Teresa Miles
Executive Director at Women’s Center of Jacksonville
Website Address: https://thewcj.org/
Each week on “Making a Difference,” our host, Steve Strum, interviews people making a difference in their community. Today, Steve had the pleasure of talking with Teresa Miles from Women’s Center of Jacksonville.
To learn more, visit https://thewcj.org/.
Short company description:
We are a small non-profit organization that provides support for women in our community and all survivors of sexual assault. We are the only certified rape crisis center for Duval, Nassau and Baker counties.
How do you define success?
Personally, I tend to be “a day at a time” person and feel success when I lay my head down at night knowing at the end of the day I have done the best that I can w/ both my family and my job. And, if I haven’t…tomorrow is another day 🙂
Professionally, when I see women come in for services who are broken and victimized and they work with our staff and leave us as survivors, who are healing and thriving – that is success!
How did you get started in your field or work?
When I turned 18, I bester through the Big Brother, Big Sister program. I started working in the office and realized that huma services was the field I was most interested in.
What’s one thing we should know that makes your company unique?
The Women’s Center is unique in that we work to fill gaps in services in our community. There are so many amazing non-profits in NE Florida and none of us can do it all. So, when there is a gap that needs to be filled, and it aligns with our mission, we can try to fill that gap. We are small enough to be agile and creative.
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome in your business?
In October 2017, we had just broke ground on our new Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (S.A.F.E.) Center. We were still raising money for the Center and knew it would be a tough year. That same night the “#MeToo” movement exploded. Our hotline calls increased 50% overnight and we knew that we had to move quicker than anticipated to open the Center. The following 6 months were challenging, at best.
