Lynne Hyman has been an integral volunteer to the staff in Sanctuary’s Legal Center. Bill Silverman, a partner at the renowned law firm Proskauer Rose LLP who leads the firm’s global pro bono efforts, introduced Lynne to Dorchen Leidholdt, Director of Sanctuary’s Legal Center. In March 2018, Lynne joined Sanctuary as an in-house Legal Center volunteer working at a desk within Dorchen’s office.

Lynne started out coordinating Sanctuary’s campaign to End Child Sex Trafficking Act and played a crucial role in its success. She organized meetings with New York State legislators, drafted advocacy materials, strategized with team members and other anti-trafficking leaders in the community, planned campaign events, coordinated transportation that took scores of advocates to Albany, coordinated the media events, and participated in the meetings she organized with legislators. Lynne’s cool head, top-notch organizational skills, and deep commitment to our mission made all the difference. When Governor Cuomo signed the End Child Sex Trafficking Act into law in August 2018, all of the leaders in our coalition recognized that Lynne’s contributions to our campaign were the key to its success.

Additionally, Lynne has been an incredible resource for Sanctuary’s legal clients. With one particular trafficking survivor, Lynne provided this highly traumatized young woman with encouragement, support and invaluable guidance on a wide array of issues, from education and career advancement to how to potty-train her two-year-old. Lynne’s skillful advocacy resolving the same young women’s educational and medical debt raised her credit score, making it possible for her to move with her children from shelter into her own beautiful two-bedroom apartment. The support that Lynne provides to both staff, events, and clients is exceptional.

“Lynne is a brilliant women and consummate professional. She gives a hundred percent of herself to her service to Sanctuary’s mission and clients on multiple levels, easily moving back and forth between client assistance and systems change advocacy.” — Dorchen Leidholdt, Director of Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families.

Though Lynne’s professional career was as a financial analyst and not a lawyer, she easily became an indispensable part of the dynamic legal team. She enthusiastically took on a wide array of tasks but one of the most important roles she served was as a sounding board. Throughout her year and a half at Sanctuary, Dorchen says “I frequently turned to her for advice and input and she invariably provided me with wise counsel and thoughtful feedback that has contributed mightily to my decision making on a wide variety of issues at Sanctuary”.

We thank Lynne for her amazing commitment to Sanctuary’s staff and clients! Her impact reaches well beyond what can be captured in words.

This year, we are honoring Ashley & Nelson for organizing the annual 500-mile Sanctuary Ride, raising thousands for Sanctuary for Families, and for their in-office volunteerism and additional fundraising for over five years.

A message from Lisa Mueller, Director of Development & Communications at Sanctuary for Families

Riding alongside Ashley & Nelson – A testimony by John Wyeth, Director of Institutional Giving at Sanctuary for Families.

—

Learn more about Sanctuary Ride: https://sanctuaryride.org/

See highlights from their latest trip: sanctuaryride.org/Highlights 

Over the past fifteen years, Caitlin Hickerson has been an avid supporter of Sanctuary for Families. She started volunteering with Sanctuary’s Annual Benefit, helping with the planning and set- up for our biggest annual fundraiser. Since then, Caitlin has continued to be a fierce supporter of Sanctuary – donating her time and resources in support of our staff and clients.

“Caitlin is a donor, a volunteer, a fundraiser, and an incredible team member.”– Amy Abramson, Director of Individual Giving.

Caitlin is a teacher at Horace Mann School, a private preparatory school located in the Bronx, where Sanctuary has a longstanding and multi-faceted relationship. For almost 30 years, the school has hosted an annual winter holiday party for over 150 Sanctuary clients. Each year, the event includes transportation for clients, activities, music, a delicious meal, and gifts for all. Emily Lo Bue, Director of Volunteer Relations remembers a few years back when there was a chance that the holiday might not happen. “When Caitlin found out, she immediately jumped into action, took the party under her leadership and has continued to make it better each year”.

Caitlin also works hard, in her role as Service Learning Coordinator at Horace Mann, to strengthen and grow the students’ connection to Sanctuary for Families. She hosts assemblies for the students to hear about Sanctuary, how to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship, and connect with survivor leaders. Additionally, Caitlin was instrumental in the success of Sanctuary’s Annual Survivor Leadership conference this year and made it possible for the large event to be held at Horace Mann. Assembling a team of colleagues and staff at the school who handled everything needed for the conference and more.

“Caitlin is a very special person. She is someone I’ve been lucky to work alongside and call a friend for many years, she brings joy to our clients and staff alike, and I’m thrilled for Caitlin to receive an honor so deserved.” — Emily Lo Bue, Director of Corporate & Volunteer Relations

We thank Caitlin for her amazing commitment to Sanctuary for Families! Her impact is longstanding and dynamic, and cannot be fully captured in words!

Over the past year, Dianna has worked alongside Sanctuary for Families’ Survivor Leaders to create the first trauma-informed, strength training program -an innovative treatment modality focused on healing from trauma. When the program started, the goal was to see whether strength training and weightlifting could help survivors connect with their bodies, reclaim their power, and heal from trauma and PTSD.

Before committing her time to Sanctuary, Dianna worked for over 25 years within the fitness industry. She created Her Strength, a program dedicated to promoting the benefits of strength training for women over the age of 50. As a long time supporter of Sanctuary, Dianna hosted an annual event, Women of Strength, where money was raised in support of Sanctuary.

Having already done so much for Sanctuary, Dianna reached out with an idea to create a wellness program for Sanctuary clients that could utilize both her skills as a fitness instructor and connections across the city. Sanctuary’s team of Survivor Leaders had just created a committee to focus on its very own Wellness Project, so Dianna connecting with Sanctuary at that moment seemed meant to be!

Dianna collaborated with Sanctuary and mobilized a team of fitness instructors to help create the trauma-informed program, and offered six weeks of free sessions to Sanctuary’s Survivor Leaders. The Survivor Leaders Institute is an innovative program that trains former Sanctuary clients, who have been out of their abusive situations for approximately one year, to provide information about gender-based violence to the community. Survivor Leaders are living examples of how victims can recover their health, power, and self-esteem through seeking help and supporting one another.

While creating the program, Dianna understood the collaborative process and valued everyone within the project.

“I think one of Dianna’s greatest strengths is that she truly sees survivors as equals and values their voices. As gender-based violence is rooted in the abuse of power and control, it was imperative that this project centered on shared power, collective decision-making and co-creation, and Dianna got it.” — Shobana Powell, LCSW, Director, Survivor Leadership Program.

Shobana Powell was delighted to honor Dianna for all of her work this year.“Dianna should be recognized because she is the perfect combination of empathy and excellence. Because she values our clients and our mission and because of who she is as a person, she showed up 100% in every single way.  Dianna was such an amazing volunteer to work with because no task was too small nor too big for her to take on, and yet, with all of her passion and tenacity, she managed to have great patience and grace in meeting each survivor where they were, never expecting anyone to move at her pace, but empowering them to move at their own. Her humility and humanity were beautiful to see.”

Carmen, one of the participants in the program, reflected on her time with Dianna and wrote,

“During one of our sessions I made a comment, in passing, about the fact that survivors are more than an incident in a lifetime of experiences and she got it. She not only got it, but weeks later, when I had forgotten the conversation she said something after the fundraiser she did that showed me that she had not only heard me, but had been thinking about it and was preaching it loudly and clearly to the uninitiated.”

Working with Dianna has filled everyone with light, positivity, and restoration.

We thank Dianna for her amazing commitment to Sanctuary’s staff and Survivor Leaders! Her impact reaches far beyond what can be captured in words.