For a woman fleeing an abusive relationship, the immediacy of danger often means leaving home with only her children and the clothes on their backs. The limited resources of battered women’s shelters give precedence to immediate needs, and children find themselves without familiar comforts, struggling to make sense of an uncertain future.

JWI’s National Library Initiative (NLI) is working to establish 100 children’s libraries in battered women’s shelters across the United States.  It’s an ambitious undertaking, made possible by a partnership of dedicated volunteers, businesses and corporations helping us create libraries, fill them with brand-new books, resources and furnishings, and keep them thriving long into the future. Today, more strongly than ever, we appeal to donors past, present and future to help bring these children’s havens to life.

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The NLI serves two critical needs for high-risk children in domestic violence shelters. Basic comforts – books, toys, music, and a safe and quiet space – address the emotional trauma of being uprooted from their familiar, if unstable, homes. And where these circumstances might otherwise pose an educational roadblock, NLI libraries clear the path to learning with brand new books, comfortable furnishings, computers, art supplies... the resources are as vast as the community is generous.

The measurable results of the NLI can be counted in the books on library shelves, the thousands of kids who use them, the mothers who can safely share in their children’s learning, and the volunteers who find joy and purpose in the act of making a difference.

Donate to the NLI.