Blue Pearl Candles will be selling candles with purple ribbons in a fundraiser for Anew: Building Beyond Violence and Abuse, formerly known as South Suburban Family Shelter. A table will be set up by Blue Pearl Candles in front of Anew’s administrative building on Thursday, July 28 and Friday, July 29, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 30% of the proceeds will be donated to Anew.
Anew is a non-profit organization in Homewood that provides shelter and clothing to help survivors escape domestic violence situations. They also provide counseling, participate in youth outreach and help domestic violence survivors obtain orders of protection.
The “candles for hope” will be specifically made for this fundraiser, said Kim Rowe, the owner of Blue Pearl Candles. Each candle will be white and purple, have purple wax and a purple ribbon representing domestic violence awareness, Rowe said.
Rowe said the goal is to raise $2,000 and if this event is successful, she plans on organizing something similar in the fall.
While all genders can be domestic violence survivors, Rowe sees Anew’s mission as something that ties in with the broader struggles that women have faced.
“Women have struggled historically to be able to have independence. And domestic violence obviously takes away a woman’s independence and a woman’s right to choose her life,” Rowe said.
Rowe said she’s passionate about helping domestic violence survivors because she, her mother and other women she’s known were victims of domestic violence. Rowe, who is Generation X, said when she was in a domestic violence situation, counseling had a bigger stigma attached to it and she didn’t seek the kind of services that Anew provides.
“Back in the day, it was different. My mentality was different,” Rowe said. “Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about self-care and there’s been a lot of talk about therapy. And people are way more open to the thought of therapy than they’ve ever been.”
“Anyone can be impacted by domestic violence,” said Rachel Forsyth, Development Coordinator at Anew. “You don’t have to show up with physical altercation marks. We will believe you.”
Forsyth said that when the pandemic hit, Anew had to make cutbacks. Forsyth said Anew used to have a “medical advocacy group” in emergency rooms to help with domestic violence situations. For the past 2 years, Forsyth said hospitals didn’t want “extra people around” and several of these Anew employees were let go.
Anew is committed to not only providing services to domestic violence survivors but trying to “stop violence at every stage,” Forsyth said. Anew provides counseling services to both the survivors and the perpetrators of domestic violence. Perpetrators often have generational trauma and are repeating the domestic violence they witnessed growing up, Forsyth said.
Anew provides outreach to students from kindergarten to high school, Forsyth said. They teach Kindergarteners that “hands are not for hitting” and high schoolers that “jealousy isn’t cute,” Forsyth said.
“I can tell she’s super passionate about our domestic violence agency,” said Forsyth, regarding Rowe’s fundraising effort. “I’m excited that we get to work together – to share our mission at Anew to help people in these situations but also introduce Kim as a supporter.”
The Blue Pearl Candles fundraiser will be in front of Anew’s administrative building at 18137 Harwood Ave. in Homewood.