Family and Youth Services of San Joaquin merge into Women’s Center: Announcement hits the community at annual luncheon

Stockton, CA- Wednesday, March 28, in addition to the traditional Women’s Center’s Annual Luncheon; the community received a surprise announcement at the conclusion of the event; the Women’s Center announced a new partnership with Family and Youth Services of San Joaquin. 

Director and producer of the documentary film “The Line and Xoxosms” , Nancy Schwartzman.

“After several months of careful negotiations , I am very pleased to announced that the board of directors of the women center and family Youth services have agreed to a tentative merge the two organizations into one,” said Wayne Hose, Board President of  Family and Youth Services.

“These two healthy and dynamic nonprofit organizations work tirelessly to assist victims in trouble, youth and families on a daily bases,” continued Hose.

“There are so many intersections in our work from our shelter programs, to parenting programs, to case management; this is going to be such a benefit to our community,” added Joelle Gomez, Executive Director of the Women’s Center.

The merge modifies the name of the agency to, “The Women’s Center-Youth and Family Services” and will initiate its services on July First of this year.

Additionally the Women’s Center logo will now include other silhouettes representing youth and children. “The youth focus will remain a really big priority; we are now going to have a stronger platform to provide services to men, women, youth, children, families in the San Joaquin County,” said Gomez.

Both Family & Youth Services and the Women’s Center have been helping the San Joaquin community for over 40-years.

During the event director and producer of the documentary film “The Line and Xoxosms” , Nancy Schwartzman, talked about the importance of identifying sexual violence.  She was recently named one of the “10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2011” by Independent Magazine.

Schwartzman’s work is embedded in feminism and human rights.  She focused her speech on the importance of educating young men about sexual violence and respecting women. “Preventing sexual violence is a complex effort  and most importantly is a community effort , we need men leading the fight,  standing up with us and speaking up against sexual violence,” said Schwartzman towards the end of her presentation.