These are just a few of the women making a difference on the forefront or behind the scenes.

Linda Joyce, executive director of YWCA of Kitsap County since 1994, works with domestic violence victims and their families, disadvantaged children and women. An emergency shelter, children’s programs and advocacy, legal advocacy, and an adopt-a-family program are some of the services offered by the YWCA.

“I enjoy meeting so many people from different walks of life,” said Joyce, who sees her career and her life being enhanced by every person she meets. “I have a front-row seat to see those families grow and prosper,” she said.

Joyce came to Kitsap from California, where her last job was as a director of a homeless shelter. What she found different about this area is the “small-town kind of response to nonprofits.” “People here get to know their community nonprofits intimately,” she said. Even last year, when the country was going through difficult times due to several natural disasters, Joyce said the local community continued to support the organization. “People want us to thrive, not just survive,” she said.

Joyce is a member of several local boards, including the Olympic Community College’s Women’s Advisory Board, Peninsula Work Release, and the Alumni Association Board for Leadership Kitsap. A resident of Silverdale, she also stays involved outside of work. “I try to be involved in my own community,” she said. “The community is only as strong as the participants in it.”

Tamara Ingwaldson, campaign director for the United Way of Kitsap County since 2002, came to the nonprofit sector after 21 years in telecommunications. After being laid off by a previous employer, Ingwaldson was urged by several friends to apply at United Way. She first discounted the idea, feeling she didn’t have the right background — but by the time she heard it from the fourth person, she gave it a try.

“I get paid to help people help people. How cool is that?” she asked.

As the campaign director, she recruits employers to participate in the payroll-deduction program for UW contributions. Part of her job is to share what a difference those contributions make, how the money is used and how those investments pay off in the community. “Everybody in the county I’ve met with has the common goal of making the community safe and better,” she said.

Ingwaldson finds asking for contributions challenging sometime, as she may have to step out of her comfort zone, but she has worked on being stronger in that area. She is active in several organizations and projects as part of her job, including the Home Builders Association, but is also active as a volunteer outside her work. As a single mother to two daughters, ages 12 and 13, she wants to be a positive role model. Finding the time for volunteer commitments is challenging, but, she said, “You just go and you just do.”

Retired operating room nurse Ruth Bramhall, who lives on the Key Peninsula, has such a long list of local organizations and projects on her list that it may seem easier to figure out what she’s not involved with. From the local fair and sportsmen’s club to local political campaigns and schools, Bramhall volunteers two to four hours a day to help others.

“I do know how to say no,” said Bramhall, who grew up in a small community and has worked in her family’s business since age 5. A 38-year resident of the Key Peninsula, she first became involved in the local community as part of a water quality committee while still working full time. Since then, many groups have benefited from her skills as a treasurer, raffle ticket seller, organizer, and much more.

Recently, she added one more name to her activities: She became a reading mentor for an elementary school after-hours reading program sponsored by Communities in School of Peninsula. Bramhall said she did not learn how to spell properly until she became an adult, and she wanted to help the young generation learn to read better because she recognizes how important that is.

Bramhall is not an artist but is active in the Two Waters Arts Alliance nonprofit that promotes arts on the Key Peninsula; she doesn’t have a business but has been active for many years in the local business association. “I enjoy meeting different groups of people,” she said. “I am not as agile as I used to be but I figure I can give back to the community.”

Kathy Cocus, Kitsap Economic Development Council recruitment and retention manager, works to attract new companies to Kitsap and help existing businesses grow. “A lot of what we do is connect businesses with the right resources,” she said. Cocus feels economic development is about building relationships, so she networks with various other agencies and is active in several organizations.

Cocus pointed out the EDC’s tagline is that economic development is everybody’s business, and said everyone in Kitsap can help promote the area as a good place to do business. Her job requires good listening skills as well as patience — some recruitment projects take several years to come through.

“It’s not a job for someone who requires instant gratification,” she said.

Prior to the EDC, Cocus worked for the Kitsap Humane Society as development director, and Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce as the executive director. Working in the nonprofit sector, she said, is “a way of giving back.” “All those agencies are different, but they all allow you to give back to your community through your job,” she said.

Pennye Nixon-West, executive director of Port Orchard-based Etta Projects, left her practice as a child and family therapist a year ago to focus her efforts full-time on the organization she created in the memory of her daughter, Etta Turner. Etta died in an accident while a Port Orchard Rotary exchange student in Bolivia at age 16. Etta Projects’ primary work now is focused on running two “comedors” that help poor families and provide meals and care for malnourished children. The project also helps women acquire job skills and become more self-sufficient.

Nixon-West raises funds for the projects through local service groups, philanthropic organizations and donations. The organization’s administrative costs so far have been paid by the annual fund-raisers, so all the contributions are used toward the work in Bolivia.

“This project is really about Etta,” Nixon-West said. “She understood poverty…She understood human kind and it was baffling to her why so many children were hungry when the rest of the world had so many things.”

Nixon-West finds it rewarding to see the Bolivian women, who are isolated and often physically abused, gain hope, and to see the children become involved at school once their health improves due to better nutrition. Although her work reaches far outside the local community, she feels poverty is everyone’s responsibility.

“Etta lived here her whole life,” she said. “This is a Port Orchard and Kitsap County project.”.