For Immediate Release
Contact: Jessica Elkan, 503.222.6507 x308, jelkan@raphaelhouse.com
Raphael House of Portland Completes $570,000 Capital Campaign
Construction on Comprehensive Advocacy Center is slated to begin in May
Portland, Ore. – March 18, 2008 – Raphael House of Portland is thrilled to announce that it has completed the $570,000 capital campaign it launched in September of 2007.
Funds from the capital campaign will pay for the renovation of a 5,000 square foot unfinished attic space inside the current emergency shelter. Once completed, the new space will comprise the Comprehensive Advocacy Center, a multi-purpose space that will bring community partner agencies onsite to offer resources to survivors of domestic violence. The new space will also allow Raphael House to offer ongoing advocacy to survivors after they have moved out of the emergency shelter and to survivors participating in non-residential advocacy programs.
The capital campaign was generously funded by a $100,000 gift from the Hart Family Foundation, $150,000 from Meyer Memorial Trust and $20,000 from the Women Helping Others Foundation. In addition, the Home Builders Foundation of Metropolitan Portland chose Raphael House as their 2008 HomeAid Site. As part of the HomeAid award, the Home Builders Foundation agreed to cover at least half the total project cost through in-kind contributions of materials and labor, and also to provide a professional project management team to see the project through from start to finish. The project management team is being headed by Rick Lesniak of Blazer Development, Inc. and Mel Tashima Duncan, Executive Director of HomeAid Portland.
Construction is slated to begin May 1, 2008 and to be completed by June 30, 2008.
About Raphael House
Raphael House of Portland is a multi-faceted domestic violence agency dedicated to fighting the causes and effects of intimate partner violence in a variety of ways. We offer emergency shelter in a confidential location, safety planning and advocacy on a 24-hour in-house crisis line, non-residential advocacy in cooperation with the Portland Police Bureau, and transitional housing and advocacy through our scattered site Transitional Housing Program. Over 350 women and children are served in the emergency shelter each year, and over 3,500 callers are offered safety planning and advocacy on our crisis line. An additional 400 survivors receive non-residential advocacy services each year.
The mission of Raphael House is to provide a foundation of hope for a life free from family violence, and we have been working in this community—offering domestic violence survivors the tools they need to build violence-free lives—for more than 30 years. Raphael House serves a diverse community of women and children escaping domestic violence, and also works to eliminate the causes of family and intimate partner violence through educational outreach in the community.
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