Thursday, March 30, 2006

When Johanna Crawford dreams, she dreams big. So it follows that she encourages the women she counsels to do the same.

Crawford, a Wellesley resident and founder of Web of Benefit, a nonprofit organization that helps survivors of domestic violence, said, "If you dream little, you only get little."

No one can say that about Crawford. Just a year ago, she set a goal for Web of Benefit to award 45 Self-Sufficiency Grants to women survivors. The first grant was awarded on March 19, 2005. As of the middle of March 2006, Web of Benefit had awarded 46 grants. Next year, the goal is to give 60 grants and fund four more programs. In addition to the grants made to African-American, Asian, Caucasian and Hispanic women, her organization has helped numerous other women through Web of Benefits’ Client Service Programs.

’In the dream business’

"I’m kind of in the dream business," said the kind of fairy godmother. "If I can’t have the big dream, I can’t ask the women to have the big dream."

Crawford knows what she’s talking about. As a child, she said, she witnessed the physical and emotional abuse of her own mother by her father, until she and her brother told their dad to get out.

They survived and thrived. Crawford attended the University of Vermont for several years, married, had daughters and after their births earned her bachelor of science degree in finance and management from Babson College. She graduated with highest distinction, and went on to create, buy and/or sell five small businesses in the Boston area. She also worked as a real estate broker in Boston. For 30-plus years, she has dedicated herself to community service. From 1984 to 1986, she served on the town of Needham Finance Committee and was also elected as a member of Needham Town Meeting.

"It’s not a job," she said about her role at Web of Benefit. "It’s really something that I had to do, and it took me longer than I would have liked, but I needed the experience I had at the crisis shelter [Transition House in Cambridge] to be able to do what I’m doing now."

Her days are varied. Often, she has at least one or two appointments during the day in Cambridge, Newton or Roxbury. All of her clients have Crawford’s e-mail and her business card. "They know they can call me any time," she said.

Receiving help from Web of Benefit once doesn’t mean that’s all the assistance a woman will get. Support is always available, and comes in the form of grants for housing, furniture, first and last month’s rent. Web of Benefit has paid for clothes for job interviews and for health care. One of the things the group was hoping to do last week was pay for immunization and legal work for one of the women to get her child into the country from Africa. Crawford made sure that another client had a personal computer so she could e-mail her family, because she’s all alone in this country.

Transition House

In February 2002, Crawford began volunteering at Transition House, where she completed an intensive training program. She continued to volunteer there, even after she established Web of Benefit. She can no longer do that, since her own organization now takes all of her time, but she is still affiliated with Transition House.

Ronit Barkai, director of the housing program at Transition House, said Crawford is wonderful. "She’s a ball of energy, and she really feels deeply about the women."

Barkai especially appreciates Web of Benefit’s flexibility. She said that big foundations are more rigid about timelines and about who qualifies for assistance. "Jo goes according to the woman’s dreams. You can’t say that everyone has the same dream."

For example, a woman may need to take a driving course in order to get to a job, take a course in English or learn how to use a computer to perform job searches. Web of Benefit will step in to help. With very few grants available right now because of cuts across the board, Barkai said, "We’re very grateful for any assistance we have through Jo." Barkai said Crawford has supported any group that Transition House has approached her about.

"It’s a very good relationship we have with Web of Benefit," Barkai said.

How Web of Benefit works

To date, Web of Benefit has awarded grants totaling more than $30,000 to help survivors of domestic violence gain independence. Grants average between $750 and $1,000.

It works this way: After a minimum of six months separation from her abuser, a survivor is eligible for services necessary to meet her specific needs and individual goals and those of her family. Those services may include education, housing, child care, transportation costs, legal assistance, job training and placement, and micro-financing of small businesses. And, of course, the woman needs to have a dream.

Each grant recipient must "pay it forward," meaning that within 12 months of receiving services from Web of Benefit, she will perform three good works for others who have survived domestic violence. She will provide assistance to the extent that she is able to, with no expectation of being repaid. Examples include babysitting, helping with job applications, advising women on educational opportunities or becoming a support group leader. Clients must sign a contract agreeing to help others.

Other programs

Since its founding, Web of Benefit has also sponsored two client services programs: a self-esteem building program conducted by Self Esteem Boston Educational Institute Inc. and a Rape Aggression Defense Program for residents who live in the transitional living programs in greater Boston, including Transition House, Elizabeth Stone House in Dorchester and Casa Myrna Vazquez in Boston.

Last year, Web of Benefit sponsored the Self-Esteem Boston Program, which includes six weekly sessions for Transition House clients. This year, Web of Benefit will give four scholarships to four advocates from four different transitional living programs so that they will be able to train others. In other words, Web of Benefit will be training their own trainers. With Second Step in Newton, Web of Benefit is collaborating on creating a mentoring program for greater Boston.

Success stories

Many of the women have taken and continue to take classes. One of them, because of extra credit, earned 106 on one exam and 95 on another at Bunker Hill Community College. The mother of a 12-week-old baby, she has invited Crawford to attend a play she’ll be performing in. "Of course I’ll go," said Crawford. "No doubt about it," Serendipity seems to be playing a part in Web of Benefit’s success. "I am supported in so many ways," Crawford said. "If I need something, it just happens. I needed a grant writer, and it happened the next day."

Web of Benefit has received some help from its friends to make its work possible. Carlisle Foundation of Framingham has donated generously, and an anonymous donor has offered to take care of administrative expenses, so that 100 percent of any corporate or foundation money will go to self-sufficiency grants. But anyone can help. No amount is too small to contribute, Crawford said.

For more information about Web of Benefit, visit www.webofbenefit.org; e-mail info@webofbenefit.org; call 617-285-1900. For more information about Transition House and their programs or about domestic violence, visit www.transitionhouse.org.

Two of Web of Benefit’s dreamers

Kellie

Kellie (not her real name) has a dream. One of Web of Benefit’s grant recipients, the funding will help her open her own craft business. Crawford is helping her get some of the product that she needs and helped her get her computer going, so she can sell some of her crafts on eBay and at the Healing & Arts Studio. The studio helps survivors of domestic violence. She and Crawford will also work together on making flyers, and they’re planning on getting business cards made.

Right now, Kellie is living in a domestic violence transition home. After being in a domestic violence situation, Kellie said she’d had enough and left. "I was in a shelter for almost three years after fleeing from one hotel to another" and going from one shelter to another. Now she’s living in her own apartment and she works closely with a case manager, she said. "Jo" is such a wonderful person," Kellie said. After meeting her mentor a year ago, Crawford helped her obtain some of the books she needed for school.

The mother of five children, only the two youngest, age 7 and 8, are with Kellie right now. Her 20-year-old daughter, who got pregnant when she was 16, is a "wonderful, wonderful mother," Kellie said. Her 17-year-old son, who lives with her "ex" (not her abuser), is getting ready to graduate from high school and will be joining the Marines. Her 10-year-old daughter lives with a foster parent while she overcomes some "hurdles." "She was molested from my abuser," Kellie said. "We prosecuted. Not only am I a survivor, but she’s a survivor."

One day, Kellie said, she will absolutely reunite with her daughter, who she said has made a lot of progress. Kellie and her children write to her and send her photos. "Her foster mother will never, never let her forget us," she said.

Anita

Anita (not her real name) was staying at a domestic violence shelter, the Elizabeth Stone House in Boston, when she met Crawford through her housing advocate.

"I was getting out of an abusive relationship and just starting over." In her 50s, Anita said it was very stressful and she was very fearful about getting her life back on track.

She said it was ironic that she found her self in the situation she was in, since she’d always worked in human services. "We can advocate for others, but it’s very hard when we become victims ourselves," she noted.

Now she’s living in her own place after having lived in a shelter for more than 18 months, during which she was on a waiting list for housing.

She works in Boston in a recovery program for families.

Anita said she believes in Web of Benefit’s credo of paying it forward and that she likes to give back. "That’s how the cycle of any recovery process starts," she said.

One might ask, who’s taking care of Crawford? "I am very good at taking care of myself," she said. "I go to yoga and I have an incredibly supportive family." She adores her 2 1/2 year-old-granddaughter. And, she said that she has a huge network of friends who are greatly supportive. Dear friends make up Web of Benefit’s board, which Crawford is hoping to expand this year.

And, Crawford said she tries to go to Disney World as often as she can. Walt Disney, she said, is one of her idols. "I quote Walt Disney all the time: ’If you can dream it, you can do it.’"

To view this article in the Wellesley Townsman on townonline.com , please visit Web of Benefit encircles more and more survivors