Danielle Kriger of the YWCA

The YWCA has assisted women and families in Knoxville for more than a century, and today its downtown center and the Phyllis Wheatley branch in East Knoxville provide all kinds of services to locals of all ages. The organization provides transitional housing for low-income women, advocacy to survivors of domestic violence, educational and career training for youth, opportunities for senior citizens and health and fitness programs to the community.

Staff member Danielle Kriger spoke with Knoxville Voice between two of the Y’s biggest annual events — its Tribute to Women Aug. 21 and the upcoming Big Read, kicking off in October — to provide an update on the work at the YWCA and discuss some of its local success stories.

What is your job at the YWCA?

I’ve been here for a year and a half now, and I do public relations, marketing and event planning. They keep me very busy, there’s lots to do — we have about 12 events a year, and all of our programs and events directly relate to our mission to eliminate racism and empower women. We work to empower women in East Tennessee on a local level, but also to empower women nationally — the YWCA has over 300 associations nationally and thousands worldwide and that combined effort has really made a difference in creating new opportunities for women’s growth and creating leadership to give women the power to stand up for what they believe in in their personal lives or careers. To eliminate racism here in the South, it is very important every single day to instill that mission that racism is still here, and we need a voice to educate people about it and what they can do to prevent it here locally.

We’re commonly confused as the YMCA and we very much joke that we just need a song and everyone will know what we’re doing, too, but until then, we’re glad to talk about our programs.

What is the difference between the YMCA and the YWCA?

We deal with low-income families and families in crisis, and we are really driven by our founding mission with generations from daycare to senior programs while the YMCA is the men’s counterpart that focuses on health, fitness, nutrition and creating healthy families.

What are some of the YWCA  programs?

The two biggest ones are the transitional housing and domestic violence programs. We offer transitional housing downtown, and we house 58 women who come here for a number of reasons: They live alone and need a stable environment to get their lives back together, they might be misplaced homemakers who’ve fallen on hard times, maybe dealing with drug or alcohol addiction or domestic violence. They receive career counseling, financial planning, job placement and help securing permanent housing and they have up to two years to reside here.

We are unfortunate that we do not have the capacity to keep as many women as there is a need for — we turn away 120 women a month in the program just because we’re full. We try to keep a waiting list depending on availability, but it’s often hard because they don’t have contact information, so we encourage them to check back. We hope in the near future to expand our capacity.

Our other biggest program is our Victim Advocacy program for domestic violence, and we do free counseling and provide assistance for women and families of domestic violence. We help them get orders of protection, create safety plans, we go to court with them and do follow-up counseling for free. Every year we counsel more than 12,000 women just here in Knoxville for domestic violence. Statistically, one in three women will be abused at sometime in their life.

What are some success stories of women who’ve gone through these programs?

One woman very much likes to speak on our behalf, and she comes back to speak to the women in transitional housing about her success story. She came here for domestic violence about three years ago, and when she was here she was able to secure scholarships throught assistance at the Y and go back to school. She is now in Iraq in the military fighting for the war and she makes an effort to come back and relate to the women how she was once in their spot and they can change their lives — they’re all strong, independent women who just need a little bit of help and we’re here to give that to them.