Empowering women helps unlock prosperity

All of us have been tested these last few years. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, survival was the goal. The pandemic made clear the gap between surviving and thriving was not a new one.

For many women and their families in our region, survival was tenuous long before COVID-19 arrived. From domestic violence to economic insecurity, women, particularly women of color, were already experiencing all of these things. The pandemic just made them worse. We brought together organizations in Hampden County to help us look carefully at why women were economically vulnerable. What we discovered together was a wide lens of the complex issues that affect one woman’s economic engine.

Through 413Cares.org, we created an asset map of organizations focused on addressing issues such as housing, child care, transportation, and more (www.413cares.org/eco nomic-security). We invited some of those community partners to receive grants and undergo training so they could facilitate surveys of 200 economically vulnerable women from Greater Springfield. We compensated the women surveyed for their time and insights. Please visit our website, mywomensfund.org, to see what we learned. While there, consider becoming a women’s fund donor. We have an amazing opportuni-

Robinson

CONTINUES FROM PAGE J7 which people can grow up and grow old with ease.

PVPC has been working extensively with our partners in the last two years on this, and we are excited to serve as lead convener of the Age and Dementia Friendly Pioneer Valley Initiative. Happily, we know many of the improvements stand to benefit individuals and families throughout their lives — from a new mom pushing a stroller down a safe sidewalk, to the adult child of a parent living with dementia finding a more robust network of local resources.

The age-friendly tenets of inclusion and accessibility are also central to assessing and improving our region’s transportation system. In 2023, the PVPC will complete an update to our Regional Transportation Plan, providing a blueprint for investments in our communities. This work is already underway, and we have heard tough but instructive testimonials from drivers, wheelchair users, transit takers, and bike riders who have felt left out and let down by the current transportation offerings. Our job is to lay out a pathway towards a better transportation future.

An integral part of this