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Reggie Smith

When you have a good pattern, and it fits, you don’t discard it. You keep it and use it. That simple concept, expressed by Reggie Smith, explains in part why she thinks the YWCA’s Tribute To Women and Industry has worked so well for 26 years.

And this year — the 27th — is shaping up to be as festive and financially rewarding as past years.

“I always did believe this would be successful,” says Smith, who was sought out by the YWCA to get TWIN started in San Diego. Smith’s company, the Service Center for Nonprofits, was new and she was becoming well known for her financial, program and board development strategies.

“We had discussed ways of honoring women who were entrepreneurs or were successful participating in a man’s world,” Smith says. “The YWCA, with all it did for women, was a logical place to do that.

“We had a role model,” she says, of the TWIN venture started earlier by a YWCA in New Jersey and adopted by many YWCAs. “We wanted to put our own twist on it. So we created our own San Diego version, and you can see now that it still is a success.”

The Tribute To Women and Industry, familiarly known as TWIN, celebrates ambitious, creative and successful women and the employers with the foresight to have hired them. It is unique in that respect as a fund-raiser that directly helps support programs to benefit all women, and families, while applauding the accomplishments of other women. Its success is illustrated in the numbers of women honored and the financial proceeds each year. Through last year’s 26th event, $1.8 million had been raised and 2,286 women had been honored, with 69 more to be recognized this year.

“The fundamental structure is intact,” Smith says. “Twenty-seven years ago, women were just starting to have careers and there was a lot of resentment.” Employers saw the importance of honoring employees and being honored themselves.

The YWCA wanted to acknowledge those successful women, Smith says, but it also wanted the community to understand what it did for “the women the world didn’t pay attention to.”

YWCA Executive Director Judy Case DiPasquale wants to recognize successful women. At the same time, she is anxious for women, children and families to learn about dozens of other YW programs to ensure safe lives and freedom from violence.

DiPasquale says two residential programs are the basis for all other services. The best known of these is Becky’s House, an l8-month transitional housing program for victimized women and their children. Ground has been broken on a second Becky’s House, which will provide a safe haven for 14 more families when it opens.

Other YWCA residential programs:

• Cortez Hill, formerly a Day’s Inn, is now a 90-day shelter for homeless families, which may mean children with both parents or a single mother or father.
  
  
• Casa de Paz is a 90-day domestic violence shelter for women and children with on-site school; available 24 hours a day
  
  
• Passages is a two-year residential program for homeless single women who benefit from therapy, counseling and preparation for jobs and independent living.

A YW service that is not widely known, says DiPasquale, is the Mobile Domestic Violence Legal Clinic, part of the Legal Advocacy Program for victims of domestic violence. Legal teams go to 15 county sites. For dates and locations, telephone (619) 239-2341. Legal services available include low-cost attorneys, immigration advice and walk-in clinics Mondays, 9 a.m. to noon, and Wednesdays, 3 to 6 p.m.

Counseling and support groups are available for YWCA clients and to the general public, as are both locations of My Sister’s Closet, the YWCA resale shops, one at C Street, the other on Fifth Avenue.

For information on all YWCA programs and services, call (619) 239-9355. For immediate help, call the 24-Hour Hotline at (619) 234-3164.