On October 25th, in recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Friends of Yates dedicated the Della Gill/Joyce H. Williams Domestic Violence Center’s new Respite Playground and Park Area to the Do Good For Erin Foundation, commemorating an illustrious, collaborative effort to combat the incidence of domestic violence in Kansas City, Kansas. A 2023 Featured Beneficiary of the Do Good For Erin Foundation, Friend’s of Yates proudly debuts the product of this generous contribution to the victim survivors of domestic violence receiving healing and trauma informed care in the domestic violence center.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpD7MsX8AU
Erin Langhoffer was a vibrant, diligent, and social services oriented social worker who serviced survivors of domestic violence at one of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area’s six domestic violence shelters. At only 25 years old, Erin had touched the hearts and minds of hundreds of domestic violence survivors and their children—healing from the trauma of intimate partner and intergenerational violence. Her objective was simple: demonstrate to survivors that a path toward violence free living was possible. The violence survivors and their children had experienced was not their fault.
This objective was cut short in a tragic act of gun violence in August of 2019, taking from Kansas City victim-survivors one of their premier champions.
Erin’s dream and legacy; however, lives on. Beginning as a comfy clothing drive to honor Erin’s memory, the Do Good for Erin Foundation is now a metropolitan wide non-profit entity dedicated to supporting Domestic Violence programming and violence-free living initiatives across the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Their latest contribution? A generous donation to Friends of Yates and the Della Gill/Joyce H. Williams Domestic Violence Center to help fund the construction of the domestic violence center’s new respite playground and park area.
Friends of Yates and the Della Gill/Joyce H. Williams Domestic Violence center has been a community centerpiece and social services stronghold for survivors of Domestic Violence in Kansas City, Kansas for more than 44 years. Functioning as the only domestic violence shelter in Wyandotte County, families, physicians, social services agencies, and law enforcement in the community have long cherished the reliable and efficient referral partnerships afforded to them by Friends of Yates—ensuring that no corner of the community goes untouched. Comprehensive, strength-based case management and shelter services are available to all individuals and families fleeing from domestic violence throughout Kansas City, Kansas, the broader metropolitan area, and beyond.
For Friends of Yates, led by Ms. LaDora Lattimore, Retired Chief Executive Officer—ensuring that survivor centered care includes comprehensive service provision to their dependent children has been a persistent initiative of the agency and is a core tenet of Lattimore’s philosophy.
According to the American Acadamy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, between three and ten million children and adolescents witness violence between their parents or caregivers each year. Survivors and their children experiencing trauma from domestic violence are welcomed by Friends of Yates into the Della Gill/Joyce H. Williams Domestic Violence Center with open arms. In light of this family-oriented endeavor, the dedication of the playground and park area to the Do Good for Erin Foundation re-affirms a decades long initiative to provide necessary care and respite to survivors of domestic violence in our community and nurturing recreational experiences for their children.
The park features two large playground structures, a swing set, a basketball court, a tunnel obstacle course, rocking horses, and picnic tables. Innovative playground filling was utilized to amplify child safety and comfort. A second wave of additions—scheduled for next year, will include artistic touches to the asphalt surface, four-square and hopscotch spaces, and much more.