White Plains, NY – The YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester will examine challenges facing girls at the organization’s Annual Meeting on October 24, 2011.

The event will feature representatives from agencies doing research and work at national and local levels on issues young women face as they strive to complete high school, attain college and advanced degrees and find success in the workplace.

Despite the advances over the years, girls all over the United States, including Westchester County, continue to face new and old pressures that limit their potential. In addition to challenges that have to do with self-esteem and body image, girls are impacted each day by barriers such as poverty, racial and gender discrimination and immigration status. Yet, no matter the obstacles every girl faces, a spark exists within her. When girls receive the support they need, an incredible ripple effect is created. The YWCA seeks to enhance the support structure for girls in Westchester County by bringing together experts and individuals from across academic, civic and social organizations. By fostering dialogue among agencies that work with girls, we build better systems and programs, ensuring that more girls have a chance to succeed.

The keynote presenter at the October 24th Annual Meeting is Dina Lassow, Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, DC. Ms. Lassow will address educational inequities and issues affecting the health and wellness of girls. Dr. Ellen Silber from the Mentoring Latinas Program at Fordham University will speak about this project, which pairs middle school Latina girls with Latinas attending college. Nicole Stansbury, Director of Youth and Community Services at the YWCA White Plains and Central Westchester, will speak about Girls Empowered through Meaningful Support, which has provided after school and enrichment programming for African American and Latina girls in the White Plains School District for forty years.  The meeting will be facilitated by Marlene Furtick, former Director of the Westchester County Youth Bureau.

Speakers:
Dina Lassow, Esq. is Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, spending much of her time working on amicus briefs for Supreme Court cases, including several current employment discrimination cases. Ms. Lassow also works on issues related to reproductive rights.

National Women’s Law Center: The Center was established in 1972 as a project of the Center for Law and Social Policy to secure and advance legal rights and protections for women in the courts, in Congress and in the states. The Center has worked for more than three decades to expand, defend and promote women’s rights at every stage of the legal process. As strong advocate for equal access for girls in education, Current priorities of the Center include opening doors to vocational and career education programs that train young women to enter and succeed in non-traditional fields with the promise of greater pay and job opportunities; bringing groundbreaking lawsuits and undertaking other advocacy efforts to enforce Title IX's promise of equal treatment in education, including by leveling the playing field for girls' athletics participation; reducing the school dropout rate for girls; restoring legal protections against unequal sex-segregated education; ensuring that students have legal protections against sexual harassment; strengthening enforcement of anti-discrimination laws; fighting for strong affirmative action policies that take race and gender into account to remedy discrimination and promote diversity in education; and ensuring adequate funding for education at all levels.

Dr. Ellen Silber is currently the director of Mentoring Latinas at Fordham University, a project in which Hispanic female college students mentor their middle school counterparts. Ellen Silber helps bring women's studies into mainstream academic life and has worked with the University’s Institute for Women and Girls.

Nicole Stansbury is the Director of Youth and Community Services at the YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester. She has been profoundly involved in the YWCA’s GEMS (Girls’ Empowered through Meaningful Support) Program, which strives to provide a continuum of support and preparation for college success for kindergarten through high school, African American and Latina girls in the White Plains School District.

Facilitator:
Marlene Futick is the former Executive Director of the Westchester County Youth Bureau.  She currently teaches at NYU and the College of New Rochelle School of Social Work.

The YWCA Annual Meeting is free and open to the public. The event starts at 6:30PM and takes place at the YWCA, 515 North Street, White Plains, NY. To R.S.V.P or for more information, please contact Danielle Cylich at (914) 949-6227 ext. 147 or e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text47279 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it