Dear Friends of Radiant Futures,

I want to take a moment to acknowledge and commend everyone reading this for making it through the first six weeks since the issuance of the Safe-At-Home Order. In these difficult times, I encourage you to be patient in the affliction that is invading all of our lives—some much more personally and physically than others; to seek the endurance, resilience, and healing that is so needed now—as well as ways in which we can support those providing frontline care for our community; and, finally, to be joyful in the hope that this crisis will come under control and progress towards reasonable guidance, allowing us to carefully return to “normal” life. It is truly a blessing to see how as a community and as individuals, we are able to come together to make fundamental and often disruptive changes in our daily lives with a better future in sight.

COVID-19 has put the survivors in our community in an unprecedented situation, one in which they are forced through social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders to be around the person who causes them harm almost 24/7. Radiant Futures has experienced the effects of this development first-hand as the number of calls received by our helpline last month more than doubled the number we received at this same time last year. We are proud to remain fully operational to provide essential services to these survivors whose home lives are more precarious and dangerous than ever before. Our shelter facilities continue to be utilized to capacity, ensuring survivors and their children have the resources to remain safe and healthy while escaping situations of violence and exploitation. We have additionally worked in the past month to adapt to this new normal, implementing tele-services across programs so that those in our programs can continue to receive counseling, case management, and legal advocacy all from the safety and comfort of their own homes via webcam or telephone.

As we have already seen in just the past month, we cannot do this alone. Our ability to meet the increased need for services and remain adaptable to this constantly changing situation is only possible because of your continued dedication to the survivors in our community.

Your support lets those in our programs know that they are not alone, even during these times of distancing and isolation, and that they have a community of support behind them. Would you consider making a gift to support the ongoing safety of the survivors in our community?