A Survivor's Story from Mayyim Hayyim

As we begin the second year of funding the Embracing Waters project, designed to support women who have been affected by domestic and/or relationship abuse, here is a story that Mayyim Hayyim director Aliza Kline recently shared with us.

"Hi Susan,

I wanted to share with you the story of a woman who immersed at Mayyim Hayyim one night this week:

"Marci" came here from out of town after having recently been sexually assaulted by someone who was a good friend of hers.  Her mother, not knowing anything about us, suggested that perhaps she might use the mikveh for healing.  She went online, came across our website, and scheduled a flight for her journey of 500 miles.

She also used the opportunity to reconnect with a friend of hers, a rabbi, whom she had not seen in years.

After sharing our ceremonies and resources, and placing her in the supportive care of one of our Mikveh Guides, she emerged from the water and said, "I didn't think it would happen, but it worked."

She then wrote the following in our guest book:

"Thank you for having a place like this - where safety and warmth radiate from the moment the door is opened, where compassion, patience, and understanding reign, where we may come to be made whole and know that our style and healing are respected.  Thank you also for the care that has been evident throughout, from first contact to the last bite of strawberry.  Leeann (her Mikveh Guide), Carrie, Anita - you are a blessing, and I hope the living waters will continue to strengthen you as you strengthen us."

Thank you for your partnership in welcoming and supporting women like Marci."

Clearly, the work that we do through the BJCWF has impact and meaning locally, nationally, and internationally.  Stories like this only serve to validate our mission and and to highlight the results of our ongoing group efforts.  Thank you each and every fund member for your contributions.

Taking action on a critical issue of key importance to BJCWF

Our mentor Nancy Sternoff has just circulated the memo that follows. In the spirit of the grants we have made to fight trafficking and exploitation, please read it and take action.
 

"Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Please read carefully the email below. I hope you will both institutionally and personally take action. You may or may not know that Israel has one of the highest rates of sex trafficking per capita in the world. Let's join with the broader women's community to help!

Best to all,

Nancy"
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah Richardson [mailto:drichardson@womensfundingnetwork.org]
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 1:46 PM
To: Deborah Richardson
Subject: Call to Action-Women's Funds Advocacy needed to help stop the commercial exploitation of girls!

Dear Sister Fund Leaders,

I'm writing to update you on several critical activities related to Women's Funding Network's efforts to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) - with a primary focus on adolescent girls - and to urge you to take action.

As many of you may know, we have partnered with AFNAP Georgia and member funds to pilot and strategically fund programs dealing with CSEC in Michigan, Minnesota and New York. We have launched an AFNAP website and supported research in these states to understand the prevalence of CSEC - and how the numbers relate to adolescent girls - and have trained member fund and community leaders on effective strategies for approaching the issue in their communities.

We are also partnering with a public relations firm to release findings from a cutting-edge market demand study that shows that men who buy sex from minor girls in Georgia do so at disturbing rates with alarming comfort and ease. We are hoping to get broad media coverage on the demand study and expect to have and release national numbers over the next three months.

All of these activities are taking place in a broader climate of increased public interest in CSEC. In the last few weeks alone, there have been multiple media placements on the issue including stories in the New York Times and on ABC News. Most recently, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an op-ed I co-authored that presents a new approach to preventing the commercial sexual exploitation of our girls.

Rather than continuing to swim upstream, Women's Funding Network and members of a national CSEC coalition are working to shift the focus from the girl survivors to the commercial offenders and businesses like Craigslist who feed the demand side of this thriving industry that puts our girls at risk.

With national partners like Polaris Project, Shared Hope International and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, we are poised to "seize the moment" and will use this window of opportunity to build a zero-tolerance zone across the United States for buying and selling sex from children.

As part of this effort, we are launching a petition on the AFNAP website, that calls on Craigslist, a company reported to be making a $40 million profit off of their adult service section - that includes postings for minor girls, to take immediate measures to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of our children on their site.

What can you do?

1. Internally: Boycott Craigslist. Until Craigslist makes appropriate changes to protect sexually exploited girls, please don't use their services.

2. Externally: Take Action. After you sign our Craigslist petition, urge your community members, grantee partners and supporters to do the same. Here is a link to an action alert that you may forward.

Thank you in advance for taking action. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. If you would like to learn more about how to bring AFNAP to your community, please let me know or complete our online form at the bottom of the Take Action page.

On behalf of the girls whom we are advocating for, I thank you.

Deborah Richardson
Deborah Richardson | Women's Funding Network | Chief Program Officer | 505 Sansome 2nd Floor | San Francisco CA, 94111 | T: 415-441-0706 x293 | F: 415-441-0827

Violence Claims Young Women Like-and Unlike-Lacrosse Star Every Day

Please check out this column concerning a topic very near and dear to the fund - domestic violence - written by Patricia Eng of the Ms. Foundation. Her words only emphasize the importance of our shared work and priorities. The article was originally published on the Ms. Foundation For Women Igniting Change Blog.

At the University of Virginia, students are being taught a very personal lesson these days about the prevalence of domestic violence and its impact on communities across the United States.

Yeardley Love was, until her death earlier this week at the age of 22, a senior at the university and a much-loved member of UVA's women's lacrosse team. Her ex-boyfriend, George Huguely, was a lacrosse player too -- one with a history of "run-ins" with the law. According to the NY Times, Huguely now admits that, early this past Monday morning, he "kicked his foot through [Love's] bedroom door and forced his way in." Once inside, court papers show, Huguely attacked Love, shaking her to the point that "her head repeatedly hit the wall," and causing her to die.

There is no getting around the fact that Yeardley Love's death at the hands of a man she once trusted is a nearly unspeakable tragedy -- for her family, her friends, and for her entire community. But the even greater tragedy is that Yeardley Love is hardly unique in the circumstances that brought about her death. She is one among thousands -- if not millions.

In the U.S. alone, 3 women die every day at the hands of their intimate partners. 1.3 million American women are victims of physical assault by their partners each year. And in 70–80 percent of intimate partner homicides, research shows that the male partner had physically abused the woman before the murder. What's more, it is no accident that the stories we hear involve younger and younger generations. Approximately one in three adolescent girls in the U.S. is a victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner -- a figure that far exceeds victimization rates for other types of violence affecting youth.

The media has catapulted the Love-Huguely case to the headlines because, from the outside, this couple looks like everything the dirty secret of domestic abuse is supposedly not: young, beautiful, educated, athletic, successful and white. That this seemingly bright young man should perpetrate a set of acts so heinous, shakes our collective fantasy about where violence against women lives, and where we pretend it does not.

The reality, as the students at UVA are learning, is that it lives everywhere. On the same day that Yeardley Love died, two other women also lost their lives at the hands of an intimate partner. Who were they? What were the circumstances of their lives? What about the three women who will die today…and tomorrow? Imagine what the impact on our society would be if, each day, our morning papers forced us to confront the names and faces of the people just lost to intimate partner violence. Imagine the shock we’d feel. Imagine how our commitment to violence prevention would grow.

As one of the very first funders of domestic violence shelters in the U.S., we at the Ms. Foundation know how crucial raising awareness is to bringing an end to any problem. And how critical it is to prioritize prevention and stop the violence before it starts, at long last. (See Young Women's Action Team and Close to Home for great examples of community-based, violence-prevention organizations.) That much, at least, we owe to Yeardley Love -- and to the thousands of women who died before her, whose names we may not know, but who mattered just as much.

Patricia Eng
Vice President, Program

Celebrating 10 Years of Impact and Achievement

The Boston Jewish Community Women’s Fund celebrates ten years of...

IMPACT AND ACHIEVEMENT

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
6:00 p.m.
Private home, directions will be sent upon RSVP
Dinner will be served
Dietary laws will be observed
RSVP by May 15 to Hannahg@cjp.org or 617-457-8591

Here’s how we measure success!

• $1.65 million granted
• 175 women debating, discussing, learning, forging friendships — changing lives
• 106 grants to 52 programs to benefit other women and girls
• Thousands of lives touched and changed

The mission of the Boston Jewish Community Women’s Fund is to develop a women’s Jewish philanthropic community which provides sustainable and measurable benefits to women and girls from all walks of life, and in the process, encourages the funders to be leaders and role models.

BJCWF 2010 Grant Awards

Boston Jewish Women’s Fund Awards $276,450 to 20 Groups for 2010!

For some women, it will open the path to financial literacy, skills training, and a way to support their families. For others it will mean counseling and a way out of an abusive relationship. Some girls it will find a way to express themselves through art, design or poetry. Others will find new meaning in their own family histories as they prepare for Bat Mitvah.

The Boston Jewish Community Women’s Fund grants for 2010 range across a gamut of needs – girls’ healthy development, issues of aging, employment, women’s rights in Israel’s religious courts and more. Awards ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 have been given to 20 groups in Boston and Israel for innovative and established programs.

Here is a complete list of our 2010 grantees.

GRANTS TO JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS IN BOSTON

Multi-year grant (totaling $75,000) (2009 grant - $40,000)

Jewish Women’s Archive - second year $20,000
Project: Bat Mitzvah Interactive (BMI)

JWA continues to develop this new online initiative designed to bring fresh meaning, relevance and inspiration to the Bat Mitzvah experience for girls and their families. By weaving together the strands of community service, family stories and Jewish women’s history, the program invites girls to explore the stories of Jewish women in America and in their own families, and to make connections between traditions and values and their own emerging identities. In the first year of Women’s Fund support, JWA has expanded the scope of BMI, and laid the groundwork for a program that is national in scope.

NEW

Bais Yaakov of Boston - $9,100
Project: Chayei Hanhigut L’Bnot Torah

Health education, leadership training, nutrition awareness and physical education programming designed to promote healthy self-images and personal confidence in adolescent girls at a traditional girls’ high school.

Jewish Family Service of Metrowest - $10,000
Project: Taking Charge, Making Changes

Enhanced financial literacy and career development are the primary goals of this new program which focuses on women suddenly assuming “head of household” duties (single, separated/divorced, widowed) in the ongoing financial crisis. Two senior staff members will be trained as Accredited Financial Counselors to build their skills, and the balance of funding will support implementation of the program.

Jewish Vocational Service - $15,000
Project: We’re All in This Together

An initiative of JVS Career Moves, the program will engage economically vulnerable women in group and individual activities to help them develop the job search skills, networking ability and confidence to break into the workforce. Four Success Teams, professionally-led peer support groups, will be organized at JVS offices in Boston and Newton and local synagogues to address the needs of single women who have lost jobs, older women unexpectedly entering the workforce, and new college graduates.

Second year funding

Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly - $18,000
Project: Mental Health Initiative
(2009 grant: $25,000)

Because they may be unable to adequately care for themselves and their apartments, tenants with mental illness or memory impairment may jeopardize their tenancy. They may also demand inordinate amounts of staff time and disturb neighbors. The project, in partnership with Jewish Family & Children’s Service, trains JCHE staff, from maintenance and office workers to resident managers, to recognize and deal with potentially challenging situations, and ensure the safety of residents.

Mayyim Hayyim - $14,350
Project: Embracing Waters
(2009 grant: $17,500)

Training for Mayyim Hayyim volunteers, clergy and health and mental health professionals to help them recognize victims of abuse and show how mikveh can be a source of spiritual healing for abuse survivors. The program is conducted in partnership with Journey to Safety at Jewish Family & Children’s Service.

Moving Traditions - $8,000
Project: Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing!
(2009 grant: $25,000)

This national program which first came to Greater Boston last year, promotes self-esteem, leadership skills and Jewish identity in girls grades 6 – 12. The 5 year curriculum is based in the Rosh Hodesh (new moon) holiday. Facilitators are trained by the national organization. The program is being implemented in synagogues in the community.

Fifth year funding

Jewish Family & Children’s Service - $18,000
Project: Journey to Safety
(2005 – 2008 grants: $25,000 annually)

Domestic abuse occurs at exactly the same rate across all populations. Jewish women stay in abusive relationships two to three times longer than women in the general population (7-15 years vs. 3-5 years). Journey to Safety, formerly called Kol Isha, is the domestic abuse program at JF&CS. It has a dual mission of providing direct services to survivors of domestic abuse and raising awareness about domestic abuse in order to promote healthy and safe intimate relationships. The importance of the issue continues to motivate Fund members to maintain support for the program.

GRANTS TO SECULAR ORGANIZATIONS IN BOSTON

NEW

Brookline Mental Health Center - $14,000
Project: Project GROW

Project GROW (Girls’ Relationships Offer Well-Being) is a preventative group mentoring initiative that focuses on 60 girls ages 8 to 16 from underserved populations who are at risk for bullying due to social isolation. This includes Asian American, African American, and Latina girls, as well as some Caucasian girls, with primary emphasis on low and moderate-income families living in Brookline and Boston. Some have recently immigrated to the US, and others have been adopted; all are challenged with fitting in. Project GROW specifically targets issues that impede a girl's potential for success and emotional well being, such as racism, gender bias, and girl bullying.

Haley House - $10,000
Project: Take Back the Kitchen

Take Back the Kitchen is a cooking, nutrition and healthy lifestyle program for at risk youth and their families. Our funding will support the launch of all-girls programming with the goal of improving health and well-being. Haley House and its community programs are committed to promoting health through offering whole grain foods, fresh produce, and unprocessed foods, and helping participants gain the skills and knowledge to incorporate them into their meals at home.
Third year funding

Adolescent Consultation Services - $5,000
Project: Specialized Girls Group Treatment Program
(2009 grant: $5,000; 2008: $5,000)

Run through the Cambridge Juvenile Court Clinic, the program serves court-involved girls. Attendance and participation are conditions of each girl’s probation. This program is designed to advance the healthy development of girls by equipping them with valuable coping skills. The psycho-educational treatment groups address a variety of issues, including: healthy relationships with partners, family, and friends; body image; dealing with difficult living situations; and the impact of zero tolerance, racism, and sexism.

RAW - $10,000
Project: Art 4 Girls/Women 2 Be/Project Launch
(2009 grant: $10,000; 2008: $10,000)

RAW’s continuum of girl-only programs serves young women in Lynn, Massachusetts, an economically challenged city where many children lack the basic resources, security, and support to enable their healthy development. Over 98% of RAW’s seniors graduate from high school and 90% of RAW’s high school seniors have gone to college, aided by mentors in Project Launch.

Victim Rights Law Center - $20,000
Project: Girls Rape Survivors Law Project (GRSLP)
(2009 grant: $15,000; 2008: $20,000)

This initiative addresses the needs of young victims and potential victims of rape and sexual assault in the Greater Boston area. Funds will enable the Victim Rights Law Center to make the existing GRSLP curriculum and direct services more available to girls under the age of 13, a group not covered under existing federal funding regulations.

Fourth year funding

Recognizing the funding challenges that many service organizations are facing this year, The Fund invited several long-term grantees to apply for an unprecedented fourth year of support for 2010-2011. Grants were reviewed within our regular competitive process, and two grants were awarded, both focused on core services.

Bird Street - $13,000
Project: The S Group (Smart, Savvy, Secure and Self Sufficient)
(2009 grant: $20,000; 2008: $19,000; 2007: $25,000)

This program for girls and young women, combines the skills, passion, and interests of Bird Street’s girls with information, experiences, and tools that they can use in their daily lives to prepare for success at school, college, within their families, and in the workforce. “The S Group” brings girls to Bird Street with a goal of guiding them towards appropriate gender sensitive and gender specific programs focusing on academic achievement, physical health, mental health and leadership development.

Project Hope - $10,000
Project: Adult Learner Program (ALP)
(2006 grant: $10,000; 2005: $20,000; 2003: $10,000)

One of Project Hope’s basic programs, the ALP offers 75-80 low income and/or homeless women access to basic education and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses, in combination with empowering foundation classes to promote the women’s learning, self-development, and potential for self-sufficiency.

GRANTS TO PROGRAMS IN ISRAEL

NEW

Leket - $15,000
Project: The Leket Work Program

Leket is a food bank that addresses nutritional insecurity throughout Israel, collecting surplus food and distributing it through the Israel Food Bank. The work program is an agricultural gleaning initiative that collects produce left in fields and orchards at the end of the season’s harvest. It provides 20 seasonal farm laborers, all Arab Israeli women, with fair working conditions including above minimum wages and full benefits. Produce is distributed to needy Israelis through homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, community centers for the elderly and programs for children at risk.

Kol Israel Haverim -- Sha’ar School Network - $15,000
Project: Gateway to Science

The program focuses on high school girls in Bat-Yam, a city in central Israel which has a high immigrant population and significant unemployment. Gateway will offer an intensive and varied science education to eighty girls with the goal of awakening and nurturing an interest in science and helping them break out of the cycle of poverty. Girls in the program will study science throughout high school, and meet with leading women scientists at the Weizmann Institute.

Third year funding

Israel Women’s Network - $15,000
Project: The Advocacy Center
(2007 grant: $15,000; 2009: $14,000)

The hotline at The Advocacy Center responds to women facing gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace, and receives thousands of calls each year. The Center also develops legislation on issues affecting women, consults with members of the Knesset, and provides legal assistance and representation in precedent-setting cases, many of which first come to light through calls to the hotline.

The Rackman Center at Bar Ilan University - $18,000
Project: The Program for Legal Aid, Advocacy and outreach in Family Law and Women’s Rights (2007 grant: $13,500; 2009: $15,000)

The Rackman Center works through Israel’s legal and judicial system to advocate for women in divorce and family law issues in the Rabbinical Courts. The program provides free legal counsel for women in the courts, advances legislation on behalf of women’s rights and advocates for fair election of judges to the Rabbinical Court. Additionally, it trains law students and provides free legal advice through a hotline.

Mahut - $19,000
Project: Advancing Employment for Women Over 40
(2008 grant: $25,000; 2009: $19,000)

Education, training, and placement services for economically marginalized women over the age of 40, in tandem with work with employers to improve their attitudes toward hiring women in this age group. The program also provides ongoing support to women who have completed training and remain in the job market.