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- 13 - accessHealthNews.net October 2024 Volume 11 | Issue No. 89 The people who know best how to serve the complex needs of any community are the very people within it, as Friends of Yates and its director and chief executive officer LaDora Lattimore know well. As the season of Giving Tuesday nears, encour- aging communities to celebrate and give back to the organizations which serve them, Lattimore sat for an interview with Grace to share the powerful passion be- hind Friends of Yates' work. Friends of Yates is a non-for-profit organiza- tion that was born out of racism in the era when Black individuals could not go to the YWCA. Friends of Yates is a metamorphosis of Yates Friends YWCA. The organization was a branch of the Y for 69 years and severed ties in 1982 as Friends of Yates, when Lattimore was recruited to be the branch director of the Y. "I worked for nine years at the mental health center prior to taking this position, and there were some things that I felt like needed to happen before I left my com- fortable position with the mental health center," Lattimore said. They transitioned away from the YWCA, and Friends of Yates became the legal en- tity of their journey. In 1979, she organized Friends of Yates, although the group did not break away until 1982. Friends of Yates started the first battered women's shel- ter in 1980 when they were still part of the Y. "I grew up in Yates Branch YWCA as a child," Lattimore said. "I went to their sum- mer camp. My grandmother was on the founding board of Yates Branch YWCA, so as a little girl, she and my mom kept us involved in Yates, and then I grew up, went on away to college, came back, and still was involved with Yates Branch YWCA, but as a volunteer." Although the organization broke away in 1982 as a part of the YWCA, it still remains a part of the rich history of what Friends of Yates stands for today. Programs of Friends of Yates Friends of Yates created the first and only comprehensive battered women's pro- gram in Kansas City, Kansas. "I love embracing the major contributions Black people have made to the community, often unsung, and this is our way through Black History Month of promoting all of this great talent and just being as a human being. Not just given to the Black community, but to the community at large, whether it's here or abroad." READ MORE - LaDora Lattimore, Friends of Yates director and chief executive officer

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