Kalamazoo’s YWCA turns 140 this year, making it one of the oldest institutions in town, and it’s one that serves myriad community needs from several locations. Executive Director Susan Rosas, 41, has been on the job since January 2024, supervising 180 employees who serve the community with programs focused on early childhood learning, maternal and child health, reproductive justice, and violence interruption. These programs include 24-hour victim services, emergency shelter for survivors of partner violence or trafficking, support for sexual assault survivors, transitional housing, and legal support and counseling. Rosas spoke with us from the YWCA administrative offices in Parchment.
How did you get where you are today ?
I grew up in Grand Rapids. My mother’s family came to the U.S. as refugees from Poland, and my dad’s family is from Mexico. My brother and sister are adoptees, and we all went into social justice in some capacity. I started out in child welfare, going to school in Miami, and moving to New York, where I experienced a stalking circumstance that shifted some of my focus into sexual violence. I went to graduate school in Chicago, where I became interested in anti-trafficking work. I went to Cambodia for a couple of years, but that work took a toll, so I returned to the U.S. and found work on border issues in San Antonio. When the pandemic hit, I was very pregnant and so my partner, our toddler and two dogs moved back to Grand Rapids, where my parents live. I’d been commuting from there for the last 18 months but just moved to Kalamazoo, where we are settling into our home.
What’s going on right now at the YWCA?
So much — some wonderful (things), some really difficult. In addition to all of our direct services, we are leading solidarity sessions across the community in anticipation of the shifts coming from the government — and those we’ve already seen. Many organizations, including ours, have lost significant funding. We are collaborating across a coalition of 42 organizations to mitigate the potential harm to citizens in Kalamazoo. We started (collaborating) the week after the election, and we’ve since had half a dozen large sessions talking about what we are observing. How is behavior changing? Are organizations freezing hiring or having to pull from financial reserves? What about shifts in support for violence intervention, immigrant families, food and housing security, and services for the LGBTQ+ community? And what are the action steps we can take?
What keeps you up at night?
All the things we once knew and could depend on and predict are no longer predictable. As a sector, we’re having to hedge bets on what we think might happen, and it’s hard to take risks when you’re not sure exactly what the impact will be. But we have an obligation to do our best to support this community to thrive, and I have an obligation to do the same for the people who work for this organization. There is great responsibility and honor in that work.
So, your immediate worries have to do with funding?
It’s a combination of funding and policy shifts that so dramatically hurt the well-being of people. We do have more than $2 million in awarded grants that are tied up in bureaucracy, and certainly foundations are also pausing to strategize (about) responding to changing needs. We are seeing a change in donor behavior. People pull back when there’s economic uncertainty. Perhaps they’re losing money on their investments or experiencing tariffs on their businesses, so we are seeing an increase of in-kind contributions, people donating their time and their stuff.
But even if all the money remains the same, there is still real hurt and harm that is making people feel persecuted by this government. We have folks in the community and the organization who have various forms of immigration status. Worrying about your safety and your future is an incredibly stressful place to be. The fear is significant. Similarly with the queer community here, the policy shifts are challenging the existence and the identity of so many people in our community.
We’re an anti-violence, anti-oppression organization, and when the public narrative uplifts (an) oppressive rhetoric and narrative, we see an increase in violence. Rhetoric actually changes behavior, and we see that front and center. We saw an increase in community violence in the first 60 days following the election, and folks are coming to us with more severe injuries, with much greater fear of their partners, and a belief that their partners now feel empowered to hurt them more.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Everything! There hasn’t been a single day that I wished I wasn’t coming in to work. This work is timely, and it’s invigorating. It’s an intellectual challenge to try to think in a different way, keeping what we’re doing within our commitment to anti-racism, feminism, and trauma responsiveness. It’s not often that an agency is able to do direct service and broader policy systems-change work. It’s so meaningful to me and makes me feel like I’m doing my ancestors proud.
— Interview by Katie Houston, edited for length and clarity
