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Shelley Osterloh ReportingThe YWCA of Salt Lake is celebrating an important anniversary. For 100 years the "Y" has been a force for change and voice for women in Utah.
The YWCA has been located on the corner of 3rd South and 3rd East for most of its 100 years. Among its many programs for women and children, it provides Crisis Shelter and Transitional Housing for Abused women, their children and teen mothers. In 1906, the Salt Lake founders of the YWCA provided a safe place to stay for young farm women seeking work in the city.
Anne Burkholder, YWCA CEO: "This was part of the industrial revolution. So some of the things that we did, and it was the first in the area, was to establish a women's boarding house for young working women in Salt Lake City."
A time line shows the Y has many "firsts" in its history -- the first to provide aid to women travelers, Utah's first public indoor heated pool, and the state's first employment bureau for women, which was especially important during the depression.
The Y provided learning opportunities, social exchange and recreation in a day when women rarely exercised.
In the 40's, the Y was the first to establish a USO for African American Soldiers during World War II, and then to provide services to Japanese women and children in Utah's relocation camps. The 50's and 60 were filled with classes and social groups that encouraged women to learn new things. The 70's were a time of social change and the Y changed too.
Anne Burkholder, YWCA CEO: "In the 1970's, of course we established the first domestic violence crisis shelter in the state of Utah. And at the time it was one of the first in country. A few years later we established the first teen home for pregnant and parenting teens and their babies, and that remains the only facility of its kind in the state."
Velma Rostberg was the adult program director in the 70's. She says, at the Y many women learned they had skills and a voice.
Velma Rostberg: "Empowering women, giving them the courage, and that's what we did with so many. They could come here and be comfortable. And I think that gave them the courage to go out and do other things."
In its 100 year history the YWCA's programs have changed, but its mission to empower women and girls and eliminate racism, continues. Last year the YWCA sheltered more than 11 hundred women and children and answered nearly 5-thousand crisis calls.
You can see more of those historic old photographs at an exhibit at the Utah Museum of Art And History.
