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West Virginia Women Work! Receives Award of Excellence
Step-Up for WOmen Program Helps Families Reach Self-Sufficency

WASHINGTON, DC –– West Virginia Women Work! (WVWW!) will be honored for its innovative and successful approach to helping women in transition gain meaningful employment, in a Capitol Hill reception on April 6. Selected from a competitive pool of organizations, WVWW! will be presented with the Women Work! Award of Excellence. Service providers and advocates from around the country will attend the ceremony — sponsored by Verizon Communications. The event will be held from 8:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2168.

WVWW!’s Step-Up for Women skilled-trades training program, maintains a 91% job placement
rate. Graduates earn between $9 and $15 dollars an hour — an average increase of $6.80 from
the jobs they were working in before entering the program.

"We have such a high success rate because we work with local employers to ensure that our
students are learning the most in-demand skills and have opportunities for job shadowing and job placement,” explained WVWW! Executive Director Janis Gunel.

The number of single mothers in West Virginia has increased nearly 70% since 1994 according
to Women Work!’s 2005 census report Chutes and Ladders: The Search for Solid Ground for
Women in the Workforce. Today, nearly half of these women and their children live in poverty.
Escaping from poverty proves especially difficult for single mothers who tend to have lower
levels of educational attainment. Too often these women end up in low-income service jobs with
few benefits. In West Virginia, only three in 10 single mothers have progressed beyond a high
school education.

Sharon, a single mother of two daughters, graduated from Step-Up in April 2005. Due to
WVWW!’s partnership with March-Westin, an engineering, general contracting and design-build
firm, Sharon learned of and secured a job at the company. Today Sharon is making $10 an hour,
receives medical benefits and can support her children. Many other women have similar success
stories, thanks to the employer partnerships WVWW! has forged with more than 10 employers
including Allegheny Development, Swanson Industries, Orders Construction and Tri-County
Electric.

West Virginia Women Work! is a statewide nonprofit organization that supports and advocates
for the education, employment and economic equity for all women. They achieve this goal
through a comprehensive program of recruitment, training, referrals, placements, networking,
advocacy, retention activities and public workshops. They are an affiliate of Women Work! The
National Network for Women's Employment in Washington D.C. For more information, visit
www.wvwomenwork.org or call (304) 598-0114.

Women Work! The National Network for Women’s Employment is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization that advocates for women’s economic security through policies, programs and
partnerships. Since 1978, the Network has assisted more than 10 million women to successfully
enter, re-enter and advance in the workforce. Through supporting, advocating and advancing
women’s economic self-sufficiency, Women Work! members strengthen families and
communities. For more information, visit www.womenwork.org or call (202) 467-6346.

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