A new womens non-profit wants to address gaps in services to tackle different needs through a series of initiatives.
The WOMAN Initiative founded by Jill Stalnaker. She said she created the organization after personal experiences and previous work with incarcerated women showed her the importance of helping women find and use their voices.
“I felt like women needed to have more of a space to find their voice and to use their voice,” Stalnaker said. “Some of that came from personal experience, some of that came from working with women that were incarcerated.”
Stalnaker said the WOMAN Initiative will not center on a single issue. Instead, the nonprofit plans to develop programs addressing different needs and gaps affecting women, with each initiative continuing to grow as the organization takes on additional issues.
“I really want to be able to serve as many needs as we can for women over the course of this nonprofit’s life, which, I mean, this is what I want to do with my life now,” Stalnaker said.
The organization’s first initiative, HER Song, uses therapeutic songwriting with women who are incarcerated or recovering from substance abuse. Stalnaker said the program is intended to help women process their experiences, communicate their needs and advocate for themselves.
“I want women to tap into a power that they already have,” Stalnaker said. “This initiative helped them understand that it’s already there, everything they need is already within themselves.”
Stalnaker said HER Song is intended to become an ongoing program rather than ending when the WOMAN Initiative turns its attention to another issue. The organization eventually hopes to hire someone to oversee HER Song while it develops additional initiatives.
“We want to keep all these things going and growing,” Stalnaker said.
Stalnaker said that structure will allow the organization to move into different areas where women face unmet needs. She said discussions have already begun about a future initiative that would have no connection to music.
“We want to really be involved in any space where we see a gap for women,” Stalnaker said.
One issue Stalnaker is considering for a future initiative is providing menstrual products in girls’ bathrooms at public schools. Stalnaker said she has already discussed the idea with people in a school system and has received positive initial feedback.