Our Solidarity Fund provides emergency funds directly to women in crisis. Many women referred to our center and safe home enter our programs with what they have on them: just the clothes they are wearing. Our funds address a critical need to financially support women out of exploitation till they are able to receive benefits, and or obtain employment. This fund helps women with clothing, transportation money, food, and essential basic items.

 

The young women that reach out to our programs come out of increasingly violent and difficult life circumstances. Poverty statistics are not always indicative of a person’s outcome. However, the majority of the women we meet were exposed to prolonged abuse, violence, and sexual violence early on in life; therefore they are more likely than their counterparts to have dropped out of school, have entered the juvenile justice system and then the adult court systems only to be caught in cycles of violence and sexual exploitation later in life. They are less likely to be engaged in any civic or political processes, leaving them voiceless on the situations and policies that severely impact their lives. We aim to change this.

 

The Solidarity Fund is able to provide the most immediate and critical needs of women and then we can build from there.