Community Corner
Women Aware Receives $20,000 Grant from Mary Kay Foundation
In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, The Mary Kay FoundationSM has awarded $3 million in grants to 150 domestic violence shelters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Women Aware, Inc., the domestic violence shelter in Middlesex County, NJ, received one of the $20,000 unrestricted grants to maintain critical services and programs for individuals who are survivors of domestic abuse.
Women Aware provides essential services including an emergency shelter and domestic violence hotline, in addition to comprehensive wraparound supports for survivors of domestic violence covering a range of needs such as legal advocacy, children’s art therapy, and group counseling. In 2012, the shelter was home to 249 women and children. In response to the need for more housing options for women leaving the shelter, Women Aware is opening New Jersey’s first permanent supportive housing project for domestic violence survivors. The need is great, police report over 70,000 domestic violence cases in New Jersey each year.
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“This is a wonderful opportunity from the Mary Kay Foundation,” said Phyllis Adams, Executive Director of Women Aware. “We expanded the services we offer by 25% last year, and this grant will help even more women move beyond abuse.”
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For nearly 20 years The Mary Kay FoundationSM has supported the prevention and elimination of domestic violence, an epidemic that touches one in every four women in her lifetime. Through the Foundation’s annual shelter grant program, $34 million has been granted to domestic violence organizations since 2000.
“The Mary Kay FoundationSM is proud to support local shelters that are on the front lines of helping the thousands of women and children who seek shelter and support from abuse,” said Anne Crews, Vice President of Government Relations for Mary Kay Inc. and board member for The Mary Kay FoundationSM. “The shelter grants are a signature program for The Mary Kay Foundation and represent just one of the ways we are committed to breaking the cycle of domestic violence.”
Click here for a full list of 2013 grant recipients or visit marykayfoundation.org for additional information.
About Women Aware
Women Aware is the lead domestic violence agency in Middlesex County, New Jersey. If offers a comprehensive array of services at four locations that includes a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, counseling and community support groups, children’s programs, legal advocacy, batterer’s intervention, and community education. All services are free and confidential. Women Aware is devoted to empowering individuals to live free from violence, and is committed to ending domestic violence. To learn more, please visit www.womenaware.net.
The Mary Kay FoundationSM was created in 1996, and its mission is two-fold: to fund research of cancers affecting women and to help prevent domestic violence while raising awareness of the issue. Since the Foundation’s inception, it has awarded $34 million to shelters and programs addressing domestic violence prevention and more than $20 million to cancer researchers and related causes throughout the United States. To learn more about The Mary Kay FoundationSM, please visit www.marykayfoundation.org or call 1-877-MKCARES (652-2737).