Grantee Spotlights
Domestic Violence Grantee Spotlight
Battered Women’s Justice Project
The Battered Women’s Justice Project is one of the few domestic violence programs in the country with demonstrated experience in engaging military and domestic violence organizations to build a coordinated military-civilian response to domestic violence crimes committed by military personnel.
The Avon Foundation for Women has supported the development of an e-learning course, “Safety at Home – Intimate Partner Violence, Military Personnel, and Veterans.” This course increases the capacity of advocates to work more effectively with military-related victims and to address the issues of veterans during batterer’s treatment. It also offers insight and support to social service and mental health practitioners who are working with these victims and their families.
The online course, which supplements the Department of Justice-funded program, “Building Effective Civilian Responses to Military-Related Victims of Intimate Partner Violence¸” is comprised of eight modules. Each self-paced module includes mini-lectures, case studies, practice scenarios and self-assessment. The following modules are currently available online:
- Context of Violence
- Risk and Danger
- Combat Stress
- Co-Occurring Conditions and Intimate Partner Violence
We will continue to update our links as more modules become available.
Breast Cancer Grantee Spotlight
Georgetown Lombardi
Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Avon Foundation for Women provides funds to the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, to conduct cutting-edge research and provide screenings and care for women facing breast cancer.
Dr. Bassem Haddad, associate professor of oncology, studies genetic changes in healthy cells that may be involved in causing cancer. The Avon Foundation has provided $700,000 to fund Dr. Haddad’s team to develop new ways to screen for the earliest changes in the breast — by screening fluid directly from the breast, called ductal lavage.
Dr. Haddad is examining the cells collected in breast fluid and looking at changes — so-called metabolomic and micro-RNA markers — to see if these markers can improve breast cancer screening and early detection. His pioneering work was selected to be presented at the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in April 2013.
The cornerstone of the community work — founded in partnership with Lombardi, MedStar Health and Avon Foundation — is the Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC).
The CBCC was established because of unacceptably high mortality rates from breast cancer in the D.C. area, particularly among minority women. With Avon support totaling $6.5 million since its founding in 2004, CBCC reaches out to the community and helps navigate women into getting screened, and if needed, into treatment.
Today, CBCC serves 2,000 women each year, most of whom do not have health insurance and who have not had a recent mammogram.
Photo: Dr. Haddad and Luisa Matos Do Canto, a member of his group, analyze the data from the breast ductal fluid studies conducted in his lab at Georgetown University and funded by the Avon Foundation.
Domestic Violence Grantee Spotlight
Safe Horizon
The Avon Foundation for Women awarded a $250,000 grant to Safe Horizon in August 2012 to expand its Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI) program, which provides counseling intervention services to children who have been affected by domestic violence.
The expansion of the CFTSI program will support the more than 3,000 children living in Safe Horizon domestic violence shelters throughout New York City. Programs such as these ensure children who have witnessed family violence will have access to services that reduce traumatic stress.
"With these funds, we will be able to reach many more children who've become victims of domestic violence," said Ariel Zwang, CEO of Safe Horizon. "[We will be able to] provide the interventional counseling services that are vital to their futures."
Safe Horizon is the largest victims' services agency in the United States, with more than 50 locations touching the lives of 250,000 children, adults, and families affected by crime and abuse throughout New York City each year. Since 1978, Safe Horizon has provided a wide range of comprehensive support to victims of domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking, rape, and sexual assault, as well as homeless youth and families of homicide victims.
Breast Cancer Grantee Spotlight
San Francisco General Hospital
The Avon Comprehensive Breast Care Center at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) Medical and Trauma Center is the entry point for most patients at the hospital who require breast evaluation. Since 2011, the Avon Foundation for Women has awarded the Avon Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center more than $22.2 million for breast cancer research, community outreach and education, and "safety net" medical care. Each year, the center serves more than 21,000 patients, many of whom are uninsured and come from underserved minority populations.
Through the support of Avon Foundation funding, SFGH:
- uses a mobile mammography outreach van (a "mammovan")
- built an imaging center
- quadrupled its screening capacity
- increased free counseling and testing for ethnically diverse women
- developed a DVD on cancer risk
Avon Foundation-funded research at SFGH includes tissue banking, laboratory research, and behavioral research on topics such as decision-making support, clinical trials barriers, and access to information.
SFGH has a Women's Cancer Network that provides financial and social support, and it also trains patient navigators, including Spanish-speaking navigators. Support groups at SFGH include the Circulo de Vida "Anjelitas program," which pairs Latinas diagnosed with breast cancer with Latina breast cancer survivors; and Cancer Awareness Resources and Education (CARE), which provides education and psychosocial support to cancer patients who receive their medical care at SFGH in English, Spanish, and Cantonese.