FIRELIGHTMarketing, Research, Media & Public Communication Consultant

Prepared by: Journey McAndrews│ January 2013 │ Contact: (859) 619-0962

The NestCenter for Women, Children, and Families

“35 Years of Care, Compassion, and Commitment”

The Nest is a non-profit center located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky and has served women, children and families in Central Kentucky for more than 35 years.

The Nest states that it makes available “a safe, accessible and healing environment for children, while developing the strength and self-sufficiency of women and families through education, support, counseling and advocacy.”

Introduction

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

Mission Statement

“The Nest—Center for Women, Children and Families is a local, nonprofit organization that promotes healing, stability and well-being of children and families. Our holistic approach includes respite child care, parent education and support, domestic violence counseling and recovery, and crisis care services for fragile families.”

Role & Function

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

During more than 35 years within the Lexington community, The Nest has offered a wide-range of services to all people, but as an organization its primary function is to serve the domestic, social, and emotional needs of women, operating secondly in service to the needs of children, and thirdly addressing specific (often crisis related) needs of families (such as court-ordered parenting classes).

The Nest offers four core programs:

1. Self-Help Parenting2. Domestic Violence Counseling3. Crisis Care 4. Childcare

Overview

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can

alter the course of history.”Mahatma Gandhi

While its fundamental role and function within the community has remained essentially the same, The Nest has undergone numerous changes throughout its 35 year history.

The biggest change came in 1996 when two other community based organizations—the Women’s Center of Central Kentucky, and the Lexington Child Abuse Council, merged. These two organizations had been around since 1977, and their role and function within the community were combined to form The Nest Center for Women, Children and Families in its current incarnation.

Central Kentucky then had one organization that addressed the domestic, physical, and emotional needs of women and children in crisis and helped them go on to recover and live more fulfilled, safe, and productive lives.

History 35 Years in Retrospect

During its history, The Nest has provided childcare, domestic abuse intervention and counseling, parenting classes, food, clothing, diapers, education, learning, mental health counseling, emotional support, community outreach, and many more services to thousands of families across Central Kentucky.

History 35 Years in Retrospect

The Nest is located on North Limestone Street in a historic Federal Style building known as The William Morton House. In 1795 “Lord” William Morton purchased the land where The Nest resides for one sterling shilling and built his home in 1810.

When Morton died, he left the property to his daughters who then sold it to Cassius Clay in 1836.

The property was sold yet again in 1850 to Dr. Warfield who conveyed it to his wife Elmira upon his death, and she then sold it to Lily Brand Duncan in 1873.

After Duncan’s death, her daughter (who was also named Lily) sold the property to the city of Lexington in 1913 and the area became formally known as Duncan Park.

History of the Building

1. Stabilization of the family unit

2. Parenting classes (court ordered and

otherwise)3. Food, clothing,

diapers, and distribution of other

needs-based material goods

4. Emotional support 5. Educational

materials and events6. Family

enhancement events and programs

Families

1. Daily childcare for children (who attend

regularly) 2. Emergency

childcare for crisis situations

3. Prevention of sexual, emotional, and

physical abuse4. Neglect prevention

5.Education-based childcare program

6. Three-STARS rated childcare facility

7. Reindeer Express8. LBGT Youth

outreach and events

Children

1. Respite childcare2. Domestic abuse

counseling and referrals

3. Crisis case management

4. Referrals for medical care, rent

assistance, etc.5. Assistance and

counseling for starting over after leaving an abusive relationship

6. Circle of Healing Support Group

Women

The Nest 35 Years in Service to the Community

Brief Overview of Services & Functions

The most significant and dynamic aspect of The Nest is its childcare and respite childcare programs.

Childcare is provided during the weekdays for children from birth to five years.

The Nest offers traditional childcare for working parents and also free respite childcare for parents who have nowhere else to turn for brief childcare assistance. This aspect of the childcare program functions as a means to prevent child abuse and offers parents a safe place to leave their children during times of crisis or emergency.

Childcare

Childcare

1. NurtureListening leads to nurturing when individuals and families come in with emergency needs.

2. EncourageProviding child care encourages parents to know they are not alone in raising their child.

3. SupportCounseling survivors of domestic violence supports families in becoming whole again.

4. TeachWhen you support The Nest, you teach our community that when we work together to strengthen families our entire community will be stronger.

There are four core beliefs and aims promoted through childcare programs at The Nest

The childcare division of The Nest opened a new chapter in community involvement by using a concept a simple as “Story Time Heroes” to invite community leaders, politicians, local business owners, and celebrities in to read to the children (usually dressed as a character in a popular children’s book).

Jeffery White, Executive Director at The Nest, said “Story Time Heroes serves two functions; one is that it allows children who may have been abused to come in contact with caring adults they do not know, thus enhancing their sense of security” and helping them negate their fears, and second, “Story Time Heroes gives The Nest an opportunity to invite people in to participate in what the organization does, people who may not know about the organization otherwise.”

A Creative Twist on Community Involvement

Like many non-profit organizations, The Nest would not exist without dedicated volunteers who have contributed so much during its 35 years in operation that it is hard to fully measure all of the kindness, goods, services, and hard work.

The tireless effort of volunteers allows The Nest to provide for the needs of women, children, and families who have nowhere else to go for help. Indeed, it is the combined commitment of the staff, board members, and volunteers that allow the organization to provide uncompromised care and compassion to the community it serves.

In addition, donors, students, businesses, and various funding agencies are also vital to the organization’s ability to carry out its role and function within the community.

Volunteers Make all the Difference

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an

ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Domestic Violence Counseling and Intervention

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about

things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Nest focuses most of its attention on the needs of women in crisis by offering domestic violence counseling, respite childcare, approaches and exercises in Positive Psychology, The Circle of Healing Support Group, Relationship Recovery Workshop, special events like The Clothesline Project, Self-Help Parenting classes, and Life Skills classes that help “parents develop skills needed for good parenting and job security.”

Promoting Awareness Through Education

The Nest promotes child abuse awareness, offers counseling, support, and preventive techniques to parents and caregivers, and helps heal the wounds of child abuse by offering a safe, caring, and nurturing environment for the children in its childcare and respite childcare programs.

Child Abuse Prevention & Recovery

Putting the pieces back together, one child at a time

Recently The Nest reached out to other areas of the community that need help with issues of bullying and violence.

In partnership with organizations such as Lexington Fairness, GLSO, and PFLAG, the staff and board members of The Nest addressed issues of bullying, discrimination, and violence directed at those in Central Kentucky’s gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered communities.

The most notable anti-bullying and anti-violence event supported by The Nest was last year’s “Breaking the Silence”, which was hosted at the historic Kentucky Theater in Lexington, and featured a program that explored the discrimination and violence Lexington’s LGBT youth face.

“Breaking” Old Barriers with New Mindfulness

Reindeer Express is an annual event that has been around for more than twenty years. While this event is based in customary holiday traditions of offering charity and assistance to those in need, the event is about more than just giving children presents, providing food for families, and clothing the needy, because Reindeer Express allows The Nest to “express” some of its core beliefs and carry out its mission to provide care for the people in Central Kentucky who need it the most.

Reindeer Express (more than a holiday tradition)

Reindeer Express 2012

More than 600 families in Central Kentucky received an invitation to attend Reindeer Express in 2012

Meet some of the “Nesters”

Jeffery WhiteExecutive Director

Carol WhippleDevelopmental Director Jenny Morris

Child Care Director

Sheri EstillDirector of Crisis Case Management Program

Sharon KopycDirector of Clinical & Community Services

Shelly Sowell-Ginter Associate Director of Child Care

The Nest needs the help and support of volunteers, businesses, and people throughout the community.

Items in need of constant replenishment:

Diapers Food Children’s clothes (birth to age 5 years) Cleaning supplies Office supplies Monetary donations Food, coffee, and drinks are also welcomed during community events

Get Involved

For more information, or to make a donation . . .

The Nest 530 N. Limestone Street Lexington, KY 40508 (859) 259-1974 (859) 254-9465 Fax

Jeffery White, Executive Directorjwhite@thenestlexington.org

Carol Whipple, Development Director cwhipple@thenestlexingtion.org

www.thenestlexington.org