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Spring is Almost Sprung!
Spring is on it’s way and although the ground is still wet from all the rain we have had lately (thank goodness), it is time to start thinking about all the wonderful veggies we plan to plant. Just looking at the Territorial seed catalog makes me hungry for some Zebra tomatoes. Ah… the arugula, and the thyme. Oh No! there’s not enough room to plant everything we want to plant! Le sigh… enter the community garden. Yay! More room to plant the exotic parsnips and the heirloom tomatoes, oh, and someplace that the deer won’t eat all our prize zucchini! The Safe House Alliance has garden plots! Although we are not in the building directly…
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2013 Year-End Update
The Alliance survived 2013 thanks to a dedicated staff, board, volunteers and you, our donor supporters. With full staffing in 2012 we served 739 individual survivors — a 30% increase from the year before. In 2013, with reduced hours and only a part-time advocate we will have served over 300 survivors. It was a lean year and we had the time to reflect on what is core for achieving our mission — ending violence against women The Illinois Valley is a remote rural area (more than 60 minutes from a population center of 50,000). Evidence indicates that survivors in remote rural areas face additional barriers that prevent them from accessing…
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Winter’s Garden
Although the ground is frozen, temperatures are dropping and spring is far from our grasp, garden catalogs will soon begin to trickle in through the postal system. After the holiday flurry of activities and long after company goes back home will be the time of year we sit back in our cozy homes with a hot cup of tea to dream and plan what we would like to do in our gardens come spring. At the Alliance, we look at the Community Garden and although the ground is covered with ice, and there are still reminders of the over-abundance of tomatoes and tomatillos from last fall, I see the hardy…
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Things to be Thankful for
Everyone at the Alliance wants to thank all our supporters for being there. You know who you are, and each and every one of you is on our list of people to be thankful for. Blessings.
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Charity’s Story
We worked for months with Charity as she tried many times to escape her abuser. He had kept her imprisoned and watched at all times coming home “unexpectedly” to catch her and to keep her in fear of leaving. Charity lived about ten miles out of town in an unpopulated area on the side of a mountain. She had tried walking out many times before but had never made it. Charity would call to ask us to pick her up when he was away only to call back later to say that he had found out about her plans. One afternoon she called to say she had a two hour…
