BATTLE CREEK — It began in 2004, not as a formal organization but as a grassroots group of concerned women meeting around a kitchen table in a trailer park.
The goal was to support each other and share resources to help sustain, enrich and nurture their families. After all, they were stronger together.
This is how Woman’s Co-op, now 20 years strong, was born.
“Alone we struggled, together we fed our families,” Teresa Momenee-Young, executive director of the Woman’s Co-op, explained in a news release.
Today, Woman’s Co-op is a leading service provider in the greater Battle Creek area for families enmeshed in poverty. What makes Co-op unique is its grassroots approach and peer-to-peer support model. They identify and address the core needs of low- and no-income women — not just “treat the symptoms.”
In addition to providing career, education, and life skills training, as well as service programs, Co-op requires members to meet regularly and help each other using their God-given talents (from sewing to auto mechanics) and personal resources such as food, transportation, babysitting and so on.