YWCA USA history

1860 – The YWCA opened the first boarding house for female students, teachers and factory workers in New York City as women moved from farms to cities.

The early Association model proved so successful that women in Boston organized the first official "Young Women's Christian Association" in 1866.

Other groups were formed in 1867 in Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The YWCA began having national meetings in 1871, of what was then called its International Board.

1872 The YWCA opens the first employment bureau in New York City

Beginning in 1873, YWCA chapters also began appearing on college campuses.

1874 The YWCA opens a low-cost summer “resort” for employed women in Philadelphia, Pa.

By 1875, there were at least 28 Young Women's Christian Associations in the United States.

The General Female Training Institute and the Young Women's Christian Association merged in 1877 and carried on work in England.

The youth chapters set up their own national headquarters in Chicago in 1886, called the American Committee.

1889 The first African-American YWCA branch opened in Dayton, Ohio

1890 The first YWCA for Native American women opened in at Haworth Institute in Chilocco, Okla.

1894 – The United States American Committee, England, Sweden and Norway joined together to create the World YWCA. 1894 – YWCA established Traveler’s Aid.

In 1905, the Harlem YWCA hired the first Black woman general secretary of a local YWCA branch, Eva del Vakia Bowles.

The two groups voted to combine at a meeting in December 1906, forming an umbrella group called the Young Women's Christian Association of the United States of America.

In 1907 membership had grown to over 186,000 women, spread among 608 local YWCAs.

1908 The YWCA was the first industrial federation of clubs to train girls in self-government

In 1913 the YWCA debuted a Commission on Social Morality, and the group taught sex education, usually under the names "social education" or "social morality." The YWCA dealt with a vulnerable population of women just leaving their families to live on their own.

1915 – YWCA held the first interracial conference in the south, at Louisville, Kentucky.

1918 The YWCA was the first organization to send professional workers overseas to provide administrative leadership and support to United States Armed Forces

1919 – The YWCA convened the first meeting of women doctors, the International Conference of Women Physicians, with attendees coming from 32 countries for 6 weeks to focus on women’s health issues.

1921 Grace Dodge Hotel completed construction of a Washington, D.C. residence initially designed to house women war workers

In 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression, the YWCA met in Detroit.

The national board voted in 1934 to support women's access to contraception from authorized doctors.

1938 The YWCA in Columbus, Ohio, establishes a desegregated dining facility and is cited by The Columbus Urban League "for a courageous step forward in human relations."

In 1942, during World War II, the YWCA began serving the Japanese-Americans who were being held in internment camps as enemy aliens.

1944 The National Board appears at the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate hearings in support of permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee legislation

1946 – YWCA adopted its Interracial Charter – eight years before the United States Supreme Court decision against segregation.

1955 National Convention commits local Associations and the National Board to review progress towards inclusiveness and decides on "concrete steps" to be taken

In 1958, the national board voted to intensify its efforts to desegregate the organization at all levels.

1960 The Atlanta, Ga., YWCA cafeteria opened to African Americans, becoming the city’s first integrated public dining facility

In 1965 it established a national Office of Racial Justice to coordinate a national campaign against racism.

YWCA women marching on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 1968, joining a rally that was part of the Poor People’s Campaign.

In 1970, the national board voted to work with local schools to ask that they provide sex education as part of the curriculum.

1972 The YWCA started the ENCORE program for women who had undergone breast cancer surgery

1982 YWCA establishes Fund For The Future

In 1983, the YWCA opened a new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, to train women in leadership skills.

In 1987 the organization reiterated this support, and also proclaimed its opposition to laws that mandated parental consent before an abortion could be performed.

YWCA joined the pro-choice demonstration March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., in April 1992, at that time one of the largest protest marches in the nation’s capital.

The group found a new national leader in 1994, Prema Mathai-Davis.

1995: Week Without Violence campaign debuts.

2001 Steps to Absolute Change was adopted.

2004 Igniting the Collective Power of the YWCA to Eliminate Racism, the YWCA USA's Summit on Eliminating Racism, was held in Birmingham, Ala.

2008 The YWCA celebrated its Sesquicentennial Anniversary, 150 years of service, with the launch of the “Own It” campaign.

2011 Today over 2 million people participate in YWCA programs at more than 1,300 sites across the United States.

2012 At the YWCA Annual Meeting in May 2012, a transition from the prior regional structure to a national federated structure was approved, followed by the adoption of new bylaws in November 2012.

2013 Today over 2 million people participate in YWCA programs at more than 1,300 sites across the United States.

As of December 5, 2015, 78% of YWCAs had executed a consent vote affirming their agreement to change our organizational name.