Shelter for Abused Women to Raise $50,000 by Year-End Through ActionCOACH’s Global Pro Bono Coaching Program

Las Vegas, NV, November 20, 2009 --(PR.com)-- As soon as the founder and CEO of ActionCOACH –the world’s leading business and executive coaching firm, launched the Coaching for a Cause pro bono business coaching initiative for the charitable and not-for-profit sectors of the world, Fairbanks enlisted Safe Embrace, a shelter for abused women in Reno, Nevada into the program.

Through this initiative, top Business Coaches from around the world are helping charities and non-profits from all walks of life raise funds and donations; the overall goal of the program is to raise an additional $2.5 million in funds and donations from October 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. The combined value of this service is $1.8 million.

Fairbanks will coach Deborah Armstrong, founder and Executive Director of Safe Embrace to help her weather the economic storm.

“My wife was recently asked to become involved in this organization as a Board member,” Fairbanks said. “That’s how I met Deborah who is an outstanding lady with a great cause; she just needs to learn how to better run and lead her organization and I am extremely motivated to help her achieve her goals.”

As someone who has personally survived domestic violence, Armstrong identified the economic crisis as a major challenge when it comes to getting enough funding to provide the much-needed services of her charity.

With the long-term vision of being able to turn Safe Embrace into a one-stop shelter for victims of domestic violence from all arenas of life, Armstrong is confident business coaching will help her organization get closer to this ideal.

“Our main financial goal with Jeremy is to be able to generate $50,000 in funds by year-end,” Armstrong said. “Being a small organization, we have a limited number of shelter beds available, making it very difficult for us to accommodate the requests for our services, so fund-raising is critical.”

A few weeks into the coaching process and Armstrong believes this has been like a “time-out” to look at the agency overall.

“I have already benefited hugely from the business coaching sessions provided by Jeremy and see myself now working more ‘on’ the business instead of ‘in’ it,” she said.

Fairbanks is helping Armstrong and her team become more organized and focused so they can efficiently accomplish their goals.

“This is a very important cause and we need to help the victims of abuse as well as create tremendous awareness to overcome abuse in our society,” he said. “I am helping them better distinguish their organization and show how it is as an integral, much-needed part of the community.”

With two major organizations dealing with the same cause in Reno, Armstrong has a bigger task at hand.

“We are the smaller of the only two organizations, which deal with domestic abuse in our community,” she said. “So we need to constantly show how there is a need for our services,” she said.

According to Armstrong, Safe Embrace can distinguish itself from other organizations dealing with domestic violence and abuse.

“Our shelter readily takes women who have children up to the age of 17, irrespective of gender,” she said. “We also reach out to underserved populations, including the incarcerated. We visit the jail once a week for classes, and have a monthly program for at-risk youth.”

Safe Embrace also has on-site therapeutic sessions for women and children who are victims of abuse.

“As part of our program, we also have Interns from the University of Nevada, Reno who do social work on our premises,” Armstrong said. “We are now looking at getting the resources to start a transitional housing system so when people leave our shelter; they have a place to go to.”

Fairbanks believes the Coaching for a Cause program will create a huge impact, both locally and globally.

“This is a phenomenal program, which provides an opportunity for all of the Business Coaches to make a difference in our local communities and globally as a team,” he said.

Coaching for a Cause is an innovative, new program from ActionCOACH, the world's number one business and executive coaching firm that makes pro-bono coaching available to charities and non-profits worldwide. To learn more, go to coachingforacause.org or subscribe to RSS news feeds at news.actioncoach.com.

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