Greetings!

As summer begins, we are excited to fill you in on some recent progress and accomplishments. W e are thrilled to announce that My Sister's Place has been selected as "one of the best" nonprofits in the region by the Catalogue for Philanthropy . This means MSP has gone through a rigorous vetting process by 120+ experts in our field, and will be featured in the print version of the Catalogue for Philanthropy for 2018-2019. We encourage you to read our full press release below!

Moreover , our Director of Programs Chandra Robinson was invited by the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP)to meet with civil society activist leaders from Taiwan about women's empowerment and addressing domestic violence internationally. Ms. Robinson shared MSP's strategies for advocating for disadvantaged groups, as well as discussed culturally specific approaches to domestic violence, service gaps to address, and how domestic violence can manifest differently in various cultures. We are grateful to the State Department for the enriching opportunity to collaborate with international leaders.

On our program side, we successfully launched RISE Short , a modified additional short term housing version of our transitional housing program, RISE. RISE Short provides rental subsidy and financial support to participants for 9 months . During those 9 months, MSP provides participants with case management, financial literacy training, self-sufficiency planning, and employment counseling to help families sustain their new homes. We are excited to share that we accepted our first family into RISE Short this month, and are expecting many more to follow, as we have many eligible families in our Shelter program and broader community.

Lastly, we are excited to share that our shelter residents will be working with l ocal artist Marta Perez-Garcia on developing a public art installation titled "Si te cojo...: Cuerpo, mujer y rotura" ["I'm Gonna Get You...:  Body, Women and Rupture"]. The goal of the project is to stimulate public reflection on how gender-based violence impacts women and our society. As part of the installation, Ms. Perez-Garcia will be facilitating a series of art workshops to allow interested MSP shelter residents the opportunity to participate in the project and contribute to the installation this month by creating and personalizing cloth dolls representing their experiences as survivors of violence. The installation will be displayed in the Franklin D. Reeves Municipal Center beginning in September 2018, and we invite you to attend.

We wish you all a safe and fun summer, and thank you for being part of our journey through your support.

Warmly,
The My Sister's Place Team

P.S. Don't forget, this week is your LAST CHANCE to purchase tickets to the Tico Taco Takedown ! Read about the chefs and judges below!