11/24/2025

Where Justice Lives: A Call to Courage

In our current climate, it is important, now more than ever, to be courageous. To affirm that equity and liberation are not abstract ideals, but daily practices that shape our community’s wellbeing.

Every day, YWCA Madison is shaping what justice looks like in the spaces we create and the voices we amplify through our programs, our people, and our presence. In a time when many voices are being silenced, we choose to be brave with our mission: eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

At YWCA Madison, justice lives in the spaces we create together. Our Downtown Residence, sitting high on the Capitol Square, is more than just a structure. It is a living symbol of our commitment to our mission, anchored in one of the most visible and high-traffic spaces in our city. Here, we reclaim space as a home for women, children, families, and staff who create an intricate, necessary network of strength and community support. When you pass by, you can feel what justice looks like in action. You can see hope, resilience, and the power of community-led transformation. Despite efforts to silence our voices or slow our actions, we continue to stand in solidarity with program participants and residents.

Across all our programs, we hold space where transformation can take root. YWCA Madison supports over 4,600 individuals and families in our community. Grounded in our mission, the ecosystem of justice takes many forms:

• Housing Justice means creating pathways for stability and dignity along with a continuum of care for our community, wherever they may be in their journey.

• Restorative Justice means centering youth voices and experiences while partnering with schools, community centers, and families that aim to disrupt systemic and interpersonal cycles of harm, and build connections, shared understanding and accountability.

• Economic Justice means removing barriers to meaningful work and financial independence through education, advocacy, transportation, and support.

• Learning and Movement Building means empowering the community to envision and build a more just future.

This work has never been quiet. It hums in every shared meal, every child who feels safe, every voice that is heard and honored. It lives in every person who chooses to act, to give, to speak, to stand.

In this time, we are being challenged, pushed to our capacity, and asked to do more with less. After 116 years, we know that we will continue this work that is being asked of us. We also know that we cannot do it alone. Now is the time to give, to join, and be courageous with YWCA Madison.

Your support allows YWCA Madison to continue defining justice in action and ensure that our mission not only endures but thrives. Holding space for justice is never easy. It means confronting limited resources, systemic barriers, and deep inequities and still choosing, every day, to live our values through practice.

Will you join us today and make a gift to support justice in action?

Keep up with the impact of your gift and discover more ways to be in solidarity with our community by signing up for our newsletter and following us on social media.

We are the echo that becomes a movement.
We are creating a force that cannot be ignored.
Together, with you, we are building the world we want to live in.