Welcome Letter

Kim Spangenberg Executive Director

Dasi

Welcome to DASI’s Masquerade Gala! I am so glad to be in community with you to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence and human trafficking.

For those of you who have been involved with DASI throughout the pandemic, you know that we were serving a record-breaking number of survivors. We are beginning to see those numbers stabilize as we move further from the health crisis, however, numbers have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels. We thank you for seeing us through the pandemic with your generosity of funding, donations, and volunteerism. We could not do this work without all of you!

Tonight, we are honoring our Corporate Partner, Planet Networks and our Community Partners, the Sussex County Women’s Clubs. Robert Boyle, CEO of Planet Networks is both a key financial supporter of DASI and a friend, connecting us to businesses and community members with the purpose of sharing DASI’s mission. The Sussex County Women’s Clubs also provide financial support, and are the biggest contributors of food and other donations that go directly to survivors. We are grateful to you, and we honor you here tonight.

I encourage you all to follow DASI through our e-newsletter and social media channels. In the coming months, we will be announcing our vision to make DASI even more accessible to the community. Survivor’s voices drive our vision. Through the pandemic we learned that we could pivot, change, evolve and that the ways in which we operated in the past don’t necessarily serve survivors today. Join us in reimagining the future where survivors’ voices are centered, barriers are removed, and healing is promoted within the whole family (animals included) through various modalities.

Lastly, I would like to thank DASI’s Staff, Board, and Volunteers. I appreciate your dedication, creativity, and willingness to take on new challenges to serve more survivors in a survivor-centered, trauma informed way.

Have a wonderful evening!