LIVEFostering Safe Communities
Community Safety through Women's Empowerment
Are any other organizations collaborating on this proposal?
All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, IMPACT Personal Safety
Please describe your project proposal.
For a community to be safe, everyone in the community needs to feel safe. We have to change the statistic of one in three women being assaulted in their lifetime, so we train women, specifically women who grew up in the mostly unsafe environment of foster care, that they can prevent violence and how to defend themselves when necessary.
Which of the LIVE metrics will your proposal impact?
Self-sufficiency
Resilient communities
Prevalence of adverse childhood experiences
Homelessness
In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
San Gabriel Valley
Describe in greater detail how your proposal will make LA the best place to LIVE?
When girls are emancipated from the foster care system, they often have no support system and have few, if any resources to navigate life as an independent adult. Statistics show that as many as a third of them will have at least some periods of homelessness over the ensuing years. During those years violence is common. They are often the victim of intimate partner violence, and they decry homeless shelters because of the violence reported both in the shelters and in the surrounding area.
Through the Fostering Safe Communities program we will
* Transform the experience of young women coming out of the foster care system from having a victim mentality about themselves, to knowing that they have strength and skills that they have gained through the adversity of their situation
* Empower young women with the confidence and skills to prevent violence against them
* Give young women the confidence and skills to defend themselves when necessary
* Expand the number of women who know it is their right, and that they can defend themselves, and how
* More men and women will be aware that women can and will defend themselves, serving as a deterrent to would be perpetrators
Through our advocacy to public and other nonprofit agencies, we will
* Address the issue of violence in and around homeless shelters
* Continue to explore the needs of young women emancipating from the foster care system and meet with this population and the agencies to identify and create solutions for these women and the communities in which they reside
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
Hold one program each quarter with a minimum of 8 participants per class
A 95% completion rate
Reduction in number of assaults on women, including domestic violence
Decrease in reports of violence in homeless shelters
City, state and county allocate funds to provide solutions to violence in homeless and domestic violence shelters, and in the areas surrounding them
How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed?
Money
Volunteers
Advisors/board members
Staff
Publicity/awareness
Community outreach
Network/relationship support