Wise Women Gathering Place

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT

Wise Women Gathering Place, (WWGP) was formally founded in 1998 by Native American midwives Alice Skenandore and Beverly Scow as a community resource center.  WWGP's mission is to provide women and their families with information, advocacy and referrals regarding their health problems, treatment options and the accompanying benefits and risks enabling them to make informed choices.

Prior to 1998, for a period of eight years, an informal group of Oneida community women, with children in tow, met every Monday in their homes to convey traditional midwifery skills and other parenting knowledge and techniques.  These women had no budget to work with, no resources beyond that which they personally brought to the circle, yet they were able to create an environment that brought them together continually to share their experiences and knowledge from their own family histories.

Alice Skenandore, mother of six and a midwife who had practiced traditional midwifery for 14 years, led the group in study of natural birth skills and breastfeeding.  Beverly Scow, a mother, foot-reflexologist and apprentice midwife, also taught from her traditions and experience.

Over the ensuing years, many women came to the circle to learn and share, bringing with them their knowledge of herbal remedies, aromatherapy, healing touch and other self-help methods.  These were sharing sessions from which all emerged with new skills to use in helping our families to live healthier, more fulfilling lives. 

In 1998, Alice was invited to present on Traditional Midwifery at the Native American Health Summit in Minneapolis, MN.  The Ford Foundation heard that presentation and recognized the purpose and value of the work by the Oneida women's circle. The foundation invited Alice to New York to talk about the group's work. Ford provided an unsolicited four-year grant for the purpose of establishing Wise Women Gathering Place and supporting the vision "Peace on Earth Begins at Birth."  Ford continued to provide guidance and training, enabling Wise Women Gathering Place to take flight.  Alice was trained to develop a functional organization.   The unexpected grant allowed WWGP to hire Beverly Scow, who became the pivotal architect in developing the funding base that supports the work of WWGP today.

Today, Wise Women Gathering Place is a dynamic resource center with books, videos and technology and provides resources to a broader range of populations and families in Northeastern Wisconsin. WWGP has grown as an organization and is a resource on issues ranging from puberty, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and menopause, to parenting, healthy relationship building, bullying, abstinence education and more.  WWGP currently employs six people, full and part-time, to operate the Resource Center and provide prevention, outreach and advocacy services to the community.   The employees help to identify needs, develop solutions, and resolutely devote themselves the work.  Alice, founder of WWGP has served as Executive Director for seven years.  Beverly Scow, Assistant Director manages financial operations for WWGP, carefully ensuring that funds are expended in accordance with the requirements of each funding source.

WWGP has successfully managed several Federal, State and Private grants with excellent financial audit reports for these past several years.  WWGP received a five year grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, and recently completed the project of providing abstinence education in the Oneida Nation Middle School and Menominee Tribal School.  WWGP received a five year grant from the State of Wisconsin to support this abstinence education program.  The dollar value of these grants and the requisite matching funds amounts to more than 1.2 million dollars.  

WWGP's dedicated team is influential and actively participates in community initiatives by serving on committees with Oneida Domestic Violence CCR, CAPPS (teen alcohol prevention) committee, Brown County Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Committee, Green Bay Chapter of Guardian Angels, Oneida Nurturing Network and Brown County Diversity Coalition.  WWGP collaborates with University of Wisconsin - Green Bay and University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh to develop community awareness of teen pregnancy and sexuality education through televised public service announcements and ongoing program evaluation surveys.

Wise Women Gathering Place contributes on the state level by serving on the Wisconsin Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Committee.  WWGP worked with the Wisconsin Aids Resource Center (ARCW) to teaching prevention to Green Bay Area Public Schools Native American students and conducted healthy relationship development sessions to the inmates at the John Burke Women's Prison.  Officials at the prison and inmates have invited us to return, saying, "Everybody should get this class."  WWGP served on the Wisconsin Abstinence Initiative for Youth (WAIY) as regional coordinators for its High School Abstinence Club program, and successfully established three high school abstinence clubs.  WWGP scheduled numerous public presentations about abstinence to the surrounding communities, performed by the ARC's youth public speaking group, True 2 Life.

Alice Skenandore and Dr. Janet Hagen, WWGP's program evaluation specialist and UW-Oshkosh Department Chairperson, were invited to present a program evaluation workshop to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Abstinence Education Conference in Baltimore, MD., where they were well received by an audience of more than 400 attendees. 

WWGP provides a down-to-earth, practical and inspiring approach to abstinence education, bullying, healthy relationship building, and healthy family development using the unique relationship development workbook created and developed by Alice Skenandore, "Discovery Dating."  The Wisconsin Abstinence Initiative for Youth recently has reorganized its entire state initiative to a new direction and asked WWGP to collaborate in the development of programs addressing an adolescent pregnancy prevention initiative for the Native American tribes across the state with Discovery Dating as the primary instrument.  WAIY planned to use Discovery Dating in the Milwaukee Public School system along with the "Love U 2" curriculum and hopes to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of each.   Due to Gov. Doyle's refusal to accept further federal funds for abstinence education in Wisconsin, WAIY and it's plans for Discovery Dating no longer exist.

The successes WWGP has achieved are due to the team of employees that come straight from the communities served.  Every person at WWGP is a trusted, well-regarded community member, and shares a passionate concern for fellow community members, young and old.  Wise Women Gathering Place is a part of the fabric of the community and deeply invested in working for a better future for the people and their environment.

Discovery Dating^© * Wise Women Gathering Place * 2482 Babcock Rd * Green Bay, WI 54313 * 920-490-0627 * info at discoverydating.com