Employment is the best medicine: Women With A Cause initiative promotes nursing careers.

• Author: Kiely, Susan
• Position: GUEST column

OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS, job opportunities for individuals who have an education in nursing will increase as much as 27 percent, offering strong opportunities for women.

Women With A Cause Foundation has been assessing where the jobs are and how to get women back to work. After establishing skill-training centers in India and Africa, the foundation is taking on the cause of disenfranchised women in Denver.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the current recession and a 10 percent to 15 percent unemployment rate will force 1.5 million more people into homelessness over the next two years.

In the U.S., medical professionals are desperately needed, especially with the growing increase in nursing job openings. The need within the health-care industry is burgeoning as baby boomers--the largest segment of any over-25 demographic--continue to age and nursing replacements in the upcoming rank-and-file are so few as to be nonexistent.

Nursing is a sustainable profession with salaries starling at $47,000 per year, so WWAC decided to focus its work here in the U.S. on homeless mothers and homeless women veterans. Understanding the root cause and trends endemic to this particular brand of homelessness is crucial: These are not chronically homeless women, drug addicts, diagnosed mentally ill or paroled criminals. About 47 percent of these women have some education past high school, and issues such as divorce, downsizing, or voluntarily exiting career paths to take care of sick children or aging parents are reasons most often cited as catalysis for their homelessness.

As a result of this data and research, in January, 2011 WWAC launched the WE Initiative--We educate, empower, elevate. Women With A Cause will provide a path to self-sufficiency for homeless mothers and female veterans through health-care education and career opportunities. Through a partnership with Regis University, Community College of Aurora and the University of Colorado's College of Nursing, these women will enter a four-year course that will enable them to receive a bachelor of science degree that will enable them to become a registered nurse.

WWAC has engaged in partnerships with schools...