Damon Circosta rates as a strong defender and clever playmaker who should help the Raleigh Goodmons in a tough league — the N.C. Future Development League — dominated of late by the Carolina Wingers. The Wingers are led by their point man, Paul "Skip" Stam, and by owner-manager Art "His Holiness" Pope.

But Stam can only go to his right, and he looks like he's lost a step or two over the years. Circosta is more versatile, and he's touted as a "next-generation leader" by his coach:

Raleigh, N.C. — Barbara Goodmon, president of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, announced Thursday that Damon Circosta has been named executive director of the foundation, beginning April 2.

Circosta currently heads the North Carolina Center for Voter Education, a non-profit whose mission is to inform and engage North Carolinians so that they may fully participate in democracy. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Law and a member of the State Bar of North Carolina.

“I am excited to join a North Carolina foundation that is active in the arts, education, public broadcasting and social justice. The Foundation has a proud history of taking a collaborative and inclusive approach to philanthropy, and I am thrilled to be a part of it,” Circosta said.

“Damon understands what the word 'community' means," Goodmon said. "He has a fine record of public service work and brings passion, skill, and energy to our Foundation. North Carolina is in good hands with next-generation leaders like Damon.”

The A.J. Fletcher Foundation was established by Alfred Johnston Fletcher (1887-1979). The Foundation recently moved offices to 909 Glenwood Ave., the former home of A.J. Fletcher. Fletcher’s grandson, Jim Goodmon, is board chair of the Foundation and president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Company, which owns WRAL-TV.

• photo by Bob Geary

[Update, 10:15 a.m.: I just spoke with Doug McMillan, CEO of the YMCA of the Triangle. He said the YMCA is not a convener of the Thursday meeting nor is it looking to take anything from the YWCA. "We are coming to listen," McMillan said. "We are not leading."

[The YMCA has collaborated successfully with other organizations in East Raleigh, and that kind of collaboration may be possible with some of the programs the YWCA has been running, McMIllan added. But at this point, without much information about what the YW's specific programs are, he doesn't know how such a collaboration might work. "We want to be supportive," McMillan said. "We just don't know how best to be supportive."

[I have calls in to Craig Chancellor and Maria Spaulding, and I'll be writing a piece later for tomorrow's Indy.]

What follows is the original post from last night —

It's been a week since terminated workers hosted their meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church, and there's been no public word from the Board of Directors of the YWCA of the Greater Triangle. I was told by two reliable sources that, prior to that public session in the church last Monday, board members assured a small group of community leaders during a private session that they'd be getting together soon with the workers — soon meaning by the weekend.

Well, that didn't happen. But the YWCA board has called a big meeting in two days — apparently it's invitation-only — with United Way officials, the leadership of the YMCA of the Triangle, and some other dignitaries including a few Southeast Raleigh leaders. It's billed as "an important meeting to discuss the future of the organization. YOUR input and advice are critical."

But none of the terminated employees were invited, apparently, nor any of the YW's program participants, for that matter.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m.-12 noon in the auditorium at the Hospice of Wake County campus, which is located at 5980 Trinity Road in West Raleigh, on the other side of town and miles from the YWCA building.

The invitation came from YWCA board chair Maria Spaulding and United Way of the Greater Triangle CEO Craig Chancellor. Also copied up top were Doug McMillan, CEO of the YMCA of the Triangle, and Bruce Lightner, a Southeast Raleigh leader who co-chairs the Raleigh MLK Celebration Committee.

Lightner, in an email provided to one of the former YWCA workers, told a fellow invitee that he was asked to get involved by the Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor at Martin Street Baptist and the new president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association (RWCA), Southeast Raleigh's main political organization. "It is my understanding the meeting is called by the Triangle YMCA Board, Triangle YMCA Administrators and Triangle United Way Administrators," Lightner says in the email.

Lightner expressed concern that a closed-door meeting will simply add to the "mountain of distrust and animosity" that Southeast Raleigh feels toward the YW's board. It's time, he suggests, for the board "to have a community wide meeting and invite former YWCA Board Members, former YWCA Staff, other stake holders in the boarder community ... and citizens most effected by the YWCA's closing. Such a public meeting will go a long way in providing a vision and commitment to move forward with openness and transparency."

Johnson, when I reached him by telephone, said he's committed to keeping the YWCA open, but he said it may not necessarily be called the YWCA. "I do think there needs to be a change in leadership," Johnson said. "But you were at the meeting Monday. People spoke out strongly that it that they want it to stay [and reopen]. The community benefits are tremendous. I haven't heard anybody say, come shut it down."

One possible scenario I've heard is that YMCA may take over most of the YWCA's programs, though not necessarily its building nor its core mission. [And this — see above — is the impression that the YMCA's Doug McMillan is anxious to dispel.]

The building and adjacent lots owned by the YWCA are valued at upwards of $1 million, I'm told. But the YWCA is in debt to the tune of $500,000 or perhaps more. So YWCA board members may be anxious to liquidate the assets — the building — pay off the debts and go away.

WRAL reported last week that the governing body for the national YW organization had no idea the local YWCA was in financial trouble before it closed so abruptly on February 29.

If the YMCA takes over, however, two things will almost certainly be true.

Number one, whatever programs remain from the YW, the organization will not be led by women, let alone women of color, as the YWCA has historically been.

Number two, the YMCA is very unlikely to maintain the YWCA's mission, which is: Empower women, and eradicate racism.

To maintain the mission, the YWCA would need to be reconstituted as an independent organization with a strong board, led by women and housed in Southeast Raleigh. Where in Southeast Raleigh? Well, there's a perfectly good building on East Hargett Street.

The good news, if there be such in the debacle of the Raleigh YWCA closing, is that the Southeast Raleigh community is rising strongly to insist that the facility and its programs be saved. That was apparent tonight as 200 people gathered — not at the YWCA, but as it turned out at the Martin Street Baptist Church a few blocks away — to voice their feelings and start to organize. "We were going in different directions," said Wake County Commissioner James West, talking about how hard times brought the community down. But with the news about the YW, West said, "We are coming together."

• photo by Bob Geary
• A packed house at Martin Street Baptist Church

Said Rukiya Dillahunt, a retired school vice principal and activist in Black Workers for Justice: "The people united will never be defeated." After leading a chant with those words, Dillahunt vowed: "And we are going to save the YWCA on Hargett Street."

Those who came expecting to hear a plan to save the YWCA were disappointed, however. No board members of the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, the governing body that closed the building and terminated 14 employees on less than a day's notice Wednesday, attended the meeting. That fact ticked off the displaced workers. One, Omisade Burney-Scott, read aloud the outraged letter they directed at the board on Friday. Another, Crystal Hayes, called them "cowards."

Board members did meet privately with a small group of community leaders in a conference room at Martin Street Baptist before the public session began.

According to several people who were there, board members said they closed the YW abruptly after being warned by their "legal counsel" that they risked criminal charges if they continued to employ people knowing they didn't have any money to pay them. The lawyers also advised board members not to attend the open meeting last night and not to allow it to be held at the YWCA, as the workers and community leaders planned.

So, at the last minute, the open meeting was moved to the church, with organizers directing folks there as they arrived at the YW.

Because the board members did not address issues in public, the people who attended the meeting came away without any information about how deep the financial troubles of the YWCA go. I was told by a knowledgeable person that the organization's debt is $500,000 in round numbers. I can't quote the name.

Board members said in private that they intend to meet with the displaced workers as soon as possible, probably this week, and are working hard to find the money to pay them their back wages they're owed.

If details about the organization's debts were scant, though, organizing to get the details and begin to address them is moving ahead.

The Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor at Martin Street and the new president of the RWCA (Raleigh Wake Citizens Association), Southeast Raleigh's political arm, is among the leaders along with members of his church and members of First Baptist Church downtown.

City Councilor Eugene Weeks said he's talked with Council members, City Manager Russell Allen and Mayor Nancy McFarlane and they're "listening" for ways the city can help.

Keith Sutton, the district's representative on the Wake County Board of Education, said school leaders are working as a team to find after-school programs for the kids who were in such programs at the YW.

Several organizations have volunteered to host the YW's senior group, the Golden Oaks.

And Bishop M.S. Nesbitt of Deliverance Cathedral of Love got a big round of applause when she spoke toward the end of the meeting and promised that her church will write checks to each of the 14 displaced workers for $1,000 each.

Organizers are raising money to support the 14 employees who were terminated and who continue to be owed back wages. Those wishing to contribute should direct checks to ACRE (Action for Community in Raleigh), a nonprofit 501(c)3 group which has agreed to handle the donations and pass them through to the workers. The mailing address is:

ACRE
331 W. Main St.
Suite 408
Durham, N 27701.

Write YWCA on the check. Contributions will be tax-deductible.

Last night's vigil (too windy for candles) produced an outpouring of stories about the importance of the YWCA to women, especially women of color, and to children and teens in Raleigh. About 60 people turned out in support of keeping the YW open — here's some background — but there were no specifics about how that can or should be done.

• photo by Bob Geary
• Part of the crowd that turned out at the YWCA last night.

Tonight's community meeting, starting at 6:30, may start to fill in some of the details. No one on the board of directors attended the vigil. Perhaps one or more will be there this evening to draw the financial picture and detail the debts so that people can go to work on a reorganization and fundraising plan.

Oh, and a plan to pay the staff for work they'd done before they were shown the door — sans pay — on Wednesday. They were shown the door, but apparently a lot of them stayed to sort out the mess the board left behind with the older women and child-care clients scrambling to find other programs.

City officials have been invited to be there tonight, including Mayor Nancy McFarlane.

The meeting will be in the auditorium at the YW, 554 E. Hargett St.

I didn't know it, but before the YW on E. Hargett Street was built, the old YW was on E. Davie Street. The Raleigh YW organization dates from 1911, and originally there was "the black YW" on the east side of Raleigh and the "white YW" on the west side. The two merged in the '60s, and since then the YWCA of the Greater Triangle has made it a top priority to battle racism and empower women to be on the font lines of the fight.

Ruby Thompson, 80, said she remembers the earlier YW and depends on the new one. "This has been great for us," she told the group last night, "so great I wanted to cry. Y'all, we do need this place. We need it bad."

A former board member, Yvonne Holley, said she and others in the community are on the phone looking for information and figuring out what to do. "Hopefully, we can save it and make it better than it was before," Holley said.

Rukiya Dillahunt, a retired school vice principal and a leader in Black Workers for Justice, said the YWCA has played many roles for women like her over the years. "We learned arts and crafts. We learned how to be ladies. Most important of all, we learned our history."

Patty Williams, one of the leaders of the Great Schools in Wake coalition — the YWCA was among the very first to be in the coalition defending diversity in the schools after the '09 school board elections — had a good suggestion. The YWCA annually honors women in the Raleigh area for their community leadership. Hundreds of women, many of them well-heeled (in the money way :) have been so honored.

"Smart minds," Williams called them. Time for them to use their smarts to honor the YWCA, Williams said.

• photo by Bob Geary
• Omisade Burney-Scott, a laid-off YWCA staffer, embraces Letha Muhammad.