Annually during the Holiday Season, Empire West joyfully collects donations to help the families affected by domestic violence that seek a safe haven in Sojourner Center.
Every year Sojourner Center helps nearly 10,000 individuals in our community and provides shelter services to an average of 1,000 individuals per year, about 50% are children and 48% of these children are under the age of 5 years old.
Sojourner Center provides a broad spectrum of services to victims of domestic violence, while working with professionals in the field on education, research and advocacy with the goal of ending domestic violence. Sojourner Center also recognizes the importance of pets as family members and is one of the very few shelters that will allow pets in their facility. “We’ll care for your pets as it they were ours, because pets are family, too.”
Empire West Title Agency’s generous 2018 donation to the Sojourner Center “really raised the bar” for all future donors, according to Sojourner’s Volunteer Program Manager. That gift included a significant amount of cash and those items needed to build 46 completely new beds (vinyl mattress pad protectors, fabric mattress pad protectors, sheets, blankets, pillows, etc.). The gift was “transformative” for the agency and greatly benefitted the victims of violence that come to the shelter seeking aid, she said.
In honor of Empire’s amazing gift, the Board decided to make Empire the namesake for their first butterfly. The Sojourner Campus will be decorated with butterflies, representing the transformation of those who come there, as part of an on-going beautification program. Way to go Empire!