Powerhouses Join Forces to Lend a Hand to Women in Shelters Across the Nation

(PRWEB) July 29, 2004

Hiyaah Power Inc. has initiated “Lend Me Your Hand,” an annual 50 State Shelter Donation Campaign scheduled for December 2004 wherein women’s shelters, businesses and organizations all over the country are combining their services, products and resources to empower battered women and their families. The driving force behind Lend Me Your Hand is a group of female-headed organizations including, Hiyaah Power, Building Families, Inc., Samanta Shoes, Expectations Mobile Spa, SOULutions for Dynamic Living and ResumeToday.com.

The program consists of women who are successful, professional, some survivors of domestic violence themselves; women who have overcome various obstacles in their lives looking for a purposeful way to give back to the female community. Through Lend Me Your Hand these women have positioned themselves to fight domestic violence and empower other women. In 1992 Medical News, American Medical Association, reported that family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and non-productivity. The women of Lend Me Your Hand share a mission to provide shelter residents with a much-needed sense of support.

Lend Me Your Hand has identified food, health and beauty products, educational resources, job placement, professional clothing, counseling services, access to technological resources, transportation and child care assistance as core needs of women in shelters. Niambi Jarvis, founder of Hiyaah Power Inc., an organization dedicated to ministering to women’s need for empowerment, states, “Women in shelters need to know that it is never too late for them to be what they might have been. Through “Lend Me Your Hand” we are helping to form a unique network of shelters and a comprehensive database of resource providers to help women achieve empowerment through self-sufficiency.”

Lend Me Your Hand is actively seeking to further enrich the program by forming strategic alliances with other organizations and businesses dedicated to helping our nation’s most vulnerable women and their children. The program leaders are currently seeking to meet with other heads of non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, women’s groups, sororities, childcare centers, job placement agencies and institutions of higher education. These strategic alliances would contribute to the ongoing mission to generate resources, services and donations for the shelters.

The need is great. Lend Me Your Hand is targeting all 50 states in order to identify one shelter per state to plug into this powerful program. In addition to getting much needed resources to women in the shelters the program also seeks to align with domestic violence prevention advocates to educate the public on solutions to this devastating problem. The National Domestic Violence Hotline reports having received more than 700,000 calls for assistance since February 1996. – National Domestic Violence Hotline, December 2001

Lend Me Your Hand encourages all individuals, companies, communities and organizations dedicated to the empowerment and well being of women and their families to contribute in any way, large or small, to this desperately needed program. The success of Lend Me Your Hand is largely dependent upon a comprehensive database of resource providers who enable the program to help the women in our nation’s shelters. If you, your organization, or company would like to become a vital a link in this important chain of providers please take a moment to send Lend Me Your Hand an email with the following information: Organization Name/ Contact Person / Complete Mailing Address /Telephone Number. You will receive a Lend Me Your Hand Empowerment Provider Kit in the mail which will include a form whereupon you can tell Lend Me Your Hand more about the services your organization offers.

For more information or to order your kit please contact Niambi Jarvis at Hiyaah Power Inc. at 888.801.2313 or visit http://www.HiyaahPower.org.

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