Our Programs

Wider Opportunities for Women’s (WOW) intergenerational vision and mission of economic independence for women and girls is met by working nationally and in its home community of Washington, D.C. on policies and programs which promote equality of opportunity for low-income women.

For more than 40 years, WOW has helped women learn to earn, with programs emphasizing literacy, technical and nontraditional skills, the welfare-to-work transition, career development, and retirement security. Nationally, WOW engages in organizing, research, and advocacy --- using the common framework --- to design, implement, and advocate for programs and policies that move low-income families toward economic independence. To accomplish this goal WOW leads a number of efforts including:

• The National Women's Workforce Network which is comprised of organizations committed to increasing women and girls access to well-paid work.
• The Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project (FESS) that provides resources and technical assistance to state and local organizations to implement policies and programs that help low-income families achieve economic self-sufficiency. The FESS project operates in 36 states, reaching more than 2000 community-based organizations;
• The Elder Economic Security Initiative (EESI) that combines organizing, research and advocacy to promote older Americans ability to age in place with adequate resources and supports; and
• Public education and advocacy on a national level to advance legislative and administrative reforms. To that end, WOW serves in a leadership role in a number of coalitions, including Tradeswomen Now and Tomorrow and The Workforce Alliance. WOW co-chairs the National Coalition on Women and Job Training.

Through WOW’s national work we support strategies that promote economic independence for women and girls and working families such as raising the minimum wage; ensuring women’s access to non-traditional employment; supporting community economic development strategies; increasing access to work supports such as child care, health care and transportation assistance; a flexible work place that supports work and family; the creation of jobs that pay a self-sufficiency wage or pathways to those jobs; disseminating promising practices in workforce development; and increasing assess to support that allow elders to age in place with dignity.