Documentary focuses on rise and fall of YWCA of Summit County
For more than 100 years, the YWCA of Summit County had been at the heart of the women’s community in Akron. The group offered important services to women and children – the only rape crisis center in the county, family counseling, innovative health and fitness programs, employment training, job services and much needed child care. Yet, on April 20, 2005, the membership of the YWCA of Summit County voted to dissolve the organization.
What happened? How and why did an organization with a healthy endowment and a membership in the thousands collapse?
These are the questions that this hour-long documentary seeks to explore.
Funded by grants from the Ohio Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Faculty Research Committee of The University of Akron, and Witan, a team of scholars, reporters and creative experts began to weave the tale of the rise and fall of the YWCA of Summit County.
This documentary features YWCA administrators, most of whom have never spoken on the record before; long-time members, who recall their experiences with this organization, and historians.