Community Foundation has given multiple grants to Hands of Hope to fulfill their purpose

18 Jun Community Foundation has given multiple grants to Hands of Hope to fulfill their purpose

Every year, 12.7 million people in the United States are raped, stalked, or physically abused. Hands of Hope, a division of Family Service Society, has the goal to eliminate that risk in Grant County for everyone at risk, male or female. They provide a shelter for victims to stay in for up to 45 days, counseling, support groups, and legal process assistance. Hands of Hope “exists to prevent domestic and sexual violence and stalking through education, advocacy, and intervention strategies.”

The Community Foundation of Grant County has given multiple grants to Hands of Hope to help them fulfill that purpose. One recent of $5,800 went towards counseling domestic violence victims and their travel expenses, health and prescription medicine for clients, and a store at the shelter for clients to purchase goods they need. Another grant in December 2013 of $19,458 helped with much-needed repairs and maintenance, like utilities, lawn care, snow removal, carpet cleaning, and new sheets, that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. It also helped kick off Expect Respect, a campaign geared towards motivating young people to not tolerate stalking or domestic violence.

Linda Wilk, the director of Hands of Hope, and Susan Miller, Director of Compliance and Resource Development, have the goal to transform the lives’ of clients to bring them from a bad situation into one where they can thrive.

“The biggest thing for me is about empowering the victims to realize they are worth not being treated like that,” Susan says. “Their life has worth to it and there is help to get out of the situation.”

The help provided by Hands of Hope provides them with shelter, counseling, education, and resources to be empowered. A 24-hour crisis line (765-664-0701 for Grant County) exists when victims need immediate help or just someone to talk with. They always have a case manager on staff working with their needs, like developing safety plans to keep them safe from their abuse, food plans, housing, or connections to employment or safe families.

Hands of Hope’s impact has begun to reach into male domestic abuse victims as well, which has allowed them to broaden the scope of their help and impact even more.

“If anything we want to help them believe they are worthy and don’t deserve to be treated that way,” says Susan. “I want to empower them to know they don’t have to go back to their abuser.”

Susan and Linda are especially grateful that the Community Foundation equips them to keep helping more and more. Susan says, “as those dollars from state funding tighten up, the Community Foundation has helped fill that gap and allow us to provide quality services and get (clients) exactly what they need.”

She adds, “We are so grateful for the Community Foundation because when things get tight we can get those things that mean the most for our clients and that’s what makes the difference.”

To support Hands of Hope and Family Service Society, donate to the Family Service Society Fund at https://givetogrant.org/marketplace/donate/details/cat/10/id/18. You can also check out their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FamilyServiceSociety) and their website (http://www.famservices.com/handsofhope) for more information.