
Printing with a Higher Purpose: Women’s Press Collective
Contributor Patrick Henry profiles a Bronx-based, all-volunteer organization that demonstrates why print remains foremost among the media as a force for social good.
Printers tend to think about printing in a mercantile way, and there is nothing wrong with that. Print is what they manufacture and sell to sustain their businesses. If they are commercial printers, the bulk of their output will be used to promote and advertise profit-making businesses of all kinds.
But print is also humanity’s first mass medium for speaking truth to power, exposing injustice, and driving social change. A New York City-based organization called Women’s Press Collective (WPC) is upholding print in that historic role by putting it into the hands of people who don’t do it for a living, but who have embraced it as a means of making their lives and those of other people better.
WPC recently received a cash grant from the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) in recognition of the training it offers to those who want to learn how to print in support of the causes they advocate. This is no small distinction for the group, which is staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers working with donated equipment and supplies.
In fact, WPC’s pressroom in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx may be the only remaining place in the New York City metro area where people who don’t work for printing companies can go to learn what an offset lithographic press is and how to operate one.
WPC’s other principal activity is making printing available to those who have worthy causes to advance, but who lack access to mainstream media—a mission that goes to the heart of WPC’s quest for social and economic justice.

The Foundation donors and sponsors, are working to build the future workforce in the industry.
Graphics Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) is a not-for-profit, private industry directed organization that offers technical school, undergraduate and graduate fellowship assistance to men and women interested in a career in the graphic communications field.
GCSF has two main missions. First, to attract young people to the industry and inform them (and their parents, school advisors, etc.) of the wide variety of career opportunities available. Second, if they are pursuing post-secondary education in order to enter the field or are currently working and look to continue their education part time, we provide financial assistance to them.
For over 20 years, GCSF has helped more than 400 students join the Communications and Design industry. Started by a group of committed designers, printers, educators and publishers, GCSF provides financial, educational and mentoring support to aspiring New York area professionals interested in careers in:
Graphic Design •
Printing •
Publishing •
Advertising •
Internet •
World Wide Web •
Interactive Multimedia •
Digital Video • Digital Signage •
Presentation Graphics •
Illustration •
etc •.
