Help Us Purchase Spirit Home - A Safe Place for Young Women
Reaching our goal of $1M helps us to purchase Spirit Home and provide a safe place for young women to foster, grow and be empowered.
What comes to mind when you hear the words Safe Spaces, Healing... Freedom? It has become apparent, now more than ever, that our communities are in dire need of safe spaces where our most vulnerable young people can receive the support they need to heal, live, survive, and thrive freely. For many years, Akuyoe Graham, Founder and Executive Director of Spirit Awakening Foundation, has envisioned such a space - a home - where our most neglected young girls and women can heal safely, live freely and grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
It is with great pride that Spirit Awakening Foundation announces our vision for Spirit Home: A safe place for young women - a new way to foster, grow and empower.
We have already raised over $100K to go towards helping us purchase an incredible home on the market (whose price has already dropped since being listed) but we need your support TODAY to raise $1M in the next month to buy the home!
Can we count on you to help us purchase Spirit Home by making a donation to our Spirit Home Campaign TODAY (and help us spread the word)?
It is widely known that a highly disproportionate rate of young girls and women (many of whom are girls and women of color) in Los Angeles are victims to homelessness, incarceration, forced prostitution, family rape, domestic violence, other human-rights abuses. Spirit Home seeks to offer a safe space to nurture and support female survivors of these atrocities.
According to this 2019 Juvenile Justice in CA 2019 Report, just in 2019 alone, 43,181 juvenile arrests were reported in the state of California. Of these reported arrests, 34,572 (80%) were Latinx, Black or Other youth, and 12,137 (28%) were juvenile female arrests. In 2020, African American girls (who are the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile justice population) were reported to be 20% more likely to be detained than Caucasian girls. It has also been reported that 76% of youth sent to the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) end up being rearrested. To top things off, did you know that it currently costs $515,000 just to incarcerate one child? This simply cannot continue... That is why Spirit Home is needed NOW.
In this home, young girls and women can heal from their traumas and rebuild their self-esteem, self-awareness and power within themselves so that they will not only be able to acknowledge their own self-worth, but also declare it.
Incorporating the mission to raise self-esteem and empower these young women, Spirit Home's key components will utilize the practices of meditation, creative expression, dramatic improvisation, and mentoring so young women can learn how to recognize their own beauty, strength and self-worth.
To ensure total fundraising transparency and accountability for this initiative, Spirit Awakening Foundation has opened a separate bank account specifically for all tax-deductible, Spirit Home donations. Spirit Awakening Foundation is also able to accept stocks as donations for Spirit Home.