Our Story

Empower 2 B You was founded in Southern California in 2007, under the name Center for Women and Families from Abroad. The work then was narrow and specific: supporting women who were new to the country, often isolated by language, and unsure where to turn.

Word traveled. Within a short time, requests were arriving from across the country — far more than one person could meet. Our founder made a decision the organization has kept to ever since: rather than spread thin enough to help no one properly, she pulled the work back to the community she lived in and did it well there.

That community set the direction. The women who came for help were not the only households on their street who were short. Their neighbors needed school supplies. Families needed food. So the work widened — from one community to several, and from one kind of crisis to the ordinary, grinding shortfalls that put a child in a classroom without a notebook.

It could have grown further. The funding was not there.

In 2012 the organization relocated to Las Vegas, and the same pattern repeated: start with what you know, let the need show you what is missing. It grew into what it is today — two annual events that put school supplies and groceries into the hands of more than a hundred families in a single morning.

The paperwork took longer to catch up. For twelve years this remained a California nonprofit doing Nevada work. In 2024 the entity was domesticated to Nevada and the name changed. Center for Women and Families from Abroad had described the first version of this work accurately, and by then it no longer did. Empower 2 B You says what the organization actually means.

Nineteen years on, the constraint has never changed — and it has never been willingness.

That is what a gift changes here. Not our intentions. Our ceiling.

One person, and the people who show up. Empower 2 B You has no paid staff. Every distribution day runs on volunteers, most of what we hand out was donated by a local business, and the organization has been directed by the same person since 2007.

One effort stands apart. After the disaster in Japan, volunteers organized a relief shipment — coordinating donations, shipping, customs clearance and transport to the hardest-hit areas. It worked because businesses stepped in. Rubbermaid, Yamaha, employees of the LA Water District, 99 Cents Only Stores and K-Line Shipping Company gave products, time and services. Individuals and small local stores gave what they could. We still remember what a small group of determined volunteers managed to move halfway around the world.

We are developing a free community wellness program, delivered as workshops in the neighborhoods we already serve. It is in development and will open when we can fund it. We will announce it here.