{"id":8624,"date":"2018-12-07T00:36:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T08:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=8624"},"modified":"2025-12-22T00:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:37:33","slug":"you-can-give-the-gift-of-hope-this-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2018\/12\/07\/you-can-give-the-gift-of-hope-this-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Give the Gift of Hope This Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Huckabay, The Center for Violence-Free Relationships]<\/em><\/p>\n

Can you picture, for a moment, a woman on the brink of making the hardest decision of her life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her name is Mary* and, yes, she\u2019s real. But before I tell you a bit of her story, I first want to tell you about our urgent need for your support. Because of a 63% increase in the number of victims seeking service this year, your gift can make a real difference this holiday. You can bring hope and joy to those fleeing abuse.<\/p>\n

I survived\u2026 that is about the best that I can say. There were so many things that I told myself, so much minimizing of his behavior \u2013 the belittling, shaming, and intimidating – shaking my sense of self to the very core. I didn\u2019t know who I was anymore\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The yelling escalated to throwing things at me, destruction of things I held dear, physical entrapment, rape disguised as duty, and screaming at me while shaking our 2-year-old son, then chasing us as we tried to escape\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine how hopeless Mary must have felt. We speak to women and men who have suffered all this and worse and it makes me angry at times. And you\u2019re right to feel upset or angry too.\u00a0 Mary could be your next door neighbor. She could be a teacher at your child\u2019s school or someone you work with. It could be anybody\u2026<\/p>\n

Things kept building, I lived every day not knowing what to expect. I was afraid for my son. I had no job, no friends or family in the area \u2026 I saw no way out\u2026 I\u2019m ashamed to admit that I seriously considered taking my own life. And then a friend told me to call the local women\u2019s center. –\u00a0 I believe that call to The Center saved my life.<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope you feel as moved by Mary\u2019s words as I am. The thought that she would consider suicide as her only way out, moved me to tears\u2026<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there is good news. I know that every day,\u00a0because of you<\/strong>, our clients are getting the help that they need.<\/p>\n

They receive counseling, legal assistance, and resources to find jobs, housing, and child care. They spend time talking with our case managers to begin to rebuild their sense-of-self and their resiliency.<\/p>\n

You can give the gift of hope and joy that will last.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

With your generous gift this holiday, you can help women just like Mary find hope.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe Mary said it best\u2026<\/p>\n

Because of The Center, I\u2019m moving from surviving to actually living again and that\u2019s a positive feeling.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for helping our clients find hope and joy this holiday season and throughout the year!<\/p>\n

Give the Gift of Hope this Holiday!<\/a>\u00a0Click HERE to donate now.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Huckabay, The Center for Violence-Free Relationships] Can you picture, for a moment, a woman on the brink<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8625,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions\/8625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}