Fall 2020 Newsletter

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

MATTHEW 6:33-34, NLT

Domestic violence doesn’t stop for a pandemic. (In fact, it gets worse.) Animosity, anxiety and isolation, in general, have combined to create virtually unbearable circumstances for people living with domestic abuse. Recognizing the constraints forced on your own daily lives, many of you have asked, “How is Sheltering Wings able to help people during this lockdown?”

How, indeed? And what role can we play in not only responding to but preventing domestic violence in the uncertain months to come?

Just as you’ve had to adjust your habits, so too has Sheltering Wings. We’ve had to find new ways to safely open our doors to victims. Unable to visit groups, we’ve had to use other platforms for teaching teenagers, clergy and community leaders how to identify and prevent intimate partner violence. We’ve had to create new avenues for communicating our needs and new formats for raising funds – no golf outing, for example. We’ve had to buy food and goods that normally would be donated. And, of course, we’ve had to clean like crazy.

On the silver-lining side, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve reframed our teen dating violence program to better equip teachers online, made more life skills classes available virtually and to many more people and, maybe best of all, found new partners to help us deliver services to people who deserve to be treated with respect.

Though I don’t normally do this here, I’m going to ask for your support today. This situation has illustrated the dire need for preventing domestic violence and the crucial role people like you play in finding a solution.

So, in this special case, I’m asking you to please give today at shelteringwings.org/give.

Thank you,

Cassie Mecklenburg
Executive Director