Dear friends,It’s a scary time for everyone right now. Our new routines are punctuated by anxiety and a heightened sense of risk. For survivors of gender-based violence, this feeling is a familiar need, and exacerbated by new challenges accessing help.
I am proud that Ascend Justice stepped into the breach, doing what we can to help families impacted by multiple stresses, health concerns, and increased financial insecurity are added into lives already challenged by gender-based violence or the involvement of the child welfare system.
Susana is an example of someone we’ve helped in just the past few weeks. She needed an Order of Protection after Rick, her ex-husband, came to her apartment drunk and demanding that she have sex with him. When Susana refused and told him to leave, he became violent and threatened Susana and her son who tried to intervene to protect his mother and his siblings.
Susana was understandably concerned about traveling to the Domestic Violence Courthouse during the stay at home order, but when she called our Remote OP Hotline, we connected Susana with one of our Spanish speaking staff members to help complete her affidavit and worked with the court to get a Spanish-interpreter to help with the remote court hearing. where she got an emergency Order of Protection to help keep her and her children safe from Rick.
We get these calls every day – people who are not safe at home but scared to come to court. Our dedicated staff is working remotely to make sure that help – and hope – still exists for clients like Susana.
I hope you will join us for our Celebration of Courage on June 4. We cannot celebrate together this year, but there’s never been a more important time to connect and celebrate our victories, large and small.
Sincerely,
Margaret R. Duval
Executive Director
Ascend Justice
The Celebration of Courage is our annual spring fundraiser where we pay tribute to the over 1,400 survivors and families whose lives have been touched by Ascend Justice this year and to the loyal supporters like you who have made that work possible.
The Celebration of Courage 2020 will be presented as a live, virtual fundraising event on Thursday, June 4th at 7 pm CST on our Celebration of Courage 2020 GiveSmart site and on our Ascend Justice Youtube Channel!
Ascend Justice and our greater community have so much to celebrate this year:
- We are serving more survivors and families impacted by gender-based violence and the child welfare system than ever before following our merger last year.
- Ascend Justice continues to provide services remotely for individuals seeking an Emergency Order of Protection, looking for help with administrative expungement appeals of DCFS indicated findings and interventions with employers and landlords.
- We launched a groundbreaking pilot program, in collaboration with DCFS and many other partners to place survivor advocates in child welfare investigative offices to build the capacity of investigators to respond appropriately and effectively when they are working with a survivor and their family.
To build on this growth and momentum, and our pursuit of achieving strong communities where people have the power to navigate fair systems and overcome violence, we hope you will join us in supporting the virtual Celebration of Courage 2020! The virtual event will include a live program that honors our 2020 Champions of Justice, remarks from our executive director and a raffle to win a Peloton bike!