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Women's Opportunity Center Forced to Lay Off Workers Due to COVID-19 Funding Crisis

facebook.com/wocsyr

The Onondaga and Tompkins County Women’s Opportunity Center has had to trim just about all of its staff, due to the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  Financial problems are mounting at a time the center’s directors say they’re help for women is needed most. 

The non-profit organization offers free programs and services to divorced and other displaced women who are re-entering the workforce.  The Center receives funding from the Department of Labor, but Board Member Aryn Fields says they haven’t seen a dime from the government since March.

“The Department of Labor grant that we receive every year is 40% of the overall budget of the Women’s Opportunity Center and it covers 100% of the payroll,” she said. “Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, we haven’t received any funding for payroll, which is why we had to take the extraordinary measure to lay off all of the staff members except for one manager in each office.”

One-on-one assistance, here a mock interview, has been curtailed due to funding cuts, but still offered.

Back in March, the WOC moved the majority of its instruction online.  But since July, clients could meet with a staff member at the office or a local coffee shop for life coaching or computer instruction. Deputy Director Amy Canavan says the loss of most of the staff is raising anxieties.   

“These people are scared. They don’t know how they’re going to keep the roof over their head, they’re afraid of how they’re going to get a job, they’ve been cut back and their unemployment insurance is super low, parents that were only eating every other day before getting jobs are now back to eating every other day to make sure their kids have enough food,” she said.

Canavan adds that they were able to secure funding for their clients to borrow computers to continue instruction online.  Now with the closing of the Syracuse office, Canavan worries other centers around the state could close. This, at a time when more women are seeking help to find a foothold in the job market.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic we’ve had an increase in calls for outreach from the rural areas, and we are now servicing clients from Alexandria Bay all the way down to Binghamton because we are online, and we have a lot of women in those remote areas without any other source of support,” she said.

Fields shares some ways their center is looking for donations.

Credit facebook.com/wocsyr
Donations help the center, whether they're professional clothing to help with work attire, computers, financial donations or volunteer time.

“At this moment, we’re really looking at the donors who have donated in the past to trying to tap new donors. We know this is a financially hard time for everybody, but we really have no other choice right now other than to ask the community to help us,” she said. “We’re really in a dire situation and we need all the help we can get.”

Both Canavan and Fields say they have heard nothing from either the Labor Department or State Legislators about when or if promised funds would be released. Those interested in donating time or resources can go to the Women’s Opportunity Center website at womens-opportunity-dot-org.