On November 17th, my group and I completed our second field work and took a visit to Sanctuary for Families in downtown Manhattan. We were extremely excited about going to meet with them because of the positivity we heard about last years group visit and that we finally found an organization that would work with us. When we got there we walked into the building and immediately there were probably more than seven elevators which confused us a little, but after a nice man told us which elevator to go into, everything went smoothly after that. We walked into a small little waiting room where we told our names to the clerk lady and waited for about 5-10 minutes. We were all a little bit nervous waiting there, but our nerves went away when Lauren, an assistant volunteer there, came and cheerfully invited us in. We went through the maze of a building to get to a small room with a table and chairs. When we got settled in, we started having an interesting and very informative conversation with Lauren. She told us about domestic violence cases, sexual trafficking in the U.S, abuse, and much more. She told us so many things that we really had no idea about previously. Not only did she help us be informed about our project, but she taught us things that are important for us to know in our lives.
After our long and educational talk with Lauren, we then met Leah. Leah worked in the “boutique” for the families. The “boutique” was a little room at the end of the hall with shelves and racks with clothes and filled with daily necessities. This stuff is all donations from generous people given to victims who have been trafficked, abused, or have been in a domestic violent relationship. We helped sort hangers, hang up clothes and organize merchandise. It was really inspiring seeing how many things people donated to these desperate people. While we were going back and forth between rooms, organizing everything, and it was really interesting to see people so grateful for what they were being given. When we finished putting rubber bands around 5-6 hangers, hanging up and folding clothes, and organizing the stock, we gratefully thanked Leah and got a picture with her. After that we wanted to say goodbye to Lauren as well, so Leah guided us to her office where we thanked her and we were on our way out. Going to Sanctuary for Families was really an amazing experience. The conversation we had with Lauren was extremely helpful and made me realize so many aspects to this topic that I didn’t know about before. Helping out with the boutique made me feel very helpful and good about what our group was doing because even though it’s just hanging up clothing, it helped them out a lot. Most of all it was really inspiring seeing the stockroom which was filled up with donations for the boutique. It made me happy seeing how many people were already helping this cause.
