Anti Domestic Violence Organization Receives Aid

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Transitions, a local anti domestic violence and victim support organization received a check from the J.W. and M.H. Straker Foundation to cover essential operating costs that were no longer funded in the wake of federal government spending cuts.  

Transitions provides three basic services: shelter for domestic violence survivors, a crisis hotline to help people facing domestic troubles, along with court advocacy that provides legal support for victims. Transitions Executive Director Pam Page explained the role her organization provides in the community and how the check for over $118,000 will keep essential staffing employed.

“We’ve also started into human trafficking and helping those survivors,” Page said. “We started locally with Mercy. Then I began to work with Out of Darkness in Columbus and just a couple of months ago we started working with a national organization called Rescue America. So we’ve been busy with that too because that falls under the blanket of domestic violence. Personally, I want to thank Susan and her crew, Pam and Pam. Professionally, I want to thank them. It means the world to us.”

Straker Foundation President and Executive Director Susan Holdren discussed how her foundation saw the need in transitioning from only awarding financial grants toward also supporting local agencies that have established a vital role in the community but are vulnerable to governmental spending cuts.  

“Our foundation decided that we wanted to do something to help an organization with their operating costs,” Holdren said. “We know that operating costs are difficult to raise and so we did not have a competition but we talked among ourselves. We looked at a lot of organizations’ balance sheets, which we already had because they had submitted for a grant at one time or another.”

The check will cover the agency’s basic operating expenses for the next three years and provide them with time to establish their own ways of generating revenue that covers basic operating expenses.