What We Do : Women & Poverty Facts

There is a largely invisible population in the US: women with minimal education, poor life skills, inadequate job training, and for whom the prospect of a regular, living wage job is but a dream. These women and their children are living in poverty and in recent years the numbers have been growing. The 2005 U.S. Census – American Community Survey found of the 58,762 family households with children in the Denver and Aurora area over 17,000 (29%) were single parent, female-led families; 30.5% of these families were living at or below the Federal poverty line. In 2008 the number of female-led families living in poverty increased to 35.5%. Female-led households with children consistently are the family type with the highest poverty rate.

Here in Denver, Work Options for Women is effectively assisting women to break the cycle of poverty. WOW shows that by investing in these women pays dividends. On average a woman in the Work Options for Women program receives $356/month in welfare benefits plus food stamps and Medicaid. Once graduating from the WOW program, the same woman will earn approximately $1,700/month, almost 5 times her income before training at WOW.

Colorado has not developed an effective solution to help poor single mothers with complicated lives move from welfare to work. Fortunately, the WOW Program is a solid solution.