Doorways Announces Campaign for Brighter Futures at Seventh Annual Breakfast
Event Raises $310,000 Toward $10-Million Campaign Goal
Doorways for Women and Families, a nonprofit, community service organization that creates pathways out of homelessness, domestic violence and sexual assault leading to safe, stable and empowered lives, proudly announced the Campaign for Brighter Futures at their seventh annual breakfast. The Campaign for Brighter Futures is a three-year, $10-million comprehensive fundraising campaign aimed at engaging the Arlington community and increasing private, philanthropic investment in the areas of safety, stability and sustainability. Over $4 million was given to the campaign by generous philanthropists in advance of the public launch, and an additional $310,000 was raised at the event.
Doorways’ Campaign for Brighter Futures seeks to build a stronger, safer community by breaking the cycles of poverty and violence that keep many generations of families locked in struggle. The need for Doorways’ programs and services has never been greater. Over the past two years, every Doorways program serving survivors of violence has grown. Last year, Doorways responded to 1,347 calls to their 24-hour Domestic & Sexual Violence Hotline (703-237-0881) impacting 2,206 adults and children – a record number in the organizations 38 year history. Furthermore, Doorways has seen a disturbing trend in the faces of homelessness as their clients have gotten younger and younger; nearly 40 percent of families are headed by an adult age 25 or younger.
We cannot do less in a time of increasing need.
“We have a solid plan to move forward – to brighter futures for our clients by combining our public support that opens doors to safety – with private support that opens doors to stability,” said Doorways President and CEO Caroline Jones. “We cannot do less in a time of increasing need. Yet, our current and foreseeable resources don’t stretch far enough to keep up. With the right balance of these social investments, we can close this gap and sustain Doorways’ response to create a lasting difference for thousands.”
The Campaign for Brighter Futures is part of Doorways’ strategic plan that addresses the increasing demand for safety, the growing complexity in the needs of survivors and families seeking self-sufficiency, and the uncertain, restrictive funding climate that threatens the ability to deliver lasting change in their client’s well-being. Enhanced services already underway include the Pathways for Youth Service Model, which aims to end homelessness where it often begins, with vulnerable young people in our community, and Doorways’ Revive Counseling Program, which serves survivors of every age who have experienced intimate partner violence.
We are turning to every person in our community to help lift up this organization that lifts up so many.
“The campaign’s goal represents the funding required to meet our annual operating budget for the next three years, as well as the creation of a Sustainability Fund, the purpose of which is to be available for use when our neighbors face new, unanticipated challenges, or when we must keep our many doorways open in the face of economic downturns and losses of funding,” said Yuri Sagatov of Sagatov Design + Build, Doorways board member and co-chair for the Campaign for Brighter Futures. “We are turning to every person in our community to help lift up this organization that lifts up so many.”
More than 300 people attended the breakfast, giving a total of $310,000 toward the $10-million campaign goal. The event was made possible by Brighter Futures Sponsors – The Keri Shull Team & Orange Line Living; Economic Independence Sponsors – Clark Construction and Shooshan Company; Future Response Sponsors – Arlington Community Foundation, First Virginia Community Bank, John Marshall Bank, Transurban and Ward Chisholm, PC; Media Sponsor – Arlington Magazine; Printing & Graphics Sponsor – Signs by Tomorrow Arlington; and Nonprofit Partner Sponsor – Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). Combined with lead campaign gifts made before the public launch, Doorways has raised nearly 45 percent of the $10-million campaign goal. Doorways aims to meet their goal in 2018, the year of their 40th anniversary.
To join Doorways in creating pathways out of homelessness, domestic violence and sexual assault leading to safe, stable and empowered lives, visit www.DoorwaysVA.org. If you or someone you know is being hurt by or fearful of their partner, you are not alone. Please call Doorways’ 24-hour Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline at (703) 237-0881.
Photos by Joyce N. Boghosian of Boghosian/Naltchayan Photography
Doorways kicks off three-year, $10 million funding campaign
by Scott McCaffrey, Staff Writer, Inside NOVA
Life happens, the saying goes, and some years ago, it happened to Alisa Thornton.
A single mother struggling to make ends meet even while working two jobs, Thornton and her children were facing eviction and the prospect of life on the street when they were connected with the staff of Doorways for Women and Families.
The result was a game-changer.