Things are happening. Good things! I have a name, I'm nervous to unveil it online, so I'm going to withhold it until it is officially incorporated. Which looks to be happening sooner than I ever thought it would be possible. Since my last post a lot of things have changed. First, I was able to connect with a lawyer who is helping me to incorporate the nonprofit. That was something I didn't think would happen for a long time. I made some pretty big life changes that included leaving my job to work part time so that I have more time to pursue the nonprofit. Life is short and I have realized that I need to prioritize my passions in life. Of course this wasn't an easy decision, I was making a decent wage and loved being able to order Skip the Dishes whenever I wanted - gonna miss all the tacos I've fallen in love with. But things are good! Things are great actually! Right now I have an extremely solid team of board members - yep we have a board already! I hope to see that this will expand to more members in the future, but as we remain to be quite small it is currently made up of 4 (including myself) members. They are intelligent, hard working women and I am already so excited to be able to work together with them to make this nonprofit a reality.
At this time you might wonder what you can do to help. The answer is simple: keep your eyes open because soon things are going to be exploding with opportunities to help. Right now we are not a charitable organization as I've learned that this process takes many months to complete - but after we are officially incorporated this is something that will take place. The day that I can start this application I will be starting it. I want to be able to provide tax receipts to those that chose to donate to our cause. Until we are a charitable organization I unfortunately cannot offer tax receipts. But as we move forward I hope that you will partner with us on this journey to bring healing to those who need it. If you choose to donate to us (hopefully this will be possible in a couple of weeks!) I want you to feel comfortable reaching out to me and sharing your thoughts with me. I want to be transparent with this process and I want to be transparent even with the things I'm not sure about.
There are a lot of things I need to consider with this process... what bank am I going to choose? How am I going to recruit counsellor/therapist candidates? What insurance will we get? What part of the city are we going to operate out of? How can volunteers help us?
In a time when I'm unsure of so many things there is one thing that I know without a doubt: we will help people and all this confusion, all the legalities, all the moments where I'm stressed and insecure about this process will pay off. Even if we only help one person in this city.
The big take away from this post that I want you to focus on is that this nonprofit is going to be a strong support service for those who have been harmed by sexual violence. Whether we want to face these facts or not there are an incredible amount of people who have been harmed or affected by sexual assault, sexual harassment or any other form of violence. I also want to take the time here to note that our services will also be for secondary victims - those being the loved ones of the direct victim. Healing begins when all people affected seek support.
Again, please reach out to me if you have any questions.
Can't wait to update you next time... you may even get to know what the name is!!
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