Women Empowering Families was founded in 2007 by two Anawim Housing board members, Cecelia Kent and Dotty Thurston. Their vision was to empower Anawim Housing to provide safe, affordable homes for women and families in need. Money raised through WEF go towards Anawim Housing's Supportive Services Department. These programs offer Anawim families everything from educational programming, to rental relief in the event of a life crisis. At Anawim Housing, we don't just place people in affordable housing, we empower them to succeed.
For more information on how to get involved with Women Empowering Families, contact Tiffany King at tking@anawimhousing.org
Women Empowering Families - Home Is Everything Spring Event
This year's spring event was unique in several ways! The event was hosted at The River Center - a beautiful, brand new event location downtown. New this year, we asked guests to donate a couple items to be gifted to the many mother's living in Anawim Housing. During the event, guests helped assemble their wonderful donations into over 100+ gift bags to be gifted to Anawim mothers for Mother's Day. In the days directly following the event, Anawim staff hand-delivered the gift bags. The Anawim mother's we delivered the bags to were very surprised and overjoyed by this act of kindness that the Women Empowering Families guests provided.
A huge thank you goes out to the WEF planning committee for all of their help making this event a success: Sue Kenny, Sheila Rayburn, Denise Horner, Susan Heun, Kate Raun, Pam Douglas, Patricia Shoff, Claudette McDonald, Diane Hernandez, Liz Goodman, Joanie Houston, Marilyn Carroll, Maria Heiderbrich, Laura Jacobsen, Cecelia Kent, Judy Porter, Kate Massop, and Betsy Happe! Food provided by Trellis Catering. Photography by Austin Day.
View photos from the event on our Facebook page by clicking HERE
View photos of Anawim staff delivering the Mother's Day gift bags to Anawim mother's HERE
Women Empowering Families ThanksGIVING Event
This year's ThanksGIVING event was held on Thursday, November 2nd at our new Anawim Housing office! A huge thank you to all who were able to join us and generously donated household items to be given to Anawim Housing families in need throughout the year. We had 70 women attend which was a great success! This year we auctioned off a beautiful handmade dollhouse, with proceeds directly supporting Anawim programs and services. The house was a sweet reminder of our moto "Home Is Everything". A huge thank you to our fantastic WEF committe: Marilyn Carroll, Betsy Happe, Kate Massop, Cecelia Kent, Laura Jacobsen, Jaonie Houston, Liz Goodman, Diane Hernandez, Claudette McDonald, Patricia Shoff, Pam Douglas, Kate Raun, Susan Heun, Denise Horner, Sheila Rayburn, and Sue Kenny! Food provided by Trellis Catering. Photography by Austin Hyler Day
View photos from this year's ThanksGIVING Event on the Anawim Facebook page!
Women Empowering Families Basic Party
WEF hosted the second annual Basic Party on May 2nd at the Riverwalk Hubspot! We had a record turnout of over 70 women! Thank you to all who attended and donated household items to be given to Anawim families in need. A huge thank you to our committee who helped plan the event and address invitations.
View photos from this year's Basic Party on the Anawim Facebook page!
Women Empowering Families ThanksGIVING Event
This year's ThanksGIVING event was held on Thursday, November 17th at the Hotel Kirkwood in Des Moines, and had a record turnout! A huge thank you to all who were able to join us and generously dontated household items to be given to Anawim Housing families in need throughout the year. The success of this event could not have been made possible without the help of our fantastic WEF committe: Liz Goodman, Marilyn Carroll, Patricia Shoff, Cecelia Kent, Sue Kenny, Kate Massop, Sheila Rayburn, Kate Raun, Joanie Houston, Claudette McDonald, and Denise Horner. Event catering by Vivian's Diner. Photography by Austin Hyler Day
View photos from the event on Anawim's Facebook page!
Women Empowering Families Basic Party!
Thank you to all who joined us for the Basic Party, held on April 28th at The Riverwalk Hub. This party directly benefited the many Anawim Housing tenants that come to us with very little- often in need of the very basic essentials. The generous supply of donations we received will help a wide number of new and current tenants. View photos from the night's event on Anawim's Facebook page!
Women Empowering Families ThanksGIVING event 2015!
Thank-you to all who joined us for the annual ThanksGIVING event on Thursday, November 12th at The Des Moines Social Club. The large supply of household donations we received will greatly serve the families of Anawim throughout the upcoming year. View photos from the night's event on Anawim's Facebook page!
Thank you to our 2015 WEF Committee members for helping make this beautiful event possible! Our 2015 committee members were:
Liz Goodman
Marilyn Carroll
Sheila Rayburn
Patricia Shoff
Cecelia Kent
Sue Kenny
Susan Heun
Spring Gathering and Home Tour
Thank you to all of the Women Empowering Family members who joined us on Friday, May 15 for our home tour. Touring Anawim homes is a great way to truly see the impact Anawim Housing has on the community.
For pictures from the Women Empowering Families thanksGIVING 2014 event, check out the album on Anawim Housing's Facebook page!
Thank you to our 2014 WEF Committee members for putting in the time and effort to make the November event possible. Our 2014 committee members were:
Sarah Bacehowski
Diane Todd Brown
Marilyn Carroll
LaNae Ceryanec
Christy Cownie
Sara Gaskell
Liz Goodman
Caroline Fitzgerald
Sheila Rayburn
$100 Nurturer
$250 Advocate
$500 Founder
$2500 Leader
Anonymous
Karin Ahrold
Susan Barnes
Marcia Baumhover
Margo Blumenthal
Barbara Braak
Eileen Burtle
Hallie Caris
Marilyn Carroll
Christine Comito
Jeanne Cunningham
Sue Damos
Jean Davis
Anne Dols
Pam Douglas
Celeste Egger
Mary Fanter
Jan Fessler
Colleen Gleason
Liz Goodman
Jeanne Graves
Betsy Happe
Carole Hays
Jane Hein
Jane Hemminger
Georgiana Hoerster
Denise Horner
Joanie Houston
Laura Jacobsen
Sue Kenny
Cecelia Kent
Loral Kirke
Linda Kirkman
Teresa LaMair-Jenson
Lisa LaValle
Janet Mashek
Dr.Kate Massop
Claudette McDonald
Julie McDougal
Mary Nelson
Linda Nesbit
Jeanne O'Halloran
Nancy Peters
Judy Porter
Pam Quinn
Sheila Rayburn
Kate Raun
Donna Richard-Langer
Janet Rosenbury
Ginny Satterstrom
Melba Scaglione
Traci Sharp
Anita Shodeen
Patricia Shoff
Cheryl Sypal
Deb Tharnish
Dotty Thurston
Sheila Tipton
Jo Ellen VandeLune
Diane Versackas
Marie Walker
Cynthia Wanamaker
Susan Watts
Robyn Wilkinson
Kathi Zimpleman