The Women’s Fund of Greater Fort Wayne is celebrating its fifth anniversary with its annual Gala, Women Rock, on Aug. 21.
Launched on Aug. 26, 2020, the centennial anniversary of women’s right to vote, the the organization was founded to focus specifically on the needs of women and girls in Allen County, Indiana.
As a systemic change organization, it is focused on examining the data and the ‘why’ behind some of the biggest hardships and barriers that women face in our county.
Here’s a discussion on the progress being made and the challenges ahead with its director, Cassie Beer, with a look at how five years of “making a difference” benefits the entire community.
Event Information:
Women’s Fund 2025 Gala: Women Rock!
At La Vetta, 110 West Berry Street
Thursday, Aug. 21
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Find ticket information and more at the Women's Fund of Greater Fort Wayne website.
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Cassie Beer, welcome.
Cassie Beer: Thank you, Julia.
Julia Meek: Now, it seems like only yesterday that the Women's Fund hit the ground running. In a word or two, what kind of a rush has all of this been?
Cassie Beer: It has been exactly that, Julia, a wild rush.
Julia Meek: Crazy ride?
Cassie Beer: (both laugh) A roller coaster!
Julia Meek: You've certainly come a long way, and back then, Allison Gerardot and Rachel Blakeman actually made a thorough study and a report that went with it of the community's needs at that time, the first one since 1974 in fact. Where did that point you and yours on this detail?
Julia Meek: So, zoom in for us now, Cassie, what were the biggest challenges you were facing back then.
Cassie Beer: So that first study that we released in 2020, like you said, the first one since 1974, we didn't really know what to look for, because it had been almost 50 years since the last comprehensive study of women and girls in Allen County.
So we looked at everything we could think of to look at--childcare, healthcare, tobacco use, teen pregnancy, everything we could possibly think of when it comes to the status of women and girls. And we really were able to get a big picture look at what women and girls were struggling with, where they are thriving and where they need support.
So that first study really helped us narrow in on where are areas that the Women's Fund can focus, where there is significant need and also gaps of service and focus.
Cassie Beer: The full report is on our website, all 281 pages. if anyone needs some light reading this weekend, to go back and look, (both chuckle) and we really decided to focus in on three areas that there was significant need.
One, economic security, women's ability to be financially sound. Secondly, personal safety, hearing about women's experiences of physical and sexual violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, tremendous need in our community, as well as really looking at the supports and services for young women and girls, especially when it comes to their mental health and their physical safety.
Julia Meek: So how difficult or easy was it to sort through and then jump on those prioritizations?
Cassie Beer: It took a long time to make sure that we were pointed in the right direction. But fortunately, Allison Gerardot at the Community Foundation was able to build this incredible committee of people living it every day, boots on the ground.
The people who are serving young women and girls, experts in these spaces and those voices were what really helped us to be able to narrow in on, you know, these are areas of focus, and then to help us identify, you know, there are a lot of nonprofits in Fort Wayne, in Allen County, over 2500 is our last count.
And the vast majority of those organizations are devoted to immediate help, right? Direct service. We need to pull people out of the river. What helped us make a quick decision about the women's fund's purpose was to say, you know what, we don't have an entity devoted to upstream solutions.
You know, why are these people falling in the river? Let's go upstream and figure out why. So, I think the challenge and that has been getting our community to, you know, really understand what it means to be a systemic change organization.
So, while we're working in these spaces, it might not look like immediate relief, direct service need, but we're really trying to look at the structures and the systems and the policies that affect women and girls in these areas.
Julia Meek: Not only meritorious, but that also speaks of the previous report back in 1974 and the groundwork and the hard work that was done by those pioneers, we might call them. How did that help you feed on what needed to be done and knowing how to do it
Cassie Beer: So that 1974 report, if you read it, it's both disheartening and affirming to see how little has changed for women and girls. And I think that that really helped us get to work quickly.
You know, to see that, you know, almost 50 years has gone by, and women are still in the economic struggle that they were in the 70s. Women are still facing sexual harassment and exorbitant amounts of domestic violence compared to our national peers.
Like we need to get to work now if we want to have a very different report in 2070. So, it really helped us focus in, be really strategic and to really hit the ground running.
Julia Meek: In an odd way, it was very providential, or you turned it into a providential situation. Having the help and backing of the Community Foundation is absolutely critical, of course. You also had help from the Lilly foundation.
You also have an amazing amount of founding individuals that really helped your cause to get all of this going, which had to be there for your success. How did that fuel your progress to have all of those entities and individuals behind you?
Cassie Beer: Mmm. Impactful work only happens when there is financial support to make it happen. You know, we all want to see good work happen in our community, but we do have to acknowledge that for effective work to happen, someone has to be paid every day to wake up and think about and work towards that thing happening.
So having the support of the Community Foundation, having substantial investments from the Lilly Endowment, and then having these 17 founders come together and say, es, we're gonna be the first ones to really give to the Women's Fund. That created really the foundation for us to figure out what to do, right?
It gave us that safety net and that push to trial and error a little bit, and to spend some real time making sure that we were setting things up correctly, that we were doing it strategically, and able to do that with, with the funds there to do the work well and to do it exceptionally.
Julia Meek: And quickly, that's pretty remarkable. Just how were you able to build that necessary infrastructure? What did that entail just for you to be able to operate effectively at your new job, so to speak?
Cassie Beer: The Women's Fund works because of the volunteers who show up for us. So we have a steering committee of individuals who are our advisory members. They are guiding this work and shaping it and keeping it on track. And then we have seven other subcommittees.
So, all together, we have about 50 volunteers who are coming together and making sure this thing is staying on track, making sure that we are staying true to our mission and our strategic plan. So, number one, absolutely, this initiative was able to happen because women and men showed up and decided to help and to make it happen.
Also that so many of our corporate partners have shown up for us as well. We've had employers, you know, willing to not just write a check for an event and, you know, put their name, you know, on the slides at the event. But corporate partners who want to say, we want to be better for women in the workplace, like help us figure this out.
You know, we want to come alongside you and support this work so that we can change too. So I would say, having those volunteers in place, having amazing partners in the community who see the value, see the potential, see where we are trying to go, none of us does great work alone, right? It's been the power of community to get this thing off the ground.
Julia Meek: Yes, it's quite something. Now, interestingly, the report we mentioned that started it all came out right about the same time covid did. How would you say the covid and that new normal that followed it actually drove your mission and its progress? Maybe sometimes it's not progress. (both chuckle)
Cassie Beer: Sure. Yeah, 2020 feels like both last week and 100 years ago. So I will say yes, the study wrapped up in February of 2020 which you know what happened just a few weeks later, and then we launched the Women's Fund in August of 2020 so I would say two of the most formational things for the Women's Fund has been covid, and also the murder of George Floyd, and, you know, just this social unrest about continued racism in our country.
And I will say that covid has really shaped a lot of our work through what we evaluate in workplaces, because covid showed us that when you give employees more flexibility, they can still get the job done, and they'll be happier doing it when you can allow people to work from home, when you provide them with time off to be sick or to care for their families, they are more loyal and more productive employees.
So covid really showed us what's possible in workplaces, and helped us advocate for more of that, because we know that women need more flexibility in the workplace.
Then I would say too everything with the social unrest around the murder of George Floyd helped us to really lean into, you know, we are going to make sure whenever we measure how many women are in leadership positions at a workplace, we're also going to measure how many women of color are in leadership.
And we're going to make sure that our committees reflect the communities that we are trying to advocate for change for. So, I would say it added this whole new and deeper level of awareness about representation in our work as well.
Julia Meek: Do you feel you've been successful in realizing that?
Cassie Beer: Mmm, we have not been perfect in any way. Absolutely. And we are always learning how we can better represent our community in its entirety.
We are now updating that 2020 study, and I will say we've learned some things in how we ask questions. You know, in our research.
Who are we including or excluding by the way we even write a question. It's an entire learning journey, right, to really evaluate how our own internal systems can be exclusionary or inclusive. And I'm so grateful for an amazing team that's always looking to be better.
Julia Meek: Okay, those five years, then, you've been at it. What are your high points?
Cassie Beer: I would say some of the high points have been our women in the workplace, work that we do, our annual survey to measure where our community stands when it comes to the most important things workplaces can do to support women.
You know, we went from 27 employers the first year to this last year, we had 75 employers participate in that annual survey, and we are starting to see that needle move when it comes to what kinds of benefits and policies are companies offering, what are their starting wages?
So we're really, really thrilled about that. Another high point has been supporting judge Lori Morgan as she launched the state's first family domestic violence recovery court. That was one of the first bullet points on our strategic plan was to support that.
And I would say, launching our study on young women and girls and using that to catapult a whole new series of trainings around how our community can be more girl-centered in how we serve young people in our community. Yeah.
Julia Meek: Major progress by any standards, Cassie. Now let's look at how this is all coming down and being celebrated at your upcoming annual gala, Women Rock, which they certainly do! (chuckles) So just how are you planning on proving it?
Cassie Beer: Well, we do want to celebrate the progress that we really have made for women in the workplace. We also want to celebrate how you know when girls are believed, when girls are celebrated and empowered, how much that improves their outcomes.
Really holding up all of the progress of the Women's Fund shows the collective power of women. There's such terrible stigma, that women are always competitive with each other, that they're catty, that they can't get along.
And I think that the Women's Fund really points to this vast collection of diverse women who have come together and unified around womanhood and the power of it. And just being in that room at the annual anniversary is so powerful.
It's such an encouraging moment of seeing the power of women coming together to collectively move the needle on equity and opportunity here in our community. So, the celebration is just being in that room and seeing the power of women.
Julia Meek: And your entertainment for the evening is one of the powerhouses of the community, Alicia Pyle.
Cassie Beer: Ah, the queen of queens. We are so thrilled to have Alicia Pyle. Not only is she a phenomenal musician by every standard, you know, she is such a great advocate in our community for women and women in positions of power, women's opportunities on the stage.
You know, as a former performer myself I so appreciate that Alicia is always putting women out in front, and not just herself. She's always looking for ways to lift up other women musicians, so she was such an easy ask to be our featured musician for this years' Women Rock.
Julia Meek: So then, who all do you expect to be at that Gala, and why, Cassie?
Cassie Beer: Oh, Julia. I just can't wait to see who is there. It's gonna be the who's who on August 21--it's gonna be the place to be! It's such an amazing time when all of these powerful, incredible, compassionate, generous women in our community come together.
Not only that, we are so thrilled to have so many of our local employers who come to this event and really show up to celebrate the progress they have made internally when it comes to supporting women. And them getting to celebrate with their team is always such a fun night.
You know, we also really are excited to see so many of the nonprofits who work for women coming together that night and getting to celebrate the work they are doing directly every day to support women and girls in need here in our community. So, if you support women and girls, it's the place to be on August 21st.
Julia Meek: And that certainly does include men. We expect to see a lot of guys at that.
Cassie Beer: They absolutely should be there!
Julia Meek: And by now, Cassie, where would you say we stand with our concerns and our cures compared with other cities our size and organizations like yours? Plus, how can we all raise that score going forward?
Cassie Beer: So when we look at data from similar size cities, similar communities. We are still really behind when it comes to wages for women. We are really behind when it comes to how we are compensating women.
You know, in our first study, we saw that there was a pay gap between men and women, similar education, similar experience, similar roles, of over $15,000 a year, and that pay gap has grown. In other places, we're seeing the pay gap shrink, and in our community, it continues to grow.
And that's extra terrible, because our cost of living continues to increase here in our community. So, continuing to have conversations and to advocate for pay equity, and companies starting their salaries at you know, really that self-sufficiency standard is a big way that we can be more on track with some of our national peers.
I would say also our community outpaces the state, outpaces, really, the nation, when it comes to experiences of domestic violence, and this is something our community really needs to take seriously and to look at and evaluate.
So those are two areas that we continue to see the data point to, is Fort Wayne is really struggling with those two issues in particular. Others as well, but I would say those are the two highlights. And in the light of everything happening federally, in the light of everything happening at the state level, our local organizations that directly serve women and girls need our support now more than ever.
You know, I realize not everyone is able to make large personal donations to our local entities doing that direct service work, but we can all, you know, stop at a pantry and drop off a couple canned goods. We can all write letters to our legislators and ask them to keep funding going for our interpersonal violence agencies.
So, I would say, just look around our immediate community and see where you can help, because our local impact is the greatest impact that we can have.
Julia Meek: And this year has been hard on everyone and the nonprofits and the funding for all things good and admirable you and your organization advocates for, Cassie. How are you finding ways to deal with or work around these changes right now?
Cassie Beer: So, one of the biggest challenges the Women's Fund has directly faced, fortunately, we don't have any state or federal funding, so we have been able to escape some of that right now, but we know that many of the organizations we advocate for are not in that same space.
But as far as how we've navigated some of that, this year, for one, we've been convening the domestic violence agencies and trying to make sure that there's a space for collaboration right now, and that those organizations can come together and share what they're seeing and support one another.
As far as the women's funds work directly, you know, we launched a new internship program this summer to support young women who are interning with local employers where they are in historically male dominated fields, so a lot of STEM companies, architecture, things like that.
And we originally were very exclusively for young women in that program, and quickly got feedback from some of our employers, who are partners, saying that if they had federal contracts, they couldn't just send women to our internship program.
So, I will say Julia, that we embraced it as an opportunity to look at how we could include young men in the internship and build allies. So yes, it's frustrating to have, you know, initiatives for women and girls be labeled as DEI work, but it also helped us reframe, you know, what?
We need men and young men to understand why respecting and empowering women helps them too. We need men and young men to understand the value of respecting and supporting women and being allies in that space.
So, we have really tried to shift our framework right now to say, you know what, yeah, we do need more men in women's work and women's advocacy. We'd love to you to come to the table and learn more about how to support women entering historically male dominated fields, so it's pushed us to re imagine what our work is possible for.
Julia Meek: Good for you, and okay, we have come a long way, Cassie; awareness is still key. So what do you say to the folks that still insist that the causes and concerns of the Fort Wayne Women's Fund are frivolous, are not any big deal?
Cassie Beer: I would point them to our new study coming out this year, Julia, that shows that 45% of women in our community have experienced domestic violence, higher than the 33% nationally.
I would point them to the 24% of women who don't have access to any type of paid time off from their work. I would point them to the 61% of girls in our community who have been diagnosed with anxiety.
I would point them to that new study that we're going to launch this fall, and say, you read this entire report and tell me there's no need to advocate for systemic change for women. You point to me in this report where it says that women and girls are doing all right, and I'll shut the Women's Funds doors tomorrow.
Julia Meek: Thank you for that, Cassie. And last question, because women do rock, and that's more than a metaphor, why should the Fort Wayne Women's Fund matter to everyone in our community, for the entire community?
Cassie Beer: The Women's Fund matters to our entire community, because when women and girls thrive, our whole community thrives.
Julia Meek: Cassie Beer is director of the Fort Wayne Women's Fund, which is celebrating five years of making a difference. Thank you for the work you do and the story you tell, Cassie, here's to many more years. Do carry the gift
Cassie Beer: Thanks for telling our story, Julia.
