For more than 37 years, Center for Hope & Safety has been building a bigger and stronger foundation in order to provide services that promote the safety, strength, and hope our clients and their children need to succeed.
12 Overlook Avenue is a dream we’ve been working toward for some time, and Rochelle Park, NJ, is the perfect location. This new Community Program Center will enable us to consolidate all of our non-emergency resources under one roof. It will be the new home of our premier children’s program, Project C.H.I.L.D., offering creative arts therapy for youngsters who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence.
As we build toward the future, our new building will also house the learning center for our clients and volunteers, as well as our community outreach and multicultural services programs. It will provide the space we need to serve more women and children in Bergen County who need help—help in finding housing, getting an education, building skills in self-sufficiency, dealing with the legal system. In doing so, we will be able to restrict emergency services to the emergency shelter and thus ensure that facility’s safety and confidentiality.
How appropriate that we launch this project in October, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, complete with a presidential proclamation:
Since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) nearly 20 years ago, our Nation’s response to domestic violence has greatly improved. What was too often seen as a private matter best hidden behind closed doors is now an established issue of national concern.
Although we have made substantial progress in reducing domestic violence, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men in the United States still suffer serious physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner at least once during their lifetimes. Every day, 3 women lose their lives in this country as a result of domestic violence. Millions of Americans live in daily, silent fear within their own homes.
Ending violence in the home is a national imperative that requires vigilance and dedication from every sector of our society.”
I know the statistics scare me: 1 in 4 women will suffer serious violence at the hands of an intimate partner during her lifetime. I look at my two daughters and granddaughter and wonder and hope it is not one of them. Please, not one of them. Not one of yours, either. Someday, not one at all.
In order to meet the growing demand for our services—and in order to realize our dream and end a nightmare for those in crisis—we need your help.
We have launched Building for the Future: Safety, Strength and Hope, a campaign to raise the funds needed to support purchase and renovation of the Community Program Center/Center for Hope & Safety headquarters in Rochelle Park. The sooner we raise the money, the sooner we can move in, focus our resources, and take the next step forward in helping families build violence-free lives—giving them a strong foundation for a brighter future.
Please, donate generously now.
Thank you. Please know that every dollar makes a difference.
Sincerely,
Ruth Seitelman
President, Center for Hope & Safety Board of Trustees