Our primary project in 2025 is a community needs assessment. We are creating intentional dialogue with women and gender expansive people in our community to learn what they need, and to create programming to fit. We are doing this through our Electronic Survey and our Community Conversations.
With the support of a local advisory team, and students from College of St. Scholastica’s MBA Leaders and Change Division, we developed a survey with a focus on the following groups: queer and trans women and gender expansive individuals, mothers/parents, women in the trades, refugee and immigrant women, and women under 30.
The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.
We will host 2 dinners per month for the folks we’re surveying through October 2025. At these dinners, we’ll share a homecooked meal and talk about what each group would like to see in our community and how we can best support them. This will be a time for connection, sharing stories, and envisioning how to strengthen our community safety net with our future initiatives.
Take the Electronic Survey if you’d like to attend a Community Conversation.
Have Questions? Contact our Director of Policy & Advocacy Savannah
Amber Sadowski — Executive Director, Life House
Avery Sutton — MBA student, College of St. Scholastica
Elena Foshay — Director of Workforce Development, City of Duluth
Halima Amiri — student, YWCA Duluth intern
Jill Hinners — Executive Director, Mentor North
Joyceline Anderson — student, YWCA Duluth intern
Liz Davis — MBA student, College of St. Scholastica
Liza Williamson — doula & business owner, YWCA board member
Lynn Kalnbach — MBA professor, College of St. Scholastica
Mel Alvar — Human Trafficking Educator, PAVSA
Meredith Kujala — Program Coordinator, ACT
Raven Kruger — Trans Rights Activist, Disability Rights Activist
Sarah Lyons — Executive Diversity Officer, Lake Superior College
Sean Hayes — Executive Director, Trans Northland
Sophie Clock — Community Impact Director, Life House
