Pros
The mission is important and significant. The safe house and multitude of services offered are critical and necessary for people facing/escaping domestic violence in our community.
Cons
This review is primarily focused on the administrative office. The YWCA Sonoma County administrative office environment was COMPLETELY contradictory to the mission: "eliminating racism, empowering women". The senior/upper-level admin staff, ESPECIALLY the local CEO (Madeleine Keegan O’Connell), were completely dis-empowering, catty, and acted like a clique of mean girls in middle school. In short, it was a mentally abusive setting, which is unacceptable at any workplace, but even more so when the focus of the work was to support people escaping domestic violence and empower women. Staff members who were not accepted as part of the ‘clique’ could overhear the rude, degrading comments made about other staff members working in the office, as well as those working in other departments of the organization. Also, diversity of the staff was completely lacking.