[photo credit: YWCA Glendale & Pasadena]

The YWCA Glendale and Pasadena will open its centennial year on Wednesday, March 25, with a free public reception at its Glendale headquarters — the same building on Lexington Drive that has housed the organization since 15 women founded it in 1926 as a health and recreation center for the city’s women and girls.

The reception, scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. at 735 East Lexington Drive, will feature survivor stories, donor reflections, and a presentation on the organization’s history and future by Chief Executive Officer Debra Suh, according to the YWCA’s event listing. A century after its founding, the organization now operates a 16-bed emergency shelter for domestic violence survivors, a 24/7 crisis hotline, and girls’ empowerment programs, serving more than 2,500 women and girls in 2023, according to the organization’s website. All services are provided at no cost in English, Spanish, and Armenian.

The reception is the first of three major events during the centennial year. A Centennial Gala is scheduled for May 29 at La Canada Flintridge Country Club, and the annual Women for Racial Justice Breakfast — which draws more than 350 community members, according to the organization — will be held October 22 at the Pasadena Hilton.

“We are excited to partner with Glendale Public Library to have an oral history project,” Suh said, according to Local News Pasadena. “We want to document what the YWCA has meant to this community over the last 100 years.”

Suh, who grew up in Pasadena and raised her children in Glendale, became CEO in November 2024 after spending 23 years as executive director of the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, according to the organization’s website. She previously expanded legal access for underserved immigrants at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, according to the YWCA.

“We can’t just address the violence after it happens,” Suh told the Glendale News-Press in December 2024. “We have to start building healthier communities.”

The organization was founded in 1926 by 15 prominent Glendale women who wanted full access to a recreational facility, according to the YWCA’s history page. During the Depression, it provided over 400 meals and 81 free beds to women and girls in 1933 alone, according to organizational records. It launched domestic violence programming in 1979 and expanded its shelter to 16 beds in March 2020, according to the organization’s GuideStar profile.

In March 2021, YWCA Glendale merged with YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley, a Pasadena organization established in 1905, according to the YWCA’s FAQ page. The combined entity took the name YWCA Glendale and Pasadena. The organization maintains Pasadena ties through girls’ empowerment programming in Pasadena Unified School District schools and a partnership with PUSD on Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, according to the organization’s social media.

“We are celebrating one hundred years of service,” said Susan Hunt, a volunteer on the YWCA Centennial steering committee, according to Local News Pasadena. “It started as a place to live for women who worked.”

The Centennial Reception on March 25 is free and open to the public. Reserved tables of eight are available for $1,000. To reserve a table, contact Erin English at erinenglish@ywcagp.org or call (818) 242-4155, ext. 262. More information is available at ywcagp.org.

The YWCA’s 24/7 domestic violence crisis hotline is 1-888-999-7511.

“We want to hear their stories,” Suh said. “Some women learned how to swim or dance, others stayed at the camps, or their mothers lived there.”

YWCA GLENDALE & PASADENA CENTENNIAL KICKOFF RECEPTION Date & Time: Wednesday, March 25, 2026 (see event listing for time). Venue: YWCA Glendale & Pasadena, 735 East Lexington Drive, Glendale, CA 91206. Phone Number: (818) 242-4155. Website: https://ywcagp.org