Newly planted red, blue and yellow flower beds await their first weeding. Donated dishes and craft supplies stacked in the community center’s little kitchen need to be put away. Dust bunnies have had no time to gather under appliances in newly furnished apartments. With paint barely dry, Becky’s House, a 10-unit transitional housing complex for abused women and their children, already is filled to capacity. At the beginning of a new century, the plight of women hammered by domestic violence remains the focal point of the YWCA’s longtime commitment to American women.

Constructed in collaboration with the city of San Diego, STAR 100.7 radio and Golba Architects, Becky’s House is the newest of the YW’s many domestic violence services. Neatly settled with her two school-age daughters in a one-bedroom, two-story apartment, Liz (not her real name) is grateful for this chance at a new beginning. “I’m starting to feel safe now,” says Liz, who came to San Diego from Mexico with her boyfriend 10 years ago, but is still working on her immigration status. “For the first time I see the beauty of this country.”

Without proper documentation, Liz had a tough time getting accepted into the transitional housing program. The soft spoken woman says she kept calling the YW screening committee, pleading her case. “My husband (who is in the country legally) was fighting for custody of my children, and I would have lost them if I hadn’t got in here,” Liz says.

The housing facility offers Liz and others like her a leg up in the way of counseling and support services, child care, job training and interim foster homes for pets. “Becky’s House is (about) rebuilding someone’s life,” says Judy Case DiPasquale, executive director of the YWCA. “Applicants must be out of a shelter first and have already shown that they can follow rules. All the pieces must be in place. Sometimes women don’t leave an abusive situation because it is so complex.”

Although Becky’s House, with its muted color palette and central courtyard, looks like any other apartment complex, the location is kept private. Security is tight for the safety of the residents, many of whom remain vulnerable to their previous situations. Safety measures include a violence hot line staffed 24 hours a day in the administration building, and panic buttons wired to the nearest police station in case of intrusion.

Across town another project anticipates first arrivals to a training program for 18-year-old women fresh out of foster care. Because of their volatile childhoods the teen-agers often have nowhere to turn when they are emancipated from the system. To start, 12 to 15 young women will live at a YW location for three to six months while learning to become independent.

“The county of San Diego will refer them to us,” Case DiPasquale says, “and we will provide temporary housing, counseling, an education component and prepare them to move into the community of San Diego, taking some skill away with them. We want to stop them from becoming involved in domestic violence situations and coming to us later as victims.”

One proposal being brainstormed is the Renaissance Project, to be developed during the next three to five years on a site called the South Center Property, which presently houses a child care center. Plans for the proposed complex include a community center with a small library and new computer lab (already donated by the Waitt Family Foundation), an intergenerational child care center that will accommodate infants, a senior housing development with a small senior center, an affordable housing unit for families with low to moderate incomes, and a block of office space fronting the street.

YW programs already up and running encompass an individual and family counseling center, youth services that offer anti-violence and self-esteem training and another shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Although services like Becky’s House, the foster care program and the Renaissance Project promise to become cornerstones of YW activities, the last several years have produced some tension nationally as the association enters its second century. In 1998, a group of executive directors, including Case DiPasquale, attended the Pittsburgh National Convention to question why the YWCA as a movement was not progressing. “My concern was that the role of the national office was not as visionary as I thought it should be,” she says. “Many of us didn’t feel the national organization was responsive to needs, and that the bylaws were outdated.”

Since that time, progress has been made, reports Case DiPasquale, who is in her second year heading the San Diego branch. At last September’s convention the YW worked toward transforming the 330 local associations into a structure that could function smoothly in years to come, giving increased autonomy to local and national councils.

One point that remains unresolved is the role of men in an organization that allows men to be associates, but not members, precluding them from sitting on YWCA boards. “How do we identify men as corporate sponsors when they can’t be on boards of directors?” Case DiPasquale asks. “We need everyone to support how to resolve women’s issues, so we need to ask men to serve as full partners. Domestic violence is not a gender issue. It’s a family issue, so we absolutely have to have men involved.”

Case DiPasquale doesn’t see this as loosening the linchpin on the all-female organization, and she can even visualize a future with separate transitional housing for male victims of domestic violence. “Having men devoted to the direction of the YWCA can have nothing but a positive effect,” she says.

One of the few ways men currently are enticed to support YW activities is through corporate sponsorship of fund-raising events. Suzanne McClain, director of special events, says yearly events like the Tribute to Women and Industry are one way that heads of companies get exposed to the association’s domestic violence and youth programs. For more than 10 years, McClain has been organizing the event that will raise about $120,000 for YWCA coffers this year, while honoring 83 women for their extraordinary talents and contributions to the San Diego business community.

“The women love the event,” McClain says. “It’s organized, it ends on time and they don’t have to speak. And here is a way to get a hundred companies in one place to hear about what the YWCA does, so when it comes time to donate they think of the YWCA.”

Over the past two decades TWIN has singled out 1,918 businesswomen. In conjunction with other YW fund-raising events, TWIN will account for about 20 percent of this year’s $4.5 million budget, another 52 percent of which will come from grants, and the rest from donations and sales at such places as My Sister’s Closet, a YWCA-run thrift shop.

And, for the first time, following the TWIN luncheon June 4 at the San Diego Convention Center, forums will be organized for women in business to network and discuss women’s issues. “We’d like to launch a TWIN alumni group this year,” Case DiPasquale says. “We want the women who have been honored to know there is an agency in town that acknowledges their contribution to the community.”

Nokia Mobile Phones Product Creation Center, which first participated in TWIN last year, will act as the lead sponsor this year. “The YWCA is in alignment with our own goals for the year,” says Susan Cornell, Nokia’s employee service and community relations manager. “One of Nokia’s core values is respect for individuals and that’s what the YWCA does for women.”

Despite community involvement from companies like Nokia and Manpower, which hosted a TWIN reception May 31, Case DiPasquale worries the future may hold stumbling blocks for funding YW programs. One example is the current energy crisis. The price of electricity at the Downtown center has doubled from last year. Social services are among the first groups to feel the pinch in a tightening economy.

On a recent tour of Becky’s House, District Attorney Paul Pfingst handed the YWCA a check for $25,000, but he warned that similar donations might be scarce in the future. “Becky’s House is the only place in the county you can be in transitional housing and it’s beautiful,” Pfingst said. “If we had 10 more facilities we could probably fill them in three to four months. Unfortunately, the money I thought might be available for this is all going to energy.”

In the meantime, Liz, who would like to become an elementary school teacher, looks forward to a new life thanks to the YWCA. “I feel like a miracle,” she says. “Whatever I can do for them around here I do with all my heart.”