The East Texas Crisis Center was awarded a grant of $33,923.00 by The Women’s Fund to provide job preparation counseling and case management for victims of family violence. The Center began a weekly Women’s Economic Education class in 2009 to assist with job readiness and life skills in order for women to improve their quality of life. The Women’s Fund award will sustain the Center’s program expansion that includes a full-time Jobs Coordinator position to work closely with women residing in the emergency shelter. Going forward the program will place greater emphasis on the immediate benefit of job skill trainings to help women increase their earning power. The program has been developed based on the principle that economic self-reliance is a key component of preventing the return to an abusive relationship.
Over the course of twelve months the program will serve an estimated 150 women. Nineteen women received job counseling during the months of March and April and every one of them were successful in various ways in growing, learning and preparing for a better, and safer, future. Three of these women enrolled in the Christian Women’s Job Corp training in February. Two completed the course and had jobs when they graduated on April 22 setting a wonderful example for the women who follow them in the program.
“It is a privilege to receive this award from The Women’s Fund because it represents women helping, encouraging, and inspiring women who have been beaten and beaten down”. Lana Peacock, Executive Director
To learn more about The Women’s Fund please visit their website at: http://womensfundsc.org/