The Press Forward: Supporting Women in the Workplace
McKinsey & Company, in partnership with LeanIn.org, recently published their 2021 Women in the Workplace report. Our project partner, The Press Forward, gathered news organizations to ensure voices across all industries were represented in this study. The report finds that a year and a half into the pandemic “women have made important gains in representation, and especially in senior leadership. But the pandemic continues to take a toll. Women are now significantly more burned out—and increasingly more so than men.” The Wall Street Journal also published a special report based on the McKinsey study.
Gameheads: Startup Funding
Humble Games and 2K Foundations have each committed $40,000 to be split between two game development teams at Gameheads. The resulting video games will be the first produced through Gameheads Studios. Gameheads is excited about these paid opportunities for students to work on their craft and gain industry exposure. Co-founder and Executive Director Damon Packwood is “grateful to industry leaders, Humble and 2K, for recognizing the enormous potential of [their] students as well as the need for less conventional support for their professional development.”
Project Homeless Connect: Preparing for Cooler Weather
Project Homeless Connect (PHC) has requested donations of sleeping bags as they prepare for dropping temperatures in the Bay Area. You can make in-kind donations or donate a new sleeping bag through their Amazon wishlist.
This fall, PHC also continues to offer their services including eye care, distribution of hygiene kits, rental assistance, help with DMV vouchers, etc. In their most recent newsletter, they highlighted their work providing services to participants in the Richmond neighborhood with the help of local volunteers.
Vision Zero Network: Bird Endorsement
Transportation company Bird has officially announced their support of Vision Zero Network. Bird, whose mission is to make cities more livable by reducing car usage, traffic, and carbon emissions, shares Vision Zero Network’s belief that everyone has the right to safe mobility. “Ensuring safe mobility includes working with community partners to implement common sense, data-driven reforms like decreasing automobile speeds, investing in safe roadway designs, and other changes that prioritize the well-being of vulnerable road users,” said Jenn Fox, program director at Vision Zero Network. “We’re grateful to companies like Bird for supporting these efforts. When organizations come together to increase mobility safety, the positive ripple effects can be significant.”
Get to Know Community Initiatives’ Senior Leadership!
Ruth Williams
CEO
When Ruth became CEO of Community Initiatives in 2017, she brought with her 20 years of experience in philanthropy, grants administration, financial analysis, and program development.
Ruth comes from a long line of teachers. Both of her grandmothers were teachers, and her maternal grandmother was one of the first African American principals of Crane High School in Chicago, a school of 5,000 students at the time! Her mother is both an English teacher and a librarian. Her father is a dentist.
Growing up in Chicago, her family had six cats at one point in time after her sister found the mother, Trixie, who unexpectedly had five kittens. The Williams family found them too cute to give any up, so they had Maximilian, Sebastian, Cali, Skinny, and Samantha join the family.
Always an athlete, Ruth played basketball throughout high school. In college at the University of Chicago, she ran cross country and track AND played basketball. She was the first recipient of the Patricia R. Kirby Award for her participation in multiple sports and her “exemplary service to the college community” when she graduated (with a degree in music!).
In the rare moments when Ruth isn’t working, you might find her indulging in one of her guilty pleasures – chocolate and red wine.
You can find out more about Ruth on the Meet Us page of our website.
Let us know what’s going on with your project and we’ll do our best to get it into the next Project News and share on social media.
Email Stephanie at communications@communityin.org.
If you would like to learn more about our projects, please visit our projects page.