INDIANAPOLIS — More Indiana women will have a space space to call home after surviving domestic violence.
Coburn Place, which has been changing lives since 1996, announced it received a major donation from the Day One Families Fund, which is backed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The nonprofit will get $1.25 million from the fund to keep empowering women to move in a positive direction.
Brianna McCart found Coburn Place after leaving a dangerous situation while pregnant.
"Thankfully I moved in a week after my son was born which was ideally the best situation that could have happened. Because I was able to bring him here instead of back to an emergency shelter where there is a lot more chaos," McCart said.
McCart and Tracy Clark represent the 500 Central Indiana families helped by Coburn Place every year in a way that other resources can't.
"One thing I think we lack here in Indiana and Indianapolis itself, is that we have a lot of emergency resources for those who are leaving domestic violence, but we don't have the bridge of emergency shelter back to living on your own and having sustainability on your own, there is that bridge that is lacking and Coburn Place is the one organization that can provide that bridge for people," McCart said.
"You have your own apartment, you have your own place and you can be here up to two years so it was really just a time to kind of step back and really just work on the foundation of getting myself back as self sufficient, getting my children into a secure environment, and really just healing from what I had been through," Clark said.
Now, thanks to the Day One Families Fund, Coburn Place will be able to place even more families in stable housing.
"Another portion of the funds will be used in an expansion project when we expand into another facility eventually, it will allow us to have more housing stock," Coburn Place's Lauren Laski said.
Right now, the waitlist for Coburn Place is 3-5 times longer than its capacity.
"And so for them to be able to receive something like that and to be able to continue their services and to have less pressure on themselves, to me helps them to really show up for the women during this time, the worst time in a lot of their lives," Clark said.
"I just think of all the women and the children who are going to greatly benefit from this, like i know how much Coburn Place has completely changed my life around, and just to think how this money is going to help them do the same for so many other families that is incredible," McCart said.
