Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County Values Its Partnership with Women’s Business Connection
Each year, the Women’s Business Connection of Chester County selects a community partner to be a beneficiary of its fundraising and networking efforts. The current partner is the Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County, a nonprofit that provides counseling, advocacy, resources, and education to those victimized by crime and violence in the community.
“I saw the community partnership as a huge opportunity to increase our network by having an entire networking group like the Women’s Business Connection dedicated to helping us get the word out about our services,” said Christine Zaccarelli, CEO of the Crime Victims’ Center. “One of our main missions has been to get the word out about our organization and our services because we were perceived as the best kept secret of Chester County.”
CVC is a comprehensive victim services agency that is the designated provider of services to sexual violence victims for Chester County. However, it serves victims of all types of crime, including domestic violence.
“We provide crisis and compassionate support to victims of crime and their families,” said Zaccarelli. “The agency began in 1973, and since then, we have provided thousands of victims with immediate and continued help.”
Part of that support is a commitment to helping victims understand their rights and advocating, when necessary, to ensure those rights are met. Such advocacy work is something Zaccarelli has championed for much of her career as an attorney for Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania and as Assistant District Attorney for Chester County.
In addition to counselors, victim advocates, and a small administrative team, the CVC has a Prevention and Education Department that provides awareness and prevention programming to schools, universities, parents, and professionals to prevent crime and violence from occurring in the first place. According to Zaccarelli, the agency has managed to have programming in every school district in the county in some fashion, from Kindergarten through 12th grade.
“They do sessions on things like conflict resolution, healthy relationships, anti-bullying, Internet safety, and bystander training, all geared toward what age group they are presenting to,” she said.
CVC is about 80 percent government funded. Being a community partner with the Women’s Business Connection also benefits the CVC’s bottom line and provides other advantages as well.
“We are the beneficiaries of a 50/50 drawing at one of their events, and we receive a portion of the proceeds from their ‘Meet Me at the Mansion’ event in October,” said Zaccarelli. “They also provide support in terms of members contributing to, and volunteering at our events.”
Also, CVC is given an opportunity at monthly luncheons to talk about its services and what it is accomplishing in the community.
“All the focus is on them,” Nina Malone, a board member of the Women’s Business Connection, said of the benefits of being an annual community partner. “We target our fundraising efforts to that group for the year they are a partner. But we also ask the partners what works best for them besides money. What can we do to add value to their organization?”
For previous community partners, the WBC contributed to clothing drives for Wings for Success (a group that empowers women through apparel and advocacy), made meals for mothers attending a seminar at Bridge of Hope (a mission to end homelessness), and rolled up its collective sleeve on the worksite for the Women Build of Habitat for Humanity.
Malone, who is a health and wellness consultant for Arbonne International, has been associated with the WBC for more than 20 years.
“The Women’s Business Connection is an organization that was created to meet the needs of women in business,” she said. “We focus on creating connections between women so they can develop relationships and hopefully do some business together and make referrals to each other. It’s been quite a pleasure being part of this organization for so long, and it’s just a great group of women.”
According to Malone, the criteria for an organization to be considered as a community partner are:
- be in existence for a minimum of two years as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- serve and support women and girls in Chester County
- demonstrate that less than 20 percent of charitable gifts received go to administrative costs
- be a member of the Women’s Business Connection
Information about nominations for the next community partner (due by March 20) is available on the Women’s Business Connection’s website by clicking here, along with information about attending events and joining the group. At the WBC’s annual awards luncheon, CVC will be honored a new community partner will be announced.
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