Albion Fellows Bacon Center

Dear Friends:

In the six months since receiving the wonderful $8,600.00 grant from the Vanderburgh Community Foundation, much has been accomplished in the Children's Program at Albion Fellows Bacon Center!  AFBC is a domestic and sexual violence center, with a shelter on site.  Any woman and her minor children may seek safety at our facility, 24 hours a day, for up to 45 days.  Within our agency, exists our very important Children's Program.

The desired outcomes of the Children's Program:  Short Term -- Victims and children will be safe in our facility.  Intermediate -- Victims and their children will have a safety plan to implement if violence occurs in the future.  Long Term -- Children will be able to identify future dangerous relationships.  103 children have participated in 74 groups so far in this 6 month timeframe.

Every day of the year, we provide services to our smallest victims.  Our Child Advocate meets with the child upon arrival, completes an intake and meets with the mother to obtain a more in depth view of the abusive history and target behavior problems and concerns the child may have.  With the help of Vanderburgh Community Foundation funding, in the past six months we have provided 44 hospitality bags to welcome children into the Shelter.  These bags are age and gender specific. 

We have expanded our children's group topics ("Hands are not for Hitting", "You are Special", "Red Flags" and "Coping with Anger") and have been in the process of enhancing group and activity materials.  The Foundation funding has enabled our ability to provide facilitation, supervision and referral by our Child Advocate and to replenish supplies used by our children. Additionally, Vanderburgh Community Foundation funding provides food, transportation and emergency aid to children of domestic violence as well. 

The demographics of the women and children who stayed in our shelter in the past 6 months were varied.  74% of our children were between the ages of 1 and 12.  Regarding financial areas, 54% of the children cam from a household that had an income of $5000.00 or less annually.  Our families also represented nine Indiana counties and four states.  79% come from Vanderburgh County. 

We are thankful for Vanderburgh Community Foundation funding and know that it would certainly be a loss to our agency if our Children's Program could not provide these essential services.  We continue to strive and advocate on behalf of the most important commodity...thank you Vanderburgh Community Foundation for remembering the silent and often forgotten victims of domestic violence....our children.

Sincerely,
Candice L. Perry
Executive Director