UPDATES

March 2021 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

Penny’s Place at Northwest Family Life used our grant to help women and their children who had experienced crises, reorient to hope and build healthy futures free from abuse and exploitation.

Women and children come to Penny’s Place out of desperate situations and have very little if any resources.

While at Penny’s Place they get their basic needs met and are able to stop living in crisis mode.  As they settle into a community of hope and restoration, they are able to focus on creating safe and healthy futures for themselves and their children.

We were grateful to be part of this bridge to wholeness for these deserving women and children!

March 2021 HIGHLIGHTS

ANOTHER GREAT WAY TO FIGHT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Last year, we made a grant to Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST) to enable them to create a printable toolkit to accompany the training they do for the hotel industry.  The printable toolkit provides hotels with posters, indicator cards, and information hotel personnel can use to help employees know how to recognize and respond to human trafficking.

BEST has been doing this training – effectively – for years.  But having these “leave behinds” so staff can continually be reminded about what to look for, and what to do, if they spot trafficking is a great boost for hotel staff to keep this issue at the forefront of their minds as they go about their daily duties.

     

We know traffickers often use hotels to exploit victims as places where they are forced to meet sex buyers.  But when hotel staff are properly trained, they understand the people in prostitution are not there by choice.  Employees can recognize the warning signs of trafficking and intervene to offer victims assistance so they can escape their trafficker and be connected to services to rebuild their lives.

We are proud of BEST for using their skill and creativity to fight trafficking in this way, and grateful to be a small part of keeping it top of mind for hotel employees.

December 2020 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

Boys & Girls Club of Thurston County used our $25,000 grant to help get their Yelm, WA Club up and running in 2020 – just before the pandemic hit!

The club opened just in time to serve families who were deemed essential workers, but had kids who needed to be doing school at home.  Many of those children were able to come to the club for remote school each day, so their parents could keep serving the community.

The Yelm club adjusted quickly, sanitized everything every day, and is now serving at max capacity (according to health guidelines) to keep kids progressing in school and their community moving.

We were grateful to be part of this heroic effort by the Yelm Boys & Girls Club staff!

DECEMBER 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

  • We supported ATK International to build a boys dormitory and latrine for boys attending the ATK high school, as well as a soccer pitch for all of the children at ATK schools.  Some of the high school boys have been walking up to five miles to and from school each day, which interferes with their school and homework time.  Having a dorm will allow those who need it to live at school so they can thrive.
  • We supported scholarships for first generation students at Saint Martins University in Olympia, WA.
  • We signed ‘The Pledge’ with Street Business School – affirming our support for their work.

COVID RESPONSE GRANT FUNDING

In the spring, we made a grant to Rescue:Freedom International to help them seize opportunities that were presented due to the pandemic shutting down red light districts and sex trafficking around the world.

RFI used our funds to start the “Freedom Line” in Cambodia – a 24/7 crisis/sex trafficking hotline.  It is the first one of it’s kind in Cambodia and in the first three months, the hotline received thousands of calls from sex trafficking victims, people who were vulnerable to being trafficked, etc.

Local organizations were able to follow up on 2,000 of those calls and Rescue:Freedom provided emergency food and hygiene packages for 993 strategically identified individuals who were highly vulnerable and in need of emergency support.  That support kept girls from being trafficked!

In addition, the Cambodian government has recognized the hotline and is in support of it – which is a huge step in a country where trafficking has run rampant for many years.

September 2020 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

ATK International used our $10,000 grant to build a dormitory for girls who are attending their high school.  Thirty girls are now able to stay in a safe environment while they attend school.  These girls are getting more rest because they’re not walking so far to get to and from school, they have light to study by in the evenings, they have access to bathing and better hygiene, and they are doing better in school.  We are honored to be able to support this incredible opportunity to help these 30 girls (and hundreds of girls to come!) have a safe, healthy environment that improves their education!

SEPTEMBER 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

  • We supported Heart for Lebanon – which is providing holistic care for Syrian refugee families in Lebanon.  They help meet families’ basic needs in the refugee camps, educate the children who aren’t able to attend formal school, and provide families with spiritual lifelines to help them move from surviving to thriving in life.  Lives are changing everyday because of H4L’s important work and we’re grateful to be supporting them again for a second year.
  • We added the Big Island of Hawaii to our geographic focus areas because several members of the Jernigan family are now living there.
  • We are hoping to do some family service projects over the coming year in the areas where we live and have made grants.

COVID RESPONSE GRANT FUNDING

In the spring, we made a grant to United Way of Thurston County to help meet the needs across the community due to the COVID pandemic.  UWTC did an incredible job leveraging funds from many sources to support community partners across the county.  Families in need were able to get food, eviction assistance, utilities help, and other basic needs met.  Thank you UWTC!

This photo is some of the food UWTC and their partners acquired to share with families in need.

June 2020 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

Heart for Lebanon used our $10,000 grant to provide
schooling and biblical character development for 300
Syrian refugee children who are living in Lebanon.

JUNE 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

This quarter we got to support some great organizations across the globe and in our own backyard.  It is a privilege to stand beside these partners who are changing the world – one life at a time.

  • She is Safe is empowering women in India to engage in entrepreneurial and savings groups to keep them from getting lured into human trafficking situations.
  • Black Girls Code is teaching young black girls the skills they need to enter the tech sector.
  • Street Business School is training anti-trafficking organizations on their model so those organizations can help women start businesses as part of their recovery from human trafficking.
  • Strategic Alliance to Fight Exploitation (SAFE) is meeting increased needs of trafficking victims and survivors in WA state during the pandemic.
  • International School Project is training teachers to build moral and ethical character in their students based on the teachings of the Bible.

TIMELY GRANT FUNDING

We are delighted to partner with Rescue:Freedom during the pandemic.  They are taking advantage of this time when brothels and red light districts are shut down overseas due to COVID-19 to get women and girls out of the horrific life of commercial sexual exploitation.

 

This photo is an empty red light district in Thailand.

March 2020 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

SAFE in Washington

Our $10,000 grant was used to help 74
human trafficking survivors get jobs and
another 154 survivors get coached and
trained on their way to employment.

These 11 employers are already hiring survivors!

MARCH 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

  • We funded $2,000 of food for backpack meals for homeless and low-income students.
  • Jessica & Heather met with staff from the City of Olympia to discuss the Alliance model as part of the solution for the homelessness issue, and we are pursuing next steps.

NEW GRANT FUNDED

Northwest Family Life – to provide care, housing, and assistance to women and children who are escaping and recovering from domestic violence and human trafficking.

December 2019 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Washington
Our $3,000 sponsorship was leveraged into
$342,000 raised at their auction!

Click here to check out their video!

DECEMBER 2019 HIGHLIGHTS

  • Jessica & Dalton attended a SAFE celebration event and got to meet the organization we funded to help sex trafficking survivors get jobs.
  • We now have updates/highlights on our website to share with friends and family.
  • We are going to explore using an Alliance model in Olympia to tackle the homelessness issue.
  • We made our first India grant!

NEW GRANT FUNDED

Rescue:Freedom International – to purchase a facility to protect, care for and educate children whose mothers work in brothels in a red-light district in West Bengal, India.

October 2019 Update

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

South Puget Sound Community College
Scholarships for deserving students.

Click here for their amazing stories!

ANNUAL 2019 HIGHLIGHTS

  • We revamped our vision, mission, and focus areas to reflect who we are as a family!
  • We have an all new logo!
  • We have an all new website that highlights our grantees!
  • We funded organizations we’ve loved for years and new ones we’re growing to love!
  • We invested $160,500 in our community and across the world!

NEW GRANTS FUNDED

  • Boys & Girls Club of Thurston County – to support the new club serving youth in Yelm, WA.
  • ATK International – high school girl’s dormitory in Uganda.