program served more than 20,000 meals to needy youngsters last summer.

The kitchen project was completed just recently, thanks to a grant from Lowe’s home improvement stores, as well as donations from local businesses and organizations, such as Laudick’s Jewelry and the County Leadership Class, which held fundraisers for the project.

“The Lowe’s grant was a shock to us,” Looser said, adding, “We weren’t even expecting to get picked, but we did and they gave us more than they were supposed to.”

The YWCA executive director explained that the grant was supposed to be for $25,000, but that Lowe’s officials upped the amount to $38,000 so the project could be completed.

Kitchen improvements include new cupboards, a walk-in cooler donated by Eaton Corporation, and a first-ever dishwasher for the YWCA. “The dishwasher is truly a blessing,” Looser noted.

The YW executive director also thanked Larry Wendel and The Van Wert County Foundation and Deb Russell and United Way of Van Wert County for all the financial support those two groups have provided over the years, as well as her staff and board for all their support.

While Looser said leaving the YWCA is hard and she will miss the Summer Food program especially, she feels that the organization is stronger than it has been in years and that now is the time to go.

“If you would have asked me four months ago if I was ready to go, I would have said ‘no way,’ but things have progressed very well over that time and I can now feel good about moving on to the next chapter of my life,” Looser said.

She said she also feels she is leaving the organization she loves ready for the future, as well as maintaining the mission first created by philanthropist George Marsh when he provided funding to build a YWCA nearly 100 years ago.

“I hope George Marsh would be proud of what we’ve done,” Looser said in conclusion.