Women at the Embry Rucker Community Shelter in Reston could soon start participating in a program designed to increase their self esteem through economic knowledge and skill building. Reston resident Linda Strup, a founding member of the Giving Circle of HOPE, is behind the program.

"Often when we are doing projects for children at the shelter, the mothers are very engaged," said Strup, 51. She hopes to start a program that would teach the women in the shelter arts and crafts skills through a series of creative workshops. The women would use those skills to create products, which they could then sell at Christmastime for some income. The program would also teach them basic business and marketing skills and the long-range plan is to create a marketplace, or an e-commerce Web site, where the crafts could be sold. The program would begin at the shelter, but the vision is to spread it to other area shelters and low-income communities.

"My dream has been that we could create some kind of a marketplace to facilitate some income for these women," said Strup. Her ideas received a boost when Strup was named a winner of a $5,000 cash award from the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, established in 2007 to support programs empowering women. Strup was one of 13 winners selected from a pool of more than 1,300 applications.

"I was thrilled," said Strup. "It is amazing what a pool I was pulled out of." She said the money from the fund would be spent to acquire supplies for the women’s projects, while the teachers would all be volunteers. Strup said the women at the shelter needed as much support as possible because they have very little opportunity to express themselves.



"ANYTHING THAT can help them is wonderful," said Marilyn Silvey, Strup’s friend who is also involved with the Giving Circle of HOPE. "Anything that can lead to a micro-lending program in this area would be great," said Silvey, adding that she had been involved in international programs based on similar ideas that work well. She said the $5,000 award is great news for Strup and the organization. "She will do a terrific job with this."

Joan Kasprowicz, another founding member of the Giving Circle, said the program would not only give the women a chance to generate some income, but also boost their confidence. "It gives them a lot of self esteem when they know they are capable of doing this, capable of producing things of worth," said Kasprowicz. She said completed projects could possibly change attitudes within women experiencing hard times, whose outlook on future may now be bleak. "It could help break the cycle of poverty they are in," said Kasprowicz. "They would be more prepared to go out and get a job" after learning a skill and developing a basic understanding of business and marketing.



"THIS IS just a start," said Kasprowicz, adding that there is possibly some money available in county’s funds for these types of programs. She said Kerrie Wilson, the CEO of Reston Interfaith, a nonprofit that runs the Embry Rucker shelter, had mentioned a recent shelter client who is now in transitional housing and who is skilled in providing floral arrangements. She is an example, said Kasprowicz, of a person the program could help, teaching her the necessary marketing skills to sell her products or providing a loan to help her buy a refrigerator to keep her flowers fresh.

"We don’t have all the ideas yet, and the program will develop," said Kasprowicz.