This article appeared in the Aug. 22, 2003 Jewish Advocate.

R.O.S.E. Fund Celebrates Ten Years of Fighting Domestic Violence

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

Established in 1993, the R.O.S.E. (Regaining One’s Self-Esteem) Fund has allocated grants to organizations in 28 different US states that provide financial, medical and emotional support to women and children survivors of violence. On September 23 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, the Fund will honor two such survivors at its 10th Anniversary Awards Celebration.

“The R.O.S.E. Fund hopes to empower individual women victims to achieve self-sufficiency, rebuild their lives, and ultimately help end violence in society,” said Development Officer Leigh Berkowitz, a recent college graduate who sought a position where she could perform grant writing, outreach, and event planning for a vital cause. “The R.O.S.E. Fund occupies a unique niche in the non-profit world by helping women and children survivors of violence to continue to rebuild their lives,” she said.

Prior to joining the Fund in November, 2002, Berkowitz, a Katonah, New York native, interned at The Kohlberg Foundation in Mt. Kisco. She grew up attending Temple Sharaay Tefila in Bedford, New York, and graduated cum laude in 2002 from Bates College with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies.

Program Director Alison Justus, who has been with the Fund for five years, helped to create both its Scholarship and Reconstructive surgery program. Justus grew up in Riverdale, New York, and attended the conservative synagogue Adath Israel. She spent a summer in Israel, where she lived and worked on a kibbutz. “My passion and commitment for the women that I serve and the organization itself in part stems from a supportive, loving Jewish family and community,” she said.

Justus worked in Advertising Sales research in New York, including a position at E! Entertainment Television. A graduate of Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York, she is presently earning a Masters in Philanthropy and Media from Suffolk University.

“The R.O.S.E. Fund intends to help women victims bridge the gap between being victims and becoming survivors,” said Berkowitz. “The focus on self-esteem is the thread that runs through all of R.O.S.E.’s initiatives.” The Fund's programs include an effort that creates and sells wedding place cards, and a Cooking and Nutrition Workshop series to begin next month for women survivors of violence at The Women's Center in Cambridge. “The goal of the workshop series is to offer women the opportunity to participate in hands-on cooking and nutritional advising lessons and provide them with a support network of women,” Berkowitz explained.

Fund affliliations include a partnership with The Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, which along with the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey, have performed reconstruction on the faces of 12 women with physical scars of abuse.

The Fund’s Scholarship Program, created in 1998, provides educational and financial support to victims. Recipients can use up to $10,000 toward tuition and expenses at colleges or universities (preferably in Massachusetts). Several New England schools, including Pine Manor College and UMass Boston, partner with the Fund in this effort. The New England Patriots R.O.S.E. Scholarship at Northeastern University also aids children who have been victims of or have witnessed sexual, physical, or emotional abuse.

The Fund also presents an annual gala for the New England Patriots R.O.S.E. Award and The Heinz Family Foundation R.O.S.E. Achievement Award to honor the achievements of two selected survivors of violence. The New England Patriots donate a significant cash gift; the Heinz Foundation makes a cash contribution to the organization of the recipient's choice.

“The R.O.S.E. Fund is committed to raising awareness about the depth and scope of domestic violence against women and children in the United States; of domestic violence; and, allocating grants direct service agencies that are working on the front lines to educate the public and help bring an end to the epidemic that is domestic violence,” said Berkowitz.

For more information on the R.O.S.E. Fund, 175 Federal St., Suite 455, Boston, MA 02110, please call 617-482-5400, fax 617-482-3443, email info@rosefund.org or visit www.rosefund.org.