Members Gather for Site Visit | |||
NEW GIFTS IN ACTION Also, we have a stirring case study in the Gifts in Action (click to read) section this month from CALM's Great Beginnings Program that we funded in 2006. Jo Gifford, Chair Fifty-five ladies laughed and chatted during the Third Annual Site Visit at the Davis Community Center. Women's Fund members and guests were inspired as they learned how the 2006 grants are being used to help needy women, children, and families. Site Visit Chairs, Jan Baxter and Carole MacElhenny donated luncheon food, beverages, and flowers. No monies from the Women's Fund were used to pay for this event. Representatives from Child Abuse and Listening Mediation (CALM), Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (CADA), Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center described how they are using the 2006 grants totaling $485,000. Architectural renderings of CASA's new headquarters behind the Superior Court House brought tears to some eyes when they saw how children would be comforted and counseled in the new space to be completed in February 2008. CALM's representative shared the story of 17-year-old "Maria," her 18-year-old husband, and 9-month-old baby helped by the Great Beginnings program. Maria developed a rare but treatable form of cancer and had to undergo serious treatment at UCLA. (See Gifts in Action for the entire story.) A representative from the Twelve35 Teen Center spoke last and explained how each of the previous agencies collaborated with the others. The ladies adjourned to the Teen Center to which the Women's Fund had given $90,000 in 2005 for equipment and furnishings to help create a safe haven for teenagers. The women's final destination was the new headquarters for the Rape Crisis Center. All the staff expressed their appreciation to be working in such a comforting environment. Each of the counseling rooms that the Women's Fund helped furnish offers special dimmed lighting, comfortable sofas, a soft stuffed animal and box of Kleenex. "This is what it's all about," said several of the women after a day of seeing how their pooled donations through the Women's Fund are impacting the lives of South Coast women, children, and families who are in need. |
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