Shelley Carthen Watson came to the YWCA from the University of Minnesota general counsel’s office and has faced more than her share of challenges. The local YW is 132 years old, founded to provide downtown working women a place to rest and have lunch. Its commitment endures but now manifests in early childhood education and after-school programs, social services navigation, and jobs programs for a substantially low-income clientele. Mental health trauma is the primary legacy she sees from Covid, plus the decline of a fitness business that fed the Y’s missions. “People work out differently now,” she notes.

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