50th Anniversary Story

By: Dr. Victoria Best, M.Ed

I’ve been honored to be a WOMEN’S WAY Change the Narrative Fellow and a member of the WOMEN'S WAY Speakers Bureau. Through these experiences, I gained tools, community, and a platform for advocacy that deepened my commitment to gender and racial equity. Victoria Urban Outreach Tutoring Service (VUOTS) has also been a WOMEN’S WAY grantee through the Immediate Response Action Fund (IRAF), a rapid-response grant program designed to quickly support organizations serving women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals in the Philadelphia region. This support helped us sustain and expand our work in a moment of urgent community need.

My WOMEN’S WAY story is one of transformation, support, and community accountability. As a Fellow in the Change the Narrative Fellowship and the WOMEN'S WAY Speakers Bureau, WOMEN’S WAY strengthened my voice as an advocate — not just for educational equity, but for structural change rooted in gender and racial justice. The fellowship experiences taught me to move beyond narrative into strategic advocacy, to elevate lived experience as expertise, and to build partnerships centered in healing and liberation.

When VUOTS received support through WOMEN’S WAY’s Immediate Response Action Fund, that funding came at a time when nimble resources mattered most. IRAF is designed to get funding into the hands of organizations doing critical, on-the-ground work in as little as 10 business days, and it affirmed that our work to support Black and Brown youth and families is both urgent and valued.

That combination — learning through fellowship and receiving rapid funding — has shaped how I think about community-led change: it happens when organizations are trusted and resourced to respond with heart, rooted in accountability to the people they serve. WOMEN’S WAY has been a partner in that journey, and I’m grateful for how that partnership has strengthened both my leadership and our collective impact.

Photos are courtesy of Dr. Victoria Best, M.Ed

This story is a part of the WOMEN'S WAY 50th Anniversary Storytelling initiative. To learn more and submit your own story, please visit: womensway.org/WW50