Strengthening Economic Supports for Women and Families (SESWF)
| MO-University of Missouri, UCEDD/LEND | |||
| Program Type | UCEDD | Fiscal Year | 2020 |
| Contact | Melissa Patterson Hazley, Ph.D. | ||
| [email protected] | |||
| Phone | 816-235-1770 | ||
| Project Description | |||
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Background UMKC Institute for Human Development (UMKC-IHD) was awarded an 18 month contract from the MO Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), Section on Womens Health with a goal to identify the main barriers to work and educational attainment for women through a statewide needs assessment and develop strategies and recommendations to alleviate the barriers. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), economic supports for women and families refer to the supports that can address poverty, economic security, and power imbalances between women and men. The economic security of families depends on womens access to full and equal labor force participation, including having comparable salaries to men for equivalent work, income generating options, work supports such as affordable quality childcare, and family-friendly policies such as maternity benefits and paid family and medical leave. These types of supports ensure women can remain in and contribute substantially to the workforce improving not only their economic conditions and promoting family stability, but also decreasing gender inequality, which has been linked to risk for sexual violence. MO DHSS violence prevention strategies have typically focused on the relationship and community level of the Social Ecological Model. However, the CDC encourages prevention efforts that focus on changing the community and environmental characteristics of a setting as they have the greatest potential to large scale impact on violence prevention. DHSS chose to fund this strategy to understand the unique challenges faced by Missouri women and to inform future policies and programs that would improve economic security and stability for women and provide families with opportunities to strengthen their education, employment, and income outcomes to reduce the risk for victimization. Overview of the Project Overall purpose: To prevent the perpetration and victimization of sexual violence in Missouri. Goal of the contract: To identify the main barriers to work and educational attainment through a statewide needs assessment and develop strategies and recommendations to alleviate the barriers. Project Objectives (slide 3) 1. Develop and Convene project advisory group May 2019 Dec 2020 2. Plan and conduct a qualitative needs assessment to identify barriers to education and employment May Dec 2019 3. Develop recommendations to reduce barriers through review of the literature, hosting Community Conversations, and advisory group input Jan Nov 2020 4. Develop toolkit to support implementation of strategies Jan Nov 2020 |
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