I am so excited about getting out and volunteering more! The three main organizations that I will be working with are:
The Mission of Hope's Door
To offer intervention and prevention services to individuals and families impacted by domestic abuse and to provide educational programs that enhance the community's capacity to respond.
Hope's Door is a shelter and counseling center that offers comprehensive programs and services that are designed to help break the cycle of domestic abuse. Hope's Door provides direct intervention and prevention services to families affected by domestic abuse in Collin County, Dallas County, and surrounding areas.
When Hope's Door first opened its doors in 1986, the agency operated a 24-hour crisis line, but did not have the space to provide shelter. Clients were housed at local hotels. In 1989, the agency opened its own shelter and began providing temporary housing to victims of domestic abuse. Since 1989, Hope's Door has provided safe shelter for over 3,787 women and their children, and answered over 16,000 crisis line calls.
Dress For Success's mission is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged
women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Founded in 1976, Operation Kindness is the oldest and largest no-kill shelter in North Texas. We have saved nearly 65,000 animals since our inception. We care for an average of 200-250 animals on a day-to-day basis, with another 60-80 animals in foster homes. More than 3,000 dogs and cats are assisted by Operation Kindness each year.
The mission of Operation Kindness is to provide quality care for homeless or unwanted cats and dogs in a compassionate, no-kill environment until they are adopted into responsible, loving homes, and to be a leader in our community in promoting humane values through education and awareness.
The reason I picked the above three as my main organizations to give back to is that they each hold a special place in my heart. I have witnessed first hand the effects of domestic violence and the courage it take a women (or man) to come forward and ask for help and to get out of the current situation they are in. Hope's Door is a place for one to find the safeness they have lost and a place to rebuild themselves back to the strong person they use to be. After difficult events in a women's life it can be hard for her to get back on her feet and for her to feel like she is part of society again. Dress For Success does just that and does it in a atmosphere that makes every women that walks through their doors welcome. But not only people are abused and neglected. Millions of cats and dogs are left to die each year. They have no voice for themselves so the people that care and love for them have to be that voice. What what happens when they don't have a voice? If they are lucky they will end up in a no-kill animal shelter, like Operation Kindness, were they can recover and find a new loving family to give them their voice back. At the end of the day our voice is the strongest tool we have to use. So don't let it get lost and always stay strong.
I will also be attending many other functions and working with other organizations during the year!
Rustie J
