Daniel Hand High School Students Effort to Help The Women and Family Life Center in Guilford, CT

There will be a fundraiser for the Women and Family Life Center on March 20th-24th in the Daniel Hand main office as well as outside of the library.  Through this fundraiser, Daniel Hand High School juniors, Haley Holmes, Liz Griffin, and Kaitlyn Melino will set up a box in the main office and outside of the library where we will collect office, home supplies, and money. These supplies will help struggling women and families who cannot afford these necessities. It is essential that people are aware and educated about the Women and Family Life Center because this center relies solely on the people to keep it running.  Haley, Liz, and Kaitlyn encourage the Daniel Hand community to take part in this fundraiser by donating anything they can such as but not limited to pens, pencils, paper, paper towels, or toilet paper.  

W&FL Mission Statement: “The Women & Family Life Center, a nonprofit organization, helps women and families meet the challenges of daily living and personal development through education, enrichment, support and referral services.”  This foundation will help abused women and children by providing them with counseling and supplies.

The purpose of organizing this fundraiser is not only to not only benefit the Women and Family Life Center, but to also raise awareness on the inadequate legal protection for abused women and children.  Many times women overlooked by society and the law because such abuse is hard to prove and therefore will be put aside.  For example, the Native American women did not receive any legal protection under the government if they were abused from a person who was not apart of the tribe but there was not enough jurisdiction to arrest the attacker.  In the Washington Post, it acknowledged that “....if you are a young girl born on an Indian reservation, there’s a 1-in-3 chance or higher that you’re going to be abused during the course of your life.”  Luckily, President Obama and Vice President Biden signed the  Violence Against Women Act this month which will give Native American tribes the legal right to prosecute non-Native Americans who committed crimes against Native American women.  The ending goal of this law and our fundraiser is to gain more coverage and awareness of the current lack of legal protection for women.  Hopefully, laws like this will aid the current struggle for more legal protection for abused women and children in America.

By having this fundraiser, Liz, Haley, and Kaitlyn hope that people will realize the severity of this modern day issue and will continue to fight for equal protection for all. We hope that people will follow our lead and hold fundraisers of their own to help other shelters fighting for this same cause.  Overall, fundraisers raise awareness and with more people understanding this issue, hopefully government involvement will increase and more laws for women will be passed.