The Request: Technology to be able to stay connected

The Donor: Chick-fil-A  |  The Donation: 20 Laptops

Every day, women fall victim to circumstances out of their control. From abuse to addiction, they get caught in a spiral of self-sabotage. Every Woman Works is an organization that helps those women out of this cycle, and supports them in their recovery “with the tools of: financial independence, personal growth, family leadership, and a spiritual foundation all through a curriculum of continuous education.”

But the pandemic threatened to undo this community.  

Attempting to avoid an addiction while in quarantine is just playing with fire. Technology, on the other hand, can open the door to remote connection, continuous learning, and even structured virtual events. For Every Woman Works, computers and digital access is critical to what they do. Only, many of the women they help can’t afford that access.

That’s why the 20 laptops Chick-fil-A donated to Every Woman Works is such a great story. Thanks to this donation, so far, 13 of the 15 women currently being helped by the organization are now employed, thanks to the technology they received. Members like the woman who chased addiction to escape the sexual abuse of her past is now finishing the schooling she walked away from 20 years ago.

Technology in the right hands can mean the difference between success and falling back into destructive patterns. We heard about another woman in the program who was able to maintain her status in the Past Offender’s re-entry program she was a part of. Having landed in jail as an abuser, she discovered the underlying cause of her abuse through Every Woman Works’ support. Her gifted laptop also allows her to continue her business management education so she can, one day, open her own restaurant.

It’s just as the director of Every Woman Works, Stacey Howell, says, “this is literally saving lives.” Technology that would typically end up in the landfill is being used to pull women from the same fate. The digital divide is real, and the sustainable use of IT assets might just be the only way to fight back against this scourge on our country. Every Woman Works and Chick-fil-A’s donation is a perfect example of that poetic solution.

To learn how this solution helps other organizations, read our previous story of all the good that device donations are doing, here.

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