Name of Team Captain: Sandra Stenger

Team Member Names: Kym Klass, Ken Roach, Sandra Jackson, Wendy Thi, D'Linell Finley, Al;fred Cade

Agency Assisted: Women of Refined Gold, Inc.

Project’s Thematic Area: Assisting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault

Project Location: N/A

Date(s) of Implementation: October 2019 to April 2020

Duration of Project: 6 months

Who was served by the project?

Women and youth in Montgomery and surrounding areas

How many people benefited?

Unknown

Final project description:

The purpose and mission of our team’s involvement with Women of Refined Gold (WORG) was to assist with increasing funds raised at the annual fundraiser and to increase awareness of WORG. Due to our involvement, there was an overall increase of 468% in funds raised over the 2018 fund raised by the organization. Our team also developed a timeline to assist future fundraising efforts to aid in the organization and delegation to assist the Executive Director. We also developed a continuity book to assist with planning future fundraising events. Our work towards the goal to increase public awareness of the organization resulted in an increased social media presence and an interview with a local news outlet.

What is the vision for the future of the project?

The vision for the future of the project is to continue to carry out the vision of the organization. To bring a greater awareness to the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. The vision is to provide a safe space so that survivors are no longer forced to live with darkness of the stigma of sexual assault and domestic violence. When survivors emerge from the darkness, the power the abusers held over them is returned to them.

Describe exactly how your project was implemented.

Our team produced a video WORG can use on the website, updated the logo and created a social media awareness campaign with the message of #nomoredarkness - breaking the silence and bringing domestic violence and sexual assault into the light.  The target audience included:

• Girls/women at risk of violence (prevention)
• General public to increase awareness of the issue (awareness)

The first event in October was a fundraising banquet and fashion show featuring survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence. This event garnered a 468% overall increase of funds raised from the same event in 2018.

Our social media project was implemented April 2020.  The team developed flyers and cards to be used during the social media and marketing campaign. The flyers contained information to facilitate a discussion on domestic violence and sexual assault. The flyers were distributed to businesses throughout the city. The businesses were encouraged to participated in 30 seconds of silence on April 30 whereby the business would go dark for 30 seconds. Once the lights were turned back on, a discussion about domestic violence and sexual awareness would commence. For the 30 days of April, there was a social media posting using the #nomoredarkness.

How many volunteer hours were devoted to this project? (Total - everyone on the team; start to finish)

70-75 appr.