Verizon Wireless’ HopeLine program for domestic violence prevention and awareness is donating to Jana’s Campaign for programs to reduce teen dating violence, with a special focus on students from middle school through college, and young men. Domestic violence is most often associated with adults, however, according to research by Break the Cycle, nearly 43% of dating college students report experiencing violent or abusive dating behaviors.

Jana’s Campaign was founded by Fort Hays State University Professors Curt and Christie Brungardt when their daughter, Jana Mackey, become a victim of domestic violence in 2008 and lost her life.  The group believes that education-based prevention is the best way to counter this issue, with particular emphasis on males and college-aged students. These programs honor Jana’s memory, as she herself spent years volunteering with local victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Though the programs are based in Hays, Kan., the Brungardts work across the entire western Kansas region to raise awareness about this issue.

Hays, KS – Jana’s Campaign, Inc. in collaboration with the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) Women’s Center will be hosting a one-day workshop November 8, 2013, on the UMKC campus regarding preventing and responding to gender violence.  The Heartland Campus Safety Summit will feature national experts and encourage the sharing of best practices among participants.

Summit topics include Title IX obligations and requirements, the Campus SaVE Act, bystander intervention programming, peer education prevention, and far more.  Keynote speaker will be Steven Healy, Managing Partner of Margolis-Healy Solutions for Safe Campuses.  Healy was Director of Public Safety at Princeton University from 2003 through 2009 and Past President of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. Healy contributed significantly to the national dialogue about campus safety and security in the aftermath of the tragic rampage-shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007.

The Summit is designed for key campus personnel from the states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa.  Legal representatives, public safety officers, student leaders, residential life and student affairs personnel, and all other campus and community representatives interested in campus safety are invited to attend.

“Respectful, non-violent relationships are of benefit to the entire campus community.  No one is immune from possible violence, as the story of our organization’s namesake Jana Mackey shows, and as such, this workshop really is for everyone connected with the university environment.  Until a coordinated, preventative approach is taken, the atrocities of gender violence will impact our academic communities for ill,” said Jana’s Campaign Executive Director Eric Sader.

Campus leaders attending the Summit will be encouraged to develop a team of key campus stakeholders to create a comprehensive and integrated approach to preventing and responding to gender violence at their institutions. The Summit aims to transform area colleges and universities to prevent abusive behaviors by engaging faculty, staff, and students in promoting healthy relationships; ensure that the institution is prepared to respond promptly and effectively to incidents and reports of violence when they do occur, and; ultimately change campus norms so that campus members hold themselves and each other to respectful and non-violent standards of interpersonal behavior.

Participant sponsorships for the states of Kansas and Missouri have been provided by the Kansas Health Foundation and Partners in Prevention.  Also, staff assistance and support has been provided by the Women’s Leadership Project at Fort Hays State University.

About UMKC Women’s Center

The mission of the Women’s Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is to advocate, educate, and provide support services for the advancement of women’s equity on campus and within the community at large.  The mission of the Violence Prevention and Response Project is to strengthen the University and community response to gender-based and sexual violence through victim support services, advocacy, training, education, and outreach to the campus and community.

About Jana’s Campaign, Inc.

In honor of the late Jana Mackey and other victims of domestic violence, a committed group of activists created Jana’s Campaign, Inc. with the single mission of reducing gender and relationship violence.  “We believe it is our responsibility to use the story of Jana’s life and the story of her death to help reduce violence against women.” Through our program activities, Jana’s Campaign aims to play a significant role in breaking the cycle of domestic and dating violence and be a catalyst for social change.

Jana’s Campaign believes that colleges and universities should be mobilized to reduce gender violence.  This includes encouraging higher education to improve their prevention efforts and response to gender violence on campus and to play a more active role in using their resources to impact the communities in which they reside.

Hays, KS – Jana’s Campaign, Inc. has been approved for Google AdWords Grants.  Google Grants is the nonprofit edition of AdWords, Google’s online advertising tool.  Google Grants empowers nonprofit organizations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google.com.

To be eligible for the Google Grants program, organizations must hold current and valid charity status and acknowledge and agree to the application’s required certifications regarding nondiscrimination and donation receipt and use.  Organizations must also have a functioning website with substantial content.  Jana’s Campaign’s central site www.janascampaign.org was determined by Google to exceed the required threshold for substantial content.

Ads must reflect the mission of the approved organization and keywords must be relevant to the nonprofit’s programs and services.  Jana’s Campaign has already unrolled two ad campaigns:  one targeting the Hays area in promotion of its second annual fundraiser and awareness event Empty Place at the Table, held this month on September 28, and the second advertising the Heartland Campus Safety Summit, to be held November 8, 2013, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Information on both events can be found on the News Section of Jana’s Campaign’s website:  http://www.janascampaign.org/news/.

“We are excited about this incredible opportunity to expand into an advertising space previously dominated by large for-profit corporations,” said Eric Sader, Executive Director of Jana’s Campaign.  “Because of this new space, Jana’s Campaign can further attract supporters and best spread Jana Mackey’s legacy of equality and progress for all people, but especially for women.”
This addition adds to the existing relationship Jana’s Campaign already has as a participating charity of Google for Nonprofits.  Through such partnerships, maximum impact of the organization can best be achieved in furthering its mission of building healthy relationships through the reduction of gender violence.

About Jana’s Campaign, Inc.

In honor of the late Jana Mackey and other victims of domestic violence, a committed group of activists created Jana’s Campaign, Inc. with the single mission of reducing gender and relationship violence.  “We believe it is our responsibility to use the story of Jana’s life and the story of her death to help reduce violence against women.”  Through our program activities, Jana’s Campaign aims to play a significant role in breaking the cycle of domestic and dating violence and be a catalyst for social change.

Hays Kan.- Jana’s Campaign announced today it has successfully completed its Capital Campaign. Officially launched in October of 2012, this was Jana’s Campaign’s first fundraising effort. Organizers set a goal of raising $100,000. As of August 15, 2013 the Capital Campaign raised a total of $123,000. “We are overwhelmed by the support we received from our friends and supporters,” says Curt Brungardt, Jana’s Campaign president. “The purpose of the Capital Campaign was to provide us with a jumpstart in building a strong financial foundation.”

Jana’s Campaign was created in 2009 in honor of Jana Mackey who was lost to domestic violence in July of 2008. Jana’s Campaign’s mission is to reduce domestic and dating violence through public awareness activities, educational programs and advocacy work.

In the fall of 2013 and throughout 2014, Jana’s Campaign will be seeking additional donations from its supporters for the purpose of developing a comprehensive teen dating violence prevention program. For more information, see our website at www.janascampaign.org.

Hays, KS – Jana’s Campaign, Inc. recently received the GuideStar Exchange Gold participation level, a leading symbol of transparency and accountability provided by GuideStar USA, Inc., one of the premier online sources of not-for-profit information.  This level demonstrates Jana’s Campaign’s deep commitment to not-for-profit transparency and accountability.

“Jana’s Campaign has worked hard to showcase our progress toward our mission to reduce gender violence, and our long-held belief in being transparent about our work to our constituents,” said Eric Sader, Executive Director.  “As a GuideStar Exchange Gold Participant, we use the Exchange platform to share a wealth of up-to-date information about our work to our supporters and GuideStar’s worldwide audience of not-for-profits, grantmakers, individual donors, and the media.”

In order to be awarded the top qualifying tier of the GuideStar Exchange, Jana’s Campaign had to fill out every required field of the not-for-profit report page on www.guidestar.org for the Gold level of participation.  This included basic information to qualify for the Bronze level, financial data for Silver, and impact information for Gold.

“I encourage prospective supporters to check out our profile on GuideStar to see what Jana’s Campaign is all about,” added Sader.  “We are engaged in exciting prevention initiatives in the fields of domestic violence and sexual assault, and we are thrilled to have another platform for communicating our advancement and progress.”

About the GuideStar Exchange

The GuideStar Exchange is an initiative designed to connect not-for-profits with current and potential supporters.  With millions of people coming to GuideStar to learn more about not-for-profit organizations, the GuideStar Exchange allows not-for-profit to share a wealth of up-to-date information with GuideStar’s many audiences.  Becoming a GuideStar Exchange participant is free of charge.  To join, organizations need to update their report pages, completing all required fields for participation. The GuideStar Exchange level logos, acknowledged as symbols of transparency in the not-for-profit sector, are displayed on all Exchange participants’ not-for-profit reports.

About Jana’s Campaign, Inc.

In honor of the late Jana Mackey and other victims of domestic violence, a committed group of activists created Jana’s Campaign, Inc. with the single mission of reducing gender and relationship violence.  “We believe it is our responsibility to use the story of Jana’s life and the story of her death to help reduce violence against women.”  Through our program activities, Jana’s Campaign aims to play a significant role in breaking the cycle of domestic and dating violence and be a catalyst for social change.  More information can be found at www.janascampaign.org.

Hays Kan.- Jana’s Campaign Inc. announces that it has received a $25,000 recognition grant from the Kansas Health Foundation of Wichita. Resources will be used to establish the annual Heartland Campus Safety Summit for the purpose of assisting colleges and universities in their efforts to reduce dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

“We are excited that the Kansas Health Foundation has invested in us and the mission of reducing gender-based violence on the campuses of Kansas colleges and universities”, says Curt Brungardt, Jana’s Campaign president. The Heartland Summit will bring national experts to the region and encourage area college personnel to share best practices on their work to reduce gender violence.

Jana’s Campaign Inc. of Hays, Kansas, is a national anti-violence education and prevention organization developed after the death of KU law student, Jana Mackey, in 2008.
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Through its recognition grant program, the Kansas Health Foundation provides grant dollars to organizations and agencies who share their mission of improving the health of all Kansans. This spring, the Kansas Health Foundation provided more than $830,000 to help organizations implement 50 different projects designed to improve the health and wellness of Kansans.