YWCA Fort Worth & Tarrant County

For 150 years, the YWCA has served as a role model for other organizations in the areas of empowerment and advocacy for women and families. The YWCA was and is an organization of many firsts: * First boarding house for working women – 1860, New York City * First day care in the U.S. – 1864, Philadelphia * First residence for unwed mothers – 1969, Cleveland * First instruction in typewriting for women – 1870, New York City * First U.S. public cafeteria – 1891, Kansas City * First professional leadership training conference for women – 1891, Michigan * First practical nursing school – 1898, Brooklyn * First secretarial institute – 1898, Harlem Branch New York City In addition, the YWCA opened the first employment bureau in New York City in 1872 and in 1889, the first African-American YWCA Branch opened in Dayton, Ohio. The first YWCA for Native American women opened at Haworth Institute, Chilocco, Oklahoma, in 1890. The YWCA was the first organization to introduce positive health concepts and sex education in health programming. In 1920, the YWCA Convention voted to work for “an eight-hour per day law, prohibition of night work and the right of labor to organize.” In 1934, the YWCA encouraged members to speak out against lynching and mob violence, for interracial cooperation rather than segregation, and for efforts to protect the basic civil rights of African Americans. On Aug. 2, 1907, YWCA Fort Worth became the first YWCA in the State of Texas. Early programs included housing, a cafeteria and an employment bureau to help women find jobs. In 1946, YWCA Fort Worth adopted an Interracial Charter, and in 1968, merged the downtown YWCA with the Highland Park YWCA, which served African-American women in Fort Worth.