Women's Opportunity Center

Starting in a women’s kitchen back in 1979, we’ve grown to help nearly 20,000 individuals and counting…

WHO WE ARE | The Women’s Opportunity Center provides work-readiness programs for those facing barriers to gaining or retaining employment.

Our holistic approach to training builds employability skills and economic and personal self-sufficiency. Our goal is to assist participants in providing for themselves (and/or their families) to lead productive lives while building a sense of community.

We encourage participants to enroll in our short-term training programs designed to meet their needs, and accommodate the schedule of those who cannot commit to a full-time training program.

OUR HISTORY | The Women's Opportunity Center grew from a local group formed in a woman's kitchen back in 1979, with members helping displaced homemakers enter the workforce after divorce, separation, or widowhood. Since then, the WOC has been part of the statewide Displaced Homemakers Program, which presently includes 13 centers across New York State.

In 1995, the Center was incorporated as an independent not-for-profit organization and raised funds to purchase its current building at 315 N. Tioga Street. In 2002, the family of Mary Durham donated a second facility to the WOC to serve women in transition. In recognition of the Center's growth into a multi-service organization providing employment-related resources to a variety of participants, the board of directors voted in 1998 to change the Center's name to the Women's Opportunity Center.

We partner with the Tompkins County Workforce and are a United Way member agency. Donations are tax deductible. Current programs offered by the WOC include job search and preparation workshops that emphasize job retention, and the development of essential computer skills, career development, and the success of families in reaching their goals.

In Syracuse, the Displaced Homemaker Program was established in 1985 at the RLS Career Center. In November of 2005, RLS closed and the Syracuse program partnered with the Women's Opportunity Center of Ithaca. The Syracuse program has helped thousands of individuals in Onondaga County develop and implement vocational goals on their path to economic independence in Central New York.

The Women’s Opportunity Center (WOC) empowers women of all backgrounds with a personal approach and supports, creates opportunities for women to build community with other women, and advocates for Women Friendly Communities. 

We meet with a woman and discover what her goals, hopes and dreams are. We help her to discover her "why", help her to set targets and goals to make her dreams a reality. We help to support her journey of personal and professional, a process that needs support, encouragement and accountability. We help women dig deep and find out who they are now and who they want to be in the future, and then we help them build the develop the plan of action that will allow them to bridge the gap.

 We help women create a support system, a community of women that are there to cheer them on, be a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear and fix each other's crowns. We believe that women need a community with other women, where women are not taught to compete with one another or tear each other down, but embrace and celebrate our differences, our successes and our uniqueness. A diverse community of skills, strengths, weaknesses, experiences that provide a network of mentorship, information sharing, leveraging the "power of the pack".  When you build this community as a part of your world, you realize that you do not have to be good at everything. You realize that you can count on others, and others can count on you. Together, our strengths and weaknesses compliment and compensate. Together we are strong. If you take the word "work" out of networking, you will discover that building a net of women to catch each other creates unbreakable bonds and provides a sense of strength which allows us to overcome obstacles.

We help to build a community that is "woman friendly" through advocacy, education and action. We support women that are marginalized, helping to provide a voice for those that are not able to speak for themselves, for the wellbeing of the women and girls of our community. We advocate for communities that recognize the needs of women are different that the needs of men. We advocate for Woman Friendly Employers, through education and information sessions. We share the perspective that the individual should be judged on their skills and experience, not their race, gender, religion or family status.