Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, 1972-2002

Summary

Creators:

Career Action Center

Abstract:

The collection contains materials related to the founding and history of the Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women, a job resource center active on the San Francisco Peninsula between 1973-2002.

Extent:

18 Linear Feet (30 manuscript boxes, 2 flat boxes, 1 map folder)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, M1654, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection includes administrative records, financial records, photographs, scrapbooks, publications, program materials, video and audio tapes related to the founding and history of the Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women, a job resource center active on the San Francisco Peninsula between 1973 – 2002.

Biographical / historical:

The Resource Center for Women (1973-2002, name changed to Career Action Center in 1988) was founded in 1972 by five women, Eleanor Shelling, Mary Morley Perez, Peggy Kelly Larsen, Marylyn Morrell, and Martha Faust Hargadon, who met at a career planning workshop called "the Next Step" sponsored by the Stanford Faculty Women's Club. The nonprofit center began with a staff of volunteers and the goal of providing guidance to a variety of women in transition, including well-educated women, women re-entering the work force, women with children, widowed and divorced women, and women active in their communities as volunteers. It was supported by individual and corporate donations, membership subscriptions, and grants. The center's original mission statement read: "The Center will serve women who wish to make informed choices about the direction of their lives. It will be an active link between clients who want to use their talents more fully and the educational, volunteer, and salaried work opportunities on the San Francisco Peninsula." Its first newspaper ad read "WOMEN interested in professional part-time or short term work send resumes to Resource Center for Women, 1176 Emerson, P.A;" and its first workshop, held at Foothill College January 1973, was entitled "Focus on Choice: Women in Transition." Over two thousand women contacted the center in its first year for employment assistance, education programs, counseling, referrals, and use of the center library.

Bertha Bodek Kalson served as the center librarian from 1974 to 1989, starting with a shoe box of clippings and developing a collection that became a model for local organizations. The collection included college catalogs, statistical surveys, career guides, materials on women's organizations, subject files and video tapes. By 2000 membership was down and the center was struggling to survive as a low-cost career services provider. After exploring merger possibilities the center closed in 2002. Its library was donated to the North Valley Job Training Consortium and a fund for career development was established through the Women's Foundation.

Career Action Center Directors

Eleanor R. Shelling, 1974-1979

Judith Ousterhout, Executive Director, 1979-1984

Gail Stypula, Executive Director, 1984-1988

Diane Pelosi Saign, Executive Director, 1990-1998

Sharon Bray, Chief Executive Officer, 1998-2000

Emily Mora, Chief Executive Officer, 2000-2001

Acquisition information:

The Career Action Center Records were given to Stanford University for the Department of Special Collections by Marylyn Morrell in March 2008 and July 2013.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into seven series:

Series I. History

Series II. Administrative Records

Series III.Financial Records and Fund Development

Series IV. Programs and Publications

Series V. Audio/Visual Materials

Series VI. Addendum 2013

Series VII. Addendum 2021-119

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Names:

Career Action Center

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.

Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, M1654, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:

Stanford University, Manuscripts Division

Department of Special Collections, Green Library

557 Escondido Mall

Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US

Contact:

(650) 725-1022

specialcollections@stanford.edu

Website