Over the past six months, Sanctuary leadership, staff, clients and supporters have come together to create a vision for the organization’s future. This new Strategic Plan will guide us through the next three years as we strive to build a world where freedom from gender violence is a basic human right.

Where we are today

We are proud to offer high-quality services to more than 8,000 survivors of gender violence every year. Clients are at the center of our work; we draw on the experiences and voices of survivors when working to build our programs and reform local and national systems and policies. Our success is reflected in the sustained funding we receive from government, individual donors, and leading national funders.

To ensure we remain impactful, it is necessary to take time to critique and reflect upon what we, as an organization, can do better. Through this process of reflection, we have identified critical areas of focus for the future.

A roadmap for the future

Our next five years will be guided by three key goals:

1. We will address unmet client needs – in particular, empowering survivors to build economic self-sufficiency; ensuring that their children’s needs are met; and securing safe, permanent housing in the highly challenging NYC housing market.

2. We will build on our effective model of comprehensive service delivery by making it easier for clients to access services; by studying our impact; and by making results-driven decisions about our programs and operations.

3. We will amplify our advocacy and outreach efforts in order to improve the response of our communities and systems to victims of gender violence.

These goals serve to support our clients in their individual journeys to self-determination, while also enabling us to directly address legal and social structures that perpetuate gender violence. You can also view a detailed overview of the goals.

Many voices create a meaningful plan

In order to develop our strategy and goals, we sought a deep level of involvement from our board, executive leadership, and staff, and engaged in conversation with clients and partners in government, philanthropy, and the social service community. We are grateful for the thoughtful contributions of all who participated.

We invite you to consider this strategic plan and to help us fulfill our shared vision of exceptional services and progress toward a world free of gender violence.

– By Hon. Judy Harris Kluger, Executive Director