Help Support LAAW during the Holiday Season!

Have you heard about LAAW? LAAW is short for Legal Advocates for Abused Women. We help victims of abuse in times of crisis. It’s as simple as that. We do this by working with law enforcement and the legal systems to help victims at the earliest stage of violence and at every entry point into the legal system.
LAAW provides crisis intervention & support, legal information & advocacy, safety planning and legal & social service referrals for victims of abuse.

What does this mean? It means that if a victim files for an order of protection, our advocates are there to help her file, answer questions, and offer resources. It means that if she files a police report, we provide immediate outreach to make sure she understands what is going on and help her with resources, safety planning, or anything else she needs. If she calls our crisis line, we can talk to her about shelters, child support, and so much more. If she needs an attorney for her order of protection hearing, we have two attorneys on staff and a roster of over 70 volunteer attorneys who also provide free legal representation.

And these are just a few examples of the work LAAW does. The best part is LAAW offers all of these services completely free of charge.

This year has been one of the toughest in LAAW's 23-year history. Due to the economic downturn, LAAW has experienced a big reduction in funding and had to cut our staff in half.

Unfortunately, domestic violence in St. Louis has dramatically increased at the same time. There have been 17 domestic violence-related homicides this year alone in the St. Louis metro area. With half the staff members, LAAW has responded to 30% more victims than last year -- logging over 9,000 cases this year so far.

We invite you to join us as a supporter of LAAW this holiday season! Our goal is to raise $10,000, and every donation counts. Please know that your donation will make a difference for the thousands of women in our city who are experiencing unacceptable violence.