IN THIS ISSUE: Learn about our new web-based chat service for people experiencing relationship abuse; hear directly from our supporters; get a sneak peek of our Holiday Gift Drive; and more!
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Dear Friends and Advocates,
As the weather cools and we brace ourselves for an escalation of COVID-19 and the isolation that comes with it, we are stalwart in our commitment to meet the evolving needs of people experiencing intimate partner violence.
- Our children's services team are partnering with parents in our residential programs to support children's engagement in virtual learning.
- We're adapting our annual Holiday Gift Drive, replacing the generous mounds of donated goods we normally receive with socially distant options for the 2020 season.
- And, we are preparing to launch Web Chat - our new chatting service for people experiencing relationship abuse.
None of this work would be possible without your support! THANK YOU for your commitment to ending domestic violence, and for your contribution to building a thriving community where safety is our foundation.
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In Solidarity,
Jeannine L. Lisitski, Ph.D.
Executive Director & President
Women Against Abuse
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We are thrilled to be able to begin offering support via chat on our website for people experiencing relationship abuse.
COVID-19 poses especially serious consequences for people forced to quarantine or social distance with an abusive partner. The pandemic has also made it more difficult for people experiencing abuse to call the Philadelphia Domestic Violence Hotline for support. More callers than usual are sharing that their abusive partner is home when they are making the call; therefore we’re experiencing more short, frantic calls, and more abrupt endings.
Web Chat is being designed in response to this challenge, and is a safe and private way for Philadelphians to connect with a Women Against Abuse advocate for non-emergencies. This new chat service is free, and all conversations are confidential.
Web Chat will be available daily from 12 Noon to 8 PM EST, beginning next week at womenagainstabuse.org.
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You can brighten the holidays for our clients by participating in our 2020 Holiday Gift Drive, which has been adapted due to COVID-19.
From November 4th - December 10th you can donate gift cards to our emergency safe havens or participate in a virtual Adopt-A-Family drive.
Gift Cards for Safe Haven Residents
In lieu of dropping off gifts, we are asking our generous Holiday Gift Drive supporters to mail us gift cards to retailers like:
- Amazon
- Target
- Apple
- GameStop
- Walmart
Please mail the gift cards to our Administrative Office, so we can distribute them to clients before the holidays:
Women Against Abuse
Attn: Advancement
100 S Broad Street, Suite 1341
Philadelphia PA, 19102
Virtual Adopt-A-Family
Our annual Adopt-A-Family donation drive matches generous community members with clients from our Legal Center, transitional housing and Safe at Home programs by providing family profiles and wish lists. To ensure the safety of our clients, staff, and Adopt-A-Family donors, this year's contactless process will be done through Amazon wish lists. When you sign up for the Adopt-A-Family program, we will send you a profile of the family you are adopting, along with an Amazon wish list with their unique requests.
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Inspiring hope and healing through art is nothing new to Linda Ruth Paskell (pictured), an artist and Adjunct Professor of Education at Arcadia University. Doing so during COVID-19 has just taken an extra dose of creativity.
Paskell's "Artist in the Community" course - which fuses art with social justice - incorporates opportunities for students to connect with the world around them and to give back. Prior to the pandemic, Paskell and her students facilitated fine arts workshops for clients at each of Women Against Abuse's emergency safe havens. Residents at Ameya's Place painted mandalas onto vinyl records, while residents at Carol's Place filled the hallways with their own renditions of Vincent Van Gogh's sunflower painting.
This semester and next, the partnership will continue virtually, with Paskell's students creating Tin Art replicas with glue guns, aluminum foil and paint to brighten residents' rooms during this confining time of social distancing.
"Art has always been a source of restoration for me, so the impetus behind this is to develop love and gratitude, and to use the healing power of art to let people know they are loved and seen," Paskell said. "We know we can't be with you right now while you're transitioning to safety, but we see you. You deserve to be seen and to have some beauty."
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Samples of the Tin Art replicas created by Paskell's students for Women Against Abuse clients. |
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To make your own Tin Art replica, check out Paskell's tutorial here. And to learn more about how Paskell fuses art with social justice through community partnerships across the globe, visit her website, The Color of Poverty
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We hosted our first ever virtual iPledge Campaign on October 1, 2020. This year’s theme – The Difference You Can Make – illuminated the importance of working together against injustice to create a community of safety for every person. Speakers – who included Melissa Magee, Host, Mayor Jim Kenney, PA Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, and Women Against Abuse staff members – discussed domestic violence through the lens of COVID-19 and the global movement for racial equity.
Guests local to the Philadelphia region were asked to care for their neighbors during the pandemic by displaying a decal for the Philadelphia Domestic Violence Hotline in a window of their home.
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Special thanks to our sponsors!
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Brianna entered the Women Against Abuse emergency safe haven with her 4-year-old son after waking up from a coma induced by a violent assault.
Brianna moved into Sojourner House - our transitional housing program. She entered not only looking to establish long-term safety, but to work on her parenting, and create a safe and healthy future for her family.
Brianna’s strength and determination were clear and present throughout her time with us. She created a strong foundation through the security of an 18-month stay at Sojourner House, along with the case management, children's services and therapy we provide there. But there are many more survivors looking for a safe place to rebuild, and recent funding cuts have put those programs in danger.
Will you make a gift to our Fall Fundraising Campaign so that more survivors like Brianna can build a future for themselves that is safe and healthy?
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We recently connected with Ron Davis, Director of Diversity and Community Development at Parx Casinos, about his company's support. Here is what he had to say:
What motivates Parx Casinos to support Women Against Abuse?
It is our pleasure to support this great organization. We feel it is our obligation to help all those suffering in our society, particularly women. Parx believes in sharing our success with the community, and through that we have done outreach with our teams and are trying to help our community improve. We’re about being a part of a caring community, so we are happy to be able to help Women Against Abuse to achieve its goals and mission, and we look forward to continuing that.
What kind of impact do you hope your giving will make?
The caring community is one that engages the impact of its members, so our expectation is to help in a positive way; to improve the lives of the people in our community and be a positive source of leadership, change, and help wherever we go.
How has COVID-19 brought domestic violence and other social justice issues to the surface for Parx when it comes to investing resources in the community?
I think one of the positive things we do is try to have employees involved on Boards in our community that care and do outreach. Throughout COVID, we’ve seen tensions within some of the organizations we serve with as Board members. It’s a tough time, because there’s additional tension, stress on health, on social issues, social justice, equality. COVID has brought another wave of stress on our community.
We have a very committed women's outreach and leadership business resource group, and certainly domestic violence is something - as a company - we are acutely aware can happen in our community. Women Against Abuse gives a message that needs to be heard.
What would you tell other companies who are considering an investment in our work?
I would tell other companies to join us in being a part of this caring community. There are many things that affect the people we love and care about, and we want to make sure we’re a part of this, and we want to encourage other companies to be a part of this movement.
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Like many other nonprofits, Women Against Abuse had to cancel its annual fundraising event when COVID-19 erupted. We are so thankful to Parx Casinos and all of our 2020 Dish It Up Sponsors. Their unwavering support allowed us to serve 8,993 people last fiscal year through our comprehensive, life-saving interventions and prevention work.
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With election campaign season behind us, we are reminded of how many issues our communities are faced with each day. Systemic racism has also caused the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities and Communities of Color, and additional barriers to safety and justice. Now is a good time to encourage Congress not to abandon pandemic relief efforts and to support all domestic and sexual violence survivors in the next COVID-19 legislative package.
The updated House-passed HEROES Act (H.R. 8406) provides investment in the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), includes a critical fix to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) to maintain funding for victim services, and addresses the needs of non-citizen immigrant victims of domestic violence.
The updated House HEROES Act includes the following that must be included in a final COVID-19 relief package:
- Increases funding for FVPSA;
- Amends the VOCA to increase deposits into the Crime Victims Fund;
- Increases VAWA funding to support programs,
- Ensures non-citizen immigrant survivors have access to health, safety, and economic stability by expanding benefits to include all survivors regardless of status; and
- Provides survivors additional economic and rent supports, including access to unemployment insurance and paid leave.
We need your involvement to ensure that Congress is taking action to support survivors. For more information, and to write to your legislator, please visit our Take Action Center.
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We were grateful for the opportunity to speak with DonorPerfect, a local fundraising software company and longtime corporate supporter, about the work we are doing around racial justice. Our efforts to become actively anti-racist and de-center whiteness in our organization is just beginning, but we're committed to the long-term work of dismantling systemic racism.
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Click on the images below to link directly to the corresponding posts.
ICYMI: We've joined Instagram! Please follow us @womenagainstabuse
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Women Against Abuse does not discriminate on the basis of gender. To request a copy of our Title IX policy or to make a complaint, contact our Title IX Coordinator, the Vice President of Human Resources, at 215-386-1280. |
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