Status Of Women & Period Project

Through continued research and conversations with schools and community partners, the committee identified a pressing and often overlooked need: access to menstrual hygiene products for middle and high school girls. Many students were missing school or struggling academically simply because they could not afford basic supplies. In fact, one in four teen girls struggles to access menstrual products and has missed school as a result.

In response, The Period Project became a primary initiative of the Status of Women committee. Through this program, The Women’s Fund provides menstrual hygiene products to middle and high schools across Herkimer and Oneida Counties, helping ensure that girls can attend school with dignity, confidence, and consistency.

Feedback: Here’s what one school nurse shared about the impact of this support:

“We appreciate your organization and all of the supplies that you give to us. It is so beneficial, and I know the students really appreciate it as well. Thank you for being so amazing and awesome.”

Our Goal: We have made it our goal to provide $350 in support per school per year.  Why this dollar amount?  Because aside from the need for menstrual supplies, additional funds are often needed to purchase underwear, pants, or other products specificly needed to each school.

Join Us: Many partners have joined us in this effort including the Zonta Club, Walgreens, and the Board of Directors of The Women’s Fund. Please join us in supporting this effort so that no young woman has to sacrifice her education and dignity for a basic human need.  

Art of the Vote
2020 marked the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The Status of Women committee embraced the anniversary as an opportunity to educate and support our community.  Studies have shown that young women represent the smallest percentage of voters so we produced a video, “Do You Care,” with local women from all different backgrounds and notoriety. The video was shared across multiple media outlets to encourage women to exercise their hard-earned right to vote.

That same year, we also commissioned 10 local artists to create artwork that represented their interpretation of women’s journey to the 19th Amendment. The exhibit traveled throughout the two counties in 2021, culminating in an auction of the pieces.

In 2001, a committee of The Women’s Fund was established, in partnership with The Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center of Hamilton College, to produce a report on the Status of Women in Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

That report, which showed the socioeconomic landscape for women and girls in our area, would be the beginning of our efforts to educate the community and to leverage support and resources to improve the lives of women and girls.

Our report gave us concrete and statistical information about the needs of women and girls in our area. Based on what we learned, we developed a survey which was shared with relevant local organizations to determine what they felt were the most critical issues and how we might be able to assist. From this better vantage point, we prioritized the issues that were important to the community and felt our most direct impact could be made with support and assistance for Domestic and Sexual Violence. This became the platform for The Women’s Fund Status of Women committee for a number of years. As such, we joined the Domestic Violence Coalition in both Oneida and Herkimer Counties, collected sweatsuits for the hospitals to provide to rape victims, and we helped purchased rape kits and funded the training of nurses on how to use them. We supported the YWCA in their efforts for women, and ran PSAs on WKTV and on billboards throughout the counties for almost two years that directed women to a hotline for help.

 2020 marked the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. This milestone allowed Status of Women to expand its reach in educating and supporting the community. Young women represented the smallest percentage of voters so we produced our own video, “Do You Care,” with local women from all different backgrounds and notoriety. The video was shared across multiple media outlets to encourage women to exercise their hard-earned right to vote. In that year, we also commissioned 10 local artists to create artwork that represented their interpretation of women’s journey to the 19th Amendment. The exhibit traveled throughout the two counties in 2021, culminating in an auction of the pieces.

Status of Women embraced the most recent initiative of The Women’s Fund and helped to promote Women Investing in Women, a grant program for women entrepreneurs. We received 60 applications and awarded 5 grants in 2022, our inaugural year.

After conducting research with various organizations in the area about the current status of women and girls, our latest platform is providing menstrual products to girls in middle and high schools in Herkimer and Oneida Counties. This was proven to be a dire need for young women, many who lacked access for these products.

This committee continues to evolve and seeks to address the most pressing issues for women and girls in our area. It is deeply committed to their empowerment and to the mission of The Women’s Fund.