What does 50 years of empowerment look like?

It looks like Bianca, who graduated from Women In Transition’s peer support program in the 90’s, returning to WIT years later when she realized she needed more support to heal from her trauma. Now, she’s seeing a therapist to get the next level of care.

It looks like Robert, who had been dismissed at every turn when he tried to get a Protection From Abuse order against his abusive boyfriend. First, they assumed he was straight, then they assumed he was the aggressor. When Robert called WIT for help and we treated him like any other client, he said, “You’re the first people who listened to me.”

It looks like Dayna, who started noticing patterns of abuse at her workplace, long after she attended WIT’s Sister Circle support group and left her husband. She called WIT, not knowing where to turn. She was able to take part in our Vocation Station program, gaining crucial tools to find a new job and work toward leaving that abusive environment.

We’ve come a long way from our beginnings in 1971 as a feminist collective providing support to women going through divorce.

Today, our programs – all of which are free – have evolved in response to the changing needs of our community.

We’ve implemented our financial empowerment group to address the effects of financial abuse. We’ve expanded our services to all genders, since we know that abuse can happen to anyone. And we are responding to COVID-19 by providing remote counseling and increasing our capacity.

For half a century, Women In Transition has been empowering people to thrive beyond domestic abuse/intimate partner violence and substance abuse. Fifty years of empowerment. But we still have a lot of work to do. Give a year-end gift to ensure we have the resources to support survivors for another fifty years – and beyond.