Annual Campaign Supports Local Nonprofits
(Grand Rapids, MI) Each year, members of the Commercial Alliance of REALTORS® (CARWM) hosts the CARWM Cares Campaign to raise funding for local nonprofit organizations. The 2020 beneficiary of the campaign was the Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County. The campaign, which concluded at the end of December 2020, raised over $30,000 for programs to support child sexual abuse survivors and their families.
The Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County has led the local effort to recognize, report and reduce child sexual abuse since 1993. Along the way, they have helped thousands of children and families achieve healing and justice.
“We are truly grateful to have the support of the Commercial Alliance of REALTORS. The CARWM Cares Campaign has provided crucial funding that has afforded us the capacity to expand our services in response to increased need. The myriad of constraints that COVID-19 has brought have meant considerable barriers for our families at the CAC. We have seen our case management needs multiply exponentially and have had to piece together funding to add an additional part-time case management and victim advocacy position. Additionally, our Kids Have Rights school based prevention program has been working tirelessly to figure out ways to reach kids who are not able to be in school with their critical body safety programming. These needs were not budgeted for last year when a global pandemic was not on our radar. During a time of much uncertainty, it warmed our hearts and encouraged our spirits to have such overwhelming support from the members of CARWM,” shared Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County Executive Director, Melissa Werkman.
Commercial Alliance of REALTORS President Chris Prins shared on behalf of the membership, “We are so impressed with the great work the Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County is doing to help children and families facing serious challenges and we are glad to be able to help them by funding some of their projects.”
About The Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County
The Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County is a child-centered organization that coordinates the community response to child sexual abuse. It brings together under one roof all the resources an abused child might need, from child protective services to law enforcement to medical professionals, and provides them free of charge. It also educates and empowers children and adults throughout the community to prevent abuse. For more information, visit www.cac-kent.org.
About the Commercial Alliance of REALTORS®
The Commercial Alliance of REALTORS is a membership organization based in West Michigan composed of over 550 commercial real estate practitioners and affiliate members. Visit www.carwm.com for more information.
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