Imagine leaving the comfort of your own home, leaving your belongings behind because all you could pack was your courage and your determination to create a better life for you and your children. As you digest this, imagine walking into a domestic violence shelter for the first time. It's a relief to be safe, yet it's scary, it's unfamiliar and just downright uncomfortable. This is not your own pillow, your own bed, nor your own belongings. Sometimes you're sharing space with other families.
Victims risk their lives to leave their abusive partners and often experience escalating violence, poverty and homelessness when they do. Making the decision to leave an abusive relationship increases a domestic violence victims' risk of further injury or death. An abuser’s tactics to gain power and control over a victim- physically, emotionally and financially, is threatened once a victim leaves the abusive relationship. The power dynamic shifts, increasing the level of danger.
Every survivor deserves a fresh start.
Domestic violence shelters provide the initial, critical support a fleeing victim needs, such as individualized advocacy and support, food, and shelter. While basic needs, like personal care items, diapers for babies, and clothing, are provided during a shelter stay, many expenses are not covered, creating multiple barriers and challenges for victims to locate safe, affordable housing or transportation, and for replacing lost personal possessions. Starting over doesn't feel like starting over when you have just left everything behind.
Let us change this for victims in Allegany County! The county’s only domestic violence shelter, a six-bed facility that has been in operation since the late 1980's, is in need of remodeling to create a more peaceful, comfortable, and relaxing space. It provides a temporary home for approximately 20 parents and their children each year.
This campaign will extend throughout 2018 to build the Domestic Violence Program Unrestricted Fund to provide resources directly to victims. Victims need access to resources to build a fresh start, such as clothing and new undergarments, new bed pillows, or the first month's rent for a new apartment; or gasoline to get back and forth from work or college, or to court and doctor's appointments.
Donations will offset costs for laminate wood flooring, new carpets, a fresh coat of paint, new curtains, new bed linens, bath towels, and other improvements and furnishings.
Thank you for helping domestic violence victims make a fresh start!
Victims risk their lives to leave their abusive partners and often experience escalating violence, poverty and homelessness when they do. Making the decision to leave an abusive relationship increases a domestic violence victims' risk of further injury or death. An abuser’s tactics to gain power and control over a victim- physically, emotionally and financially, is threatened once a victim leaves the abusive relationship. The power dynamic shifts, increasing the level of danger.
Every survivor deserves a fresh start.
Domestic violence shelters provide the initial, critical support a fleeing victim needs, such as individualized advocacy and support, food, and shelter. While basic needs, like personal care items, diapers for babies, and clothing, are provided during a shelter stay, many expenses are not covered, creating multiple barriers and challenges for victims to locate safe, affordable housing or transportation, and for replacing lost personal possessions. Starting over doesn't feel like starting over when you have just left everything behind.
Let us change this for victims in Allegany County! The county’s only domestic violence shelter, a six-bed facility that has been in operation since the late 1980's, is in need of remodeling to create a more peaceful, comfortable, and relaxing space. It provides a temporary home for approximately 20 parents and their children each year.
This campaign will extend throughout 2018 to build the Domestic Violence Program Unrestricted Fund to provide resources directly to victims. Victims need access to resources to build a fresh start, such as clothing and new undergarments, new bed pillows, or the first month's rent for a new apartment; or gasoline to get back and forth from work or college, or to court and doctor's appointments.
Donations will offset costs for laminate wood flooring, new carpets, a fresh coat of paint, new curtains, new bed linens, bath towels, and other improvements and furnishings.
Thank you for helping domestic violence victims make a fresh start!
