Volunteer Profiles

For more than a decade the Women's Law Project has been fortunate to have three retired women serve as anchors to our telephone counseling service. These women bring a wealth of experience and wisdom to their work at the WLP and, happily, have stayed on to provide years of mentoring to our younger volunteers. Our first profile focused on Dr. Evelyn Bouden, our second installment introduced Enny Cramer, and our third profile shines the spotlight on Shirley Silverman (see below).

Volunteer Profile: Meet Shirley Silverman

For the last 15 years, in her role as a telephone counselor at the Women’s Law Project, Shirley Silverman has listened, educated, and empowered women who called the Law Project for help. Initially Shirley volunteered as a helper to the administrative assistant at the Law Project, but it didn’t take long before she knew she wanted to do more. Shirley was eager to become a telephone counselor, and she was so enthusiastic about her experience that she soon recruited two friends, also retired, to join her (See Evelyn Bouden and Enny Cramer profiles). At age 79, Shirley uses her life experiences and zest for helping others to guide the women who call WLP’s telephone counseling and legal information service.

When asked what she enjoys most about being a telephone counselor, Shirley responded simply, “the people.” She gives the Law Project kudos for “utilizing volunteers, especially young, bright women.” She raves about the “family” she has made among the volunteers and staff of the Law Project and how working with them makes her feel “proud to be here.”

Through her volunteer work at the Law Project, Shirley has found some interactions with callers to be “upsetting, sometimes astounding, but ultimately rewarding.” She is shocked by some of the stories she hears about the mistreatment of women by men, and she feels she can “make a difference” in the lives of these women by lending an ear, giving out educational information, and empowering them to take a stand and to know their rights.

Mrs. Silverman was born and raised in Philadelphia and studied at Temple University. During the Korean War, Shirley took a hiatus from her education to marry and raise her three children, but she returned to Temple to earn her degree and continued on to Trenton State earning a Masters in Speech and Language Therapy. After completing her Masters, Shirley took a job as a speech therapist in several North Philadelphia public schools where she worked with disadvantaged elementary, middle, and high school children. In 1994, after nineteen years in the Philadelphia school district, Shirley retired. In addition to her three children, she has six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Shirley is a member of two discussion groups in the building where she lives. One group focuses on local, national, and international politics, while the other group focuses on movies and film. She enjoys reading and going to the theater in her spare time.