Florida Catholic | Women's Circle

LINDA REEVES | FC
Roselaine Joseph practices her sewing skills at the Women’s Circle in Boynton Beach. According to Sister Lorraine Ryan, “the sewing class on Thursdays is swamped, yet somehow we manage to accommodate all of them. They are so eager and willing to learn so they can get ahead in life.”

Breaking the cycle at the Circle

The Women’s Circle provides programs and workshops that help women obtain jobs and improve their lives.

BENNET BOLTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 01.25.08

BOYNTON BEACH | Day after day, week after week, all year long, women crowd into a tiny house in a quiet neighborhood here to prepare for a job. But the place, called Women’s Circle, is not an employment agency.

Instead, three nuns and many volunteers train needy women, most of them minorities, on how to present themselves in the workplace. They are taught basic skills, how to dress, and are given clothes to wear so they will look good at job interviews.

“We do all that we can in workshops, such as English tutoring, dress for success, computer skills, crocheting (and) classes in sewing skills,” said Sister Lorraine Ryan, a Medical Missionary sister, who spent years in India before she and Sister Joan Carusillo, a Holy Cross nun, opened Women’s Circle in 2000.

The center’s major goal is to help low-income women get jobs and improve their lives. The work is supported in part by an annual fundraising event, which will take place Tuesday, Feb. 5, this year.

“Empowering Women to Become All They Can Be”
a Mardi Gras festival to
benefit Women’s Circle

When: Tuesday, Feb. 5, 6 p.m.

Where: Boynton Women’s Club, 1010 S. Federal Highway

Tickets: $50 each. Can be ordered by calling
561-395-3950.

“We helped 600 women last year,” Sister Ryan told the Florida Catholic, “and we raised $24,000 at our fundraiser dinner.”

Sandy Wesley, a dedicated volunteer at the center, noted, “There is (not enough) room in this tiny house where they hold so many classes.”

The sisters keep looking, but they have not yet found a place bigger than the 650-square-foot house. And the classes keep on growing.

Sister Joan Carusillo said the number of women showing up keeps growing, too.

“The sewing class on Thursdays is swamped,” she said. “Yet somehow we manage to accommodate all of them. They are so eager and willing to learn so they can get ahead in life.”

Sister Frances Madigan, a Dominican, is in charge of volunteers.

“We have 27 volunteers every month,” she said. “For our Mardi Gras festival, we have 17 committee heads, three event co-chairwomen, and two honorary chairwomen. That’s not counting our 20 or more hostesses.”

Women’s Circle is especially proud of its teenage volunteers who baby-sit while the mothers take part in classes. Volunteers are always needed and teens have an opportunity to gain service hours for their efforts.

For information on Women’s Circle, call 561-364-9501.

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