The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits (OKCNP) will host the 2021 Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence (ONE) Awards on April 24, 2021, in Tulsa, with limited attendance. The event will be livestreamed on OKCNP’s website as well. Leading up to the event, OKCNP is celebrating the 21 Oklahoma nonprofit finalists in seven categories. Wings of Hope Family Crisis Services (Wings of Hope) is a finalist in the Transformation category.

Founded in 1979, concerned citizens in Stillwater saw the need to offer solutions to domestic violence and sexual assault victims. They established Stillwater Domestic Violence Services, which is now operating as Wings of Hope Family Crisis Services.

Wings of Hope has expanded from Stillwater to include all of Payne County as well as Lincoln, Logan, Pawnee and Noble counties. Its mission is “to break the generational cycle of violence by providing safety, hope and empowerment.” The organization calls for social change through community awareness and client advocacy.

“Wings of Hope helped us see hope and a light at the end of the tunnel, a support system of safety,” said an unnamed client. “Coming here I was finally able to breathe and relax. I didn’t realize how much my children and I were affected until we spoke to the staff and counselors. They all have been huge in helping us make the next steps in our lives while providing a sage and homey place to live.”

In their 2019-2020 fiscal year, Wings of Hope provided services to 1,136 people, 174 of which were women and children who needed a safe place to stay. More than 200 women and 120 men also received mental health therapy, and 57 kids received trauma-focused mental health therapy.

Not only does Wings of Hope serve those in their communities, they serve domestic violence survivors and clients of the YMCA in Oklahoma City and DVIS in Tulsa.

“Life before Wings of Hope was stressful,” said an unnamed client B. “I was walking on eggshells, drowning, surviving. My children’s lives and mine were ok, but we were not living to a normal extent. We weren’t living, but surviving. For me it was a dark hole.”

Wings of Hope finds success in their mission though its state-of-the-art, 9-family-suite, shelter facility with a 24/7 crisis line that was initially funded by the Donald Q. Reynolds Foundation. Programs include advocacy, counseling, children’s programming, Legal Aid, parenting and perpetrator intervention classes, community education and outreach, trained sexual assault response and support, and consultation services.

Wings of Hope has developed relationships with law enforcement, civic and community groups, schools, businesses, other nonprofits, and state and national coalitions.

To learn more about Wings of Hope Family Crisis Services, visit their website: https://wingsofhopeok.com/.

The ONE Awards is dedicated to honoring the outstanding work of Oklahoma nonprofits statewide. The ONE Awards also serves as the primary fundraising event for OKCNP. Proceeds from the ONE Awards enable OKCNP to serve communities throughout Oklahoma.

To learn more about the OKCNP ONE Awards or to watch the event, visit: https://www.okcnp.org/page/one-awards.