Guide to the Women's Community Center Records, 1977-1984

Overview of the Collection

Repository:
Special Collections & Archives
McIntyre Library
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
P.O. Box 4004
105 Garfield Ave.
Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004
(715)-836-2739
https://library.uwec.edu/archives/

Reference Code: USGZE UHC357

Accession Number: 15-041

Collection Number: University Historical Collection 357

Creator: Women’s Community Center Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Title: Women’s Community Center Records, 1977-1984

Dates: 1977-1984

Quantity: 1.2 linear feet (3 archives boxes)

Location of Collection: A9/2d

Languages: Collection materials are in English.

Summary: A compilation of records from the Women’s Community Center of Eau Claire, Wisconsin dating from 1977-1984. The collection documents the center’s collaboration efforts within the community and UWEC in its attempts to raise funding and awareness for abused women and children within the community. The collection holds documents showing the creation of the center, its bylaws, events, newspaper clippings, surveys, expense books, meeting minutes, and the dissolution of the center. There is a bound book with financial records in it as well as checkbook balance logs.

Biographical/Historical Note

The Women’s Community Center officially became incorporated on September 8, 1976. The center was created with the desire of bringing awareness to abused women and children within the community and allow women to be the best that they could be. Refuge houses were created in an effort to provide a safe haven for women and their children to live while they got resituated and to a place where they could move out on their own. The Women’s Community Center had a few permanent positions that dealt with operations of the facility, and many more that were on a voluntary basis. By 1978 there was an estimated 101 women and their children or 68 families that were using the refuge services offered by the center. In an effort to fund the Women’s Community Center members sold subscriptions to a monthly newsletter and partnered with the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire for various fundraisers. In 1988 the doors were closed on the Women’s Community Center due to lack of funding, but other places in the community such as the Bolton Refuge House continue their work today.

Content Description

The collection holds important information concerning the Eau Claire community in relation to the Women’s Community Center during the nineteen seventies and eighties regarding the abuse of women and children. It retains records detailing information on the operations of the Women’s Community Center and their relationship with other groups, centers, and individuals such as physician consults. The documents within the collection show the strides made by the center to bring awareness to their efforts within the community. Examples of these documents are: government forms, legal documentation, physician surveys, parent’s anonymous information, meeting notes, other organization contacts, etc.

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information: Donated to the Special Collections Department, William D. McIntyre Library, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire by Marian Ritland, 2014.

Access Restrictions: Collection is open to the public.

Use Restrictions: Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. Copyright not owned by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Preferred Citation: Women’s Community Center Records, 1977-1984. UHC357. Special Collections & Archives. McIntyre Library. University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire. Eau Claire, WI.

Processing Note: Processed by Danica Seyfert in March 2015

Arrangement: By series.

OCLC #: 910938297

Subjects

Personal Names: Aaker, Joyce; Biebelhausen, Joan; Desprez, Norma; Knopp, Sharon; Rindfleisch, Phyllis; Ritland, Marian

Corporate Names: Women’s Community Center

Subject Terms: Services for-abused women-children and families-refuge house- community center-women’s center-Eau Claire-University of Eau Claire-1970s-1980s-domestic abuse-crisis center-rape shelter

Geographical Terms: Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Detailed List of Contents

Series 1: Subject Files

Collection of records, media exposure, financial information, and various forms of communication between other groups or businesses in the region that dealt with the Women’s Community Center of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Dates: 1974-1984, bulk 1977-1978

Extent: 1.2 linear feet (3 archives boxes)

Series 2: Newsletter

Collection of the monthly newsletter that was created and mailed out by the Women’s Community Center to women in the Eau Claire community. It was used to keep members of the center and community updated on the Women’s Community Center’s efforts and events going on within the area.

Dates: 1977-1981

Extent: .2 linear feet (1 archives box)