Mother’s Day Cards for Loved Ones Brighten the Day for Women in Domestic Violence Shelters
Jewish Women International launches 15th annual Mother’s Day Flower Project
Each $25 contribution allows JWI to send a Mother’s Day card to the woman of the sender’s choosing as well as send bouquets of flowers and baskets of OPI beauty products to domestic violence shelters. JWI has established relationships with more than 200 domestic violence shelters across the country, which it supports through projects including its Flower Project and the National Library Initiative, which establishes children’s libraries in homeless and battered women’s shelters. The funds raised through the Flower Project sustain JWI’s programs and advocacy and educational initiatives, which empower women and girls and seek to break the cycle of domestic and sexual violence.
Since the Flower Project was established in 1999, an average of 6,500 women and children a year living in domestic violence shelters across the country have been positively impacted by the project’s Mother’s Day delivery of bouquets and beauty products. Over the 15 years of the program, an estimated 100,000 women and children have been touched, encouraged and inspired by the project.
Domestic violence shelters serve more than 64,000 victims every day, providing a safe haven to more than 35,000 women and children and non-residential assistance and services to 29,000 victims.
“With a donation to JWI’s Mother’s Day Flower Project, you are not only honoring a special woman in your life by telling her she’s inspired you to help women in need, you’re also bringing happiness to women and children struggling to move forward and build a better future,” says JWI Executive Director Lori Weinstein. “This small gesture of kindness helps inspire optimism and renewed faith for victims of domestic violence.”
Donors can choose to send paper cards by mail or e-cards through email. Both senders and honorees are also given the opportunity to write messages of hope to women and children living in shelters, to be printed on a poster and delivered to each partner shelter shortly after Mother’s Day. The 2012 poster can be viewed on JWI’s website.
“I take a lot of pride in being a mom,” said a
former resident of Gramercy Place Shelter in Los Angeles, one of more
than 200 domestic violence shelters to receive flowers and beauty
projects from JWI each year. “It’s something that’s really
important to me. I try my best – and work to make my kids’ lives better
than mine was. It made me feel really amazing that other people could
see that too.”
Flower Project cards can be ordered at jwi.org/fp or by phone at (800) 343-2823. The deadline to order cards to ensure they arrive by Mother’s Day is May 3. JWI is encouraging supporters to help promote the project by using the Twitter hashtags #MDFP and #MothersDay and sharing their own photos of flowers at JWI’s Facebook page.
CONTACT:
Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
