It was just your average August morning, except this August morning I had to make split-second decisions that would change the course of my life. With a freshly-bruised leg, a sea of broken glass at my feet and an a fully activated nervous system, I listened to the police as they tried to help me sort my frazzled head.
I left.
Four years later, we launched For Your Record, the nonprofit that offers financial grants to survivors of domestic abuse to cover the cost of court filing fees, process server fees and public records request fees. I had been through it, and then some, and so had many members on the organization's board.
We didn't believe survivors should be held back by a fee to file for divorce, to establish custody, to change their last name or to formally serve their abuser with legal paperwork.
Most grants we give are between $200 and $400, and that kind of money is life-changing for people who can't access their money, have no money or are too afraid to let their abuser know they're making a move. The consequences, in the heat of it, can be deadly.
Today is Giving Tuesday. And you'll hear messages from other nonprofits all day about the importance of donating to their cause. For us, we have zero overhead. All of the work we do, we do as volunteers. So every dollar goes directly to survivors, with the exception of a few bucks for web hosting.
We have a volunteer assistance committee that reviews every application for eligibility. Sometimes they will get multiple in a week, sometimes multiple in a day. These women squeeze that application review in between deadlines at work and home.
Our two most recent survivors are pretty typical of who we help. One needed to file court paperwork while hiding at a friend's house and using that friend's email address. Another needed to serve paperwork on a man who consistently disobeyed a protective order and was sleeping in his car.
Individual and corporate donations have carried us to this point, and we are so grateful for it. Because young nonprofits don't receive a second look from larger grants until they are at least three years old and most often five. We're getting there.
If you have space in your budget, know your donation goes to help survivors like the ones I mentioned above. Including people like me. If you can't donate, it would help if you shared this call to donate.
You never know who this will strike a chord with. Oh and this photo is the first I had taken in my new life. They were so young.
Here's a link to donate: