During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, CFNJ is commemorating the two-year anniversary of the launch of Quinn’s Corner Fund.
Our four-part series will showcase nonprofits that support DV survivors and their pets, as well as highlight the fund’s progress toward ensuring greater access to pet-friendly sanctuaries and services across New Jersey. While part 1 focused on our fundholder’s inspiration for Quinn’s Corner, part 2 delves into the fund’s community impact in the state.
If you’re in danger and need help, call the NJ Statewide Domestic Violence Helpline at 1-800-572-SAFE. Deaf survivors can call 1-855-812-1001 or text LOVEIS to 22522.
More than 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men have encountered intimate partner violence.
It’s estimated that 34% of women and 17% of men have experienced sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime according to the most recent National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
This means you likely know a relative, a friend, or an acquaintance who has been abused or stalked. Or the survivor could be you.
Karen Lindemann had these survivors in mind, along with their pets, when she was inspired to create Quinn’s Corner Fund in 2024. Our fundholder’s generous philanthropy has supported animal causes across New Jersey for years. And when she was ready to plan her estate, Lindemann designed a charitable legacy with the Community Foundation of New Jersey (CFNJ) that aims to ensure domestic violence survivors and their companions have access to pet-inclusive shelters and services in all 21 of our counties.
The reason? She understood that survivors couldn’t fully rebuild their lives if they had to choose between leaving their pet or saving themselves.
According to nonprofit leaders, many survivors delay leaving — staying in dangerous situations longer than they should — because they can’t bring their pets with them. Some temporarily give their pets to friends or family, or contact animal shelters or boarding facilities for help. And others make the heartbreaking decision to leave their pets behind.
“Every one of those options created another layer of fear and uncertainty during an already traumatic time,” explained Janet Ginest, who works as a Pet Advocate at Younity. “For many survivors of domestic violence, the hardest part of leaving isn’t packing a bag. It’s looking into the eyes of the dog curled up at their feet, [at] the cat sleeping on the windowsill, or [at] the rabbit a child kisses goodnight and wondering who will care for them once they’re gone and whether they’ll be safe.”
A Charitable Gift That’s Keeping People and Pets Safe
In a home where intimate partner violence is occurring, advocates also noted that survivors’ pets are likely at risk or being abused, too.
Thankfully, financial support from Quinn’s Corner is ensuring nonprofits can create and maintain sanctuaries for both. Nearly $6 million has been awarded so far to 30 grantee partners to improve pet accessibility across New Jersey. This funding covers vet costs, pet advocate positions and training, supplies and pet deposits for apartments, and renovation expenses and planning needs. Pet-friendly crisis shelters are also currently available in seven counties, with more sanctuaries coming soon.
In addition, 28 organizations serving survivors have received $160,000 in Jumpstart Grants. These emergency funds pay for hotel stays, pet food, and more. The total awarded also includes funding for seven capacity-building grants and eight pet advocate positions. These advocates provide trauma-informed support for clients and assist organizations as they embrace pet accessibility.
The Jumpstart Grants, in particular, are giving many organizations the confidence that pursuing pet accessibility is not as risky or impossible as they imagined. Nonprofit leaders note that this funding is opening a pathway for smaller organizations to learn more about the process of making shelters pet inclusive through training, workshops, and connecting with other DV organizations. Quinn’s Corner also offers a new funding source for nonprofits that no longer receive state dollars to pay for hotel stays for survivors and their pets. This state support ended after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another positive outgrowth of the fund’s statewide initiative is the community partnerships that CFNJ has formed with the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence (NJCEDV), RedRover, Greater Good Charities, and others.
Their coalition and support is ensuring nonprofits can “achieve their mission and design creative solutions not restricted by funders,” said Marie Cargile, Public Awareness Coordinator at NJCEDV. “It’s a gift and a privilege to have the ability to change a survivor’s life and help them find safety.”
Community Impact of Quinn’s Corner
Across New Jersey, Quinn’s Corner is supporting nonprofits as they improve pet accessibility in their shelters and offer safe havens for survivors:
- The Baroness Consortium Social Welfare Initiative is using its grant to provide temporary emergency housing, pet deposits to secure stable housing for survivors and their companions, veterinary care and vaccinations, and supplies. These supplies include pet food, leashes, crates, and flea/tick prevention products.
- SAFE in Hunterdon used funding from CFNJ, RedRover, and Greater Good Charities to completely remodel three bedrooms at its safe house to support clients with pets. The nonprofit is also helping to secure permanent housing for clients, including for a survivor who fled with her cat that recently gave birth — ensuring her three kittens opened their eyes for the first time in a safe and healthy environment.
- CPC Foundation is assisting survivors seeking emergency housing with its grant. One client worked for weeks with counselors and found the strength and courage to begin anew after leaving an abusive situation. In addition to receiving treatment for a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder, the survivor has been temporarily placed in a local pet-friendly hotel to stay with her cat until staff can find a long-term solution.
- JBWS, which is in the middle of a $4 million construction project to make its site pet inclusive by May 2027, received a $208,000 grant from the fund for a feasibility study before renovations began. The shelter’s kitchen will be expanded; a dining room, pet lounge, dog run space, and office for a pet advocate will be built; six new family rooms will be able to house survivors with their pets, along with the 12 the shelter currently has; and the new wing will be ADA compliant.
Diane Williams, President & CEO at JBWS, also shared a search is underway for property in Passaic County to open a second shelter. Quinn’s Corner awarded $1 million to the organization to help fund the construction of that new site. Additional funding will come from the Kering Foundation, which selected JBWS as a beneficiary of its Fifth Annual Caring for Women Dinner.
The nonprofit currently lacks housing for clients who have pets, so it regularly faces the predicament of turning “away dozens of survivors and their families. In those cases, we will find a space for them in a hotel or another program and will stay in contact with them in case a space opens up,” Williams explained. “That’s a nightmare situation to say we don’t have space.”
When her team got the call that JBWS was receiving a second grant from Quinn’s Corner for its Passaic site, they were ecstatic to hear that more space for survivors and their pets would be available in the future.
“I almost drove off the road. They were screaming [and] crying because there’s so much need,” Williams said. “This grant is changing lives across New Jersey.”