A few simple products in a purse and a backyard gathering add up to a message of hope for those impacted by domestic abuse and homelessness.
It’s the idea behind “Love Purse”, a campaign whose mission is to drum up support for and bring awareness to struggling women and girls.
“It’s just filling the bag with all the necessities that a woman typically needs on a day-to-day basis, filling it, and then putting a note of inspiration letting them know that this too shall pass, that this is just a bump in the road but that they matter, that they’re respected and loved,” Love Purse Founder Maria Castro said.
About the Event
Media Relations and Marketing Coordinator of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage Bridget Hatch recently held a get together at her Naperville home to encourage women to fill purses with toiletries, such as soap, deodorant, chapstick and hand sanitizer, to be donated to those in need. The gathering also provided an opportunity for neighbors to mix and mingle, and learn more about the cause.
Castro said Metropolitan Family Services DuPage is one of several organizations to have been in contact with her about launching a Love Purse campaign. She hopes to expand the initiative’s reach moving forward.
“I think that at the end of the day, people want to help,” Castro said. “They want to be able to do something, but sometimes they just don’t know how.”
This is where the mission of Love Purse comes in.
Moving Forward
“I think as I look at this futuristically, God has a plan and that is to hopefully help as many women as we can and let them know that they matter and that this too shall pass,” Castro said.
Metropolitan Family Services DuPage is now collecting bags throughout September to distribute to women experiencing homelessness or domestic abuse during Domestic Abuse Month in October.
Mary Beth Glenn, associate director of development for Metropolitan Family Services DuPage, said the agency stands in solidarity with people who are facing homelessness and domestic abuse.
“We’re running this Love Purse campaign in hopes that we can create community awareness so that all the people that live in DuPage County not only know that we can provide all these services to the women and children and men in our community, but we know that there are many women and girls in need of our services,” Glenn said. “And we want them to know that we care and that we are here to help them.”
Naperville News 17’s Megann Horstead reports.
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