YWCA director excited about new job

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

New YWCA Executive Director Tammy Branham said she is excited about her new job, after 21-plus years serving clients with mental disabilities, but also noted that the job also has its challenges.

“It’s a challenge because it’s completely different from what I’m used to doing,” said Branham, a Van Wert native who has lived in Defiance the past 13 years.

Branham, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Dayton, had been working in Fort Wayne, Ind., for more than two decades, but recently decided to take some time off  work to help care for a granddaughter. It was an eye-opening experience for her.

“About three weeks into being home, I found I just couldn’t do it,” Branham said, adding that, while she still provides lots of support for her granddaughter, she also discovered she needed the stimulation of working.

Although her new job is a change from what she is used to, it still involves working with people, and that’s something that’s important to the new YWCA director. “I love working with people,” Branham said, noting that she is also pleased with the YWCA’s commitment to social service work.

“Growing up here, I always thought of the YWCA as a fitness facility,” she said, adding that, while a student at Lincolnview High School (Class of 1986), she spent a couple of years as a student dance instructor for Pam’s School of Dance, which then held classes upstairs at the YWCA.

But even then, she said, she was pretty much unaware of the YW’s housing services, which have been in place since the YWCA was built nearly 100 years ago, and are now provided by the expanded transitional housing program.

Branham said she was particularly interested in the YWCA’s new domestic violence program, stating she was amazed at how far-reaching the program is. “I like the idea that it serves people in other counties, as well as here,” she explained.

She also appreciates the team atmosphere at the YWCA, where staff members actually work together to deliver its many services to the community.

“It’s very exciting to work for a company where people work together as a team,” Branham noted, adding that she would be lost without Program Director Danni Chiles and Jamie Evans, who heads up the transitional housing program at the YWCA.

In addition to those programs, the YWCA also conducts the Summer Food Program, which provides meals to needy children throughout the county during the summer.

The new YWCA director said she also believes strongly in the YWCA’s mission statement: to empower women and eliminate racism. She also said it is important to ensure that the YWCA’s social service programs continue to grow and prosper, while adding that she also wants to make sure community residents take advantage of what the YWCA has to offer, in the way of social services.

“We are here for the community, use us,” Branham said.