   |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
| 2006 Market |
The Julian Center’s Annual Market: Discontinued
Thank you for your interest in The Julian Center’s Annual Market (formerly The Julian Center’s Amish Country Market).
For 10-years, I served as the Event Coordinator for The Julian Center’s Annual Market. It is with a sad heart that I send this message to you.
After 22-years (1985 to 2006) – and – two-years of review, in December 2006 our Board of Directors and Executive Director formally voted to discontinue our Annual Arts and Crafts Market.
This decision came after a two-year evaluation of the Market confirmed gradually declining revenues and attendance – and – increasing time demands on our limited number of staff members and dedicated volunteers.
I hope you will understand that due to our overall agency funding requirements, the increasing demand for our agency services – and – our limited number of staff members, it has been determined that we need to redirect our fund raising efforts away from special events and toward individual donor cultivation, major gifts and planned giving.
Background:
The mission of The Julian Center is to provide counseling, safe shelter and education for women who are survivors of abuse and assault – and – education and consultation services for the community. Programs and services are designed to contribute significantly to a reduction in the incidence of violence against women, to provide clients with opportunities for healing and to help break the intergenerational cycle of abuse.
Each year, our Shelter provides services for an average of 100-110 women and children each day – and – our Counseling Center provides services for an average of 206 clients each week through individual and group counseling. In 2006, The Julian Center Shelter provided safe shelter, counseling, education, and advocacy services for 1,381 residents (752 women and 629 children) and 26,279 units of services (defined as one overnight stay per person). This is a substantial increase from 1,229 residents in 2005 and 1,164 residents in 2004. In 2006, our Counseling Center provided individual and group therapy sessions for 777 women, adolescent girls and children. Our overall counseling, education and case management services were provided for 12,652 individuals. In addition, our Crisis Call Managers responded to 5,960 calls and provided 9,635 referrals for service.
In 2007, we are on track to serve a record number of women and children in crisis through our programs and services for shelter, counseling, education, advocacy, case management, and community outreach.
During a time when our agency has responded to a record level and ever increasing demand for safe shelter, basic needs services and outreach programs, and our operating costs have continued to rise – key funding sources have reduced their support levels. These funding reductions were imposed even though The Julian Center consistently achieved or exceeded the projected annual output and outcome measurements. Over the past five-years, the number of Shelter residents has expanded by more than 100%, the units of services increased by more than 12,000 units (84%), and the number of employees has more than doubled. In the summer of 2006, our Shelter was operating at 120% capacity and women and children were sleeping on cots in our Homework Room and the Women’s Library.
The generous response from the community has allowed us to continue serving a record number of women and children fleeing domestic violence without imposing staff layoffs or eliminating programs and services. However, we cannot continue to meet the ever increasing demand for safe shelter and outreach services – and – operate from appeal to appeal.
Each unit of service symbolizes one day a battered woman spent free from abuse as well as one step she took towards self-sufficiency. The progressive increase in the units of service indicates the women and families are staying in shelter longer – and – the longer stays provide increased opportunities for them to access comprehensive advocacy and counseling services. We believe our outreach services and early intervention efforts have had a positive impact on the number of persons in our community who are choosing to flee from violence and reach out for help before situations escalate to the point of serious injury or death.
The good news is that more women are willing to seek shelter from domestic violence – however, the bottom line is that more residents, staying for longer periods of time, require more services, which leads to greater operating expenses to provide basic services such as food, security and utilities.
Thank you again for your interest in The Julian Center and our special event. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or if you need additional information.
Best wishes, Sherry Duncan McCabe Market Event Coordinator 1997-2006 317-941-2206 Direct # / Voice Mail Email: smccabe@juliancenter.org |
||