Empowerment. Every day, HAVEN supports survivors as they rebuild their lives from domestic violence and sexual assault. We strive to empower our clients served through our crisis support and shelter services.

A key way of empowering those who are rebuilding their lives after violence, is giving them the tools to make their own decisions and regain control of their lives. An abuser’s goal is to gain and maintain power and control over the victim.  This means that many of HAVEN’s clients may not have been able to do something as simple as pick out the brand of peanut butter they wanted or buy new clothes for themselves or their kids. Many of us take these seemingly simple actions for granted.

Gift cards help survivors create positive life experience and practice important skills such as:

  • Financial empowerment
  • Spending flexibility
  • Decision-making ability
  • Budgeting practice
  • The ability to choose new clothing, shoes, interview and work outfits, personal care products, household items, school supplies, groceries and more.

While gift cards may not seem as glamorous as donating a cute new toy, they give our clients that chance to exercise their own purchasing power and take control of making decisions for themselves and their children. Every parent wants to be able to provide for their children, especially around the holidays. Rather than being handed a toy, they are handed a joyful opportunity to choose a toy for their child and be able to experience the pride of being able to actually purchase a toy for their child for the holidays.

A gift card can…

  • Help a shelter resident buy groceries to prepare meals for themselves and their children.
  • Allow survivors of domestic violence to buy holiday gifts that are what their children need and want the most.
  • Empower a client with the opportunity to buy their own clothes, which they couldn’t do in their abusive relationship because their partner controlled everything they wore and what they bought.
  • Let a survivor sleep at night instead of worrying how they will pay for groceries this week.
  • Assure a client they don’t have to worry about where gas money for the drive to her child’s doctor’s appointment will come from.
  • Give a parent in shelter the ability to provide remote learning supplies for their children.

Gift cards also allow those living in an emergency shelter to safely shop online for holiday gifts. Even without a global pandemic, shopping online is a safer option for clients who cannot safely leave our shelter to shop because of threats to their lives and the lives of their children. Giving survivors the power that comes along with making decisions about which gifts will bring the most joy to their family is what HAVEN’s mission is all about.

Please consider donating a gift card to HAVEN to help us further empower our clients as they rebuild their lives from violence.

Gift cards can be mailed to HAVEN at 20 International Drive Suite 300 Portsmouth NH 03801. If you would like to coordinate a time to drop off gift cards, please email development@havennh.org

The gift cards most needed/wanted by HAVEN clients are to the following retailers:

  • Grocery Stores
  • Gas Gift Cards
  • Amazon
  • Target
  • Uber
  • Walmart