The Times Are A Changing. . .

Dear Friends,

I can't believe it's almost the end of the year already. So many things have happened this year in the realm of how Jewish communities around the globe have been handling cases involving sexual predators.

It's been amazing to see how the efforts of The Awareness Center over the last 12 years have been reaching into some of the most insulated orthodox Jewish communities and along with Survivors from all the movements of Judaism are speaking out.

The truth is that it is no longer a secret that Jewish communities are not exempt from having sexual predators amongst us, we are just like any other group of people when it comes to the statistics of those who have been sexually victimized.

Due to the lack of funding this year has been extremely difficult for our organization, In 2010 we were forced to suspend our "friendly line" which survivors and family members could call in to and receive help. It also pained us a great deal that we were faced with the dilemma of not having the needed resources to keep our sex offender registry up and running.

As 2011 approaches the reality of how hard the economy has been on us is staring us right in the face.

Many of our regular donors have become unemployed, and new donors have not been able to pick up the slack.

As the end of the year draws nearer, we are faced with the fact that The Awareness Center does not have the necessary funds to keep our web up on the internet. Without immediate help, our web page will come down until such time as we can afford to put it back up. The sad part about this is that we finally have a group of people who are volunteering their time assisting us in creating a new and better web page to assist more people in a format which would be much easier to navigate through.

I can assure you this much, The Awareness Center is NOT shutting down -- yet we are being forced to be on an extended sabbatical. Only you can help us to continue to be a driving force in the Anti-Rape movement, within Jewish communities globally

If you have ever been helped by us, or you care about Jewish survivors of sex crimes, from within ALL movements of Judaism, please feel to help us during these economical challenges. Send your donation checks to the address below, or go to our home page and click on the donate button to us a credit card.

Sincerely.

Vicki Polin, MA, LCPC

Founder and CEO

The Awareness Center, Inc.

(the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault)

P.O. Box 4824

Skokie, IL 60076

www.theawarenesscenter.org

The Awareness Center believes Jewish survivors of sexual violence should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war. Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures. For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!