Home Should Be a Safe Place.

I consider myself to be very lucky. I am in a loving, committed relationship with a man who I know will always protect me. I never have to fear for my safety and I know that if something were to happen in my relationship I am fortunate to have a loving family who would take care of me and my children. Sadly for many women around the country abuse is a reality that they have to deal with on a daily basis. Women are often faced with the choice of staying in a violent and destructive relationship or living on the streets in fear for their safety. As a women and a mother, my heart breaks thinking of having to make such a decision. It is time to take a stand. A good friend of mine is sponsoring a petition for safe housing for victims of domestic violence in the District of Columbia. I cannot urge you enough to take 2 minutes our of your day to support this cause. The petition reads as follows:

Join our collaborative, community-based effort to ensure that victims of domestic violence and their children in the District of Columbia have adequate safe housing and housing support services. Our goal is to secure a Fiscal Year 2011 federal appropriation for the District of Columbia to sustain and increase capacity to meet the dire safe housing needs of victims and children.

Because the District is not a state, local officials do not have access to alternate, sustainable revenue that their counterparts in states rely upon to fund safe housing and victim services. 38 states have access to alternate, sustainable revenue. Federal lawmakers are in a position to dedicate gap funding to stabilize and increase these services in DC. This funding would reform a broken system and save lives.

Please, please, please take the time to click here and sign. Signatures are needed from all over the country.

For more information about how to support the District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH) plase visit their website.