PhoenixDX staff volunteer to support women escaping family violence

At PhoenixDX, we believe technology should serve people — and sometimes, so should the people who build it. 

Impact for Women is a charity dedicated to supporting women and children who are escaping family violence. Their signature initiative — Bags of Love — provides brand-new essential items to women who often leave their homes with nothing: toiletries, a mug filled with tea or chocolates, a fully stocked make-up bag, and a just-because gift. Bags are also prepared for children.

  

Our connection to Impact for Women began when founder and CEO Kathy Kaplan spoke at a PhoenixDX company meeting about the reality of family and domestic violence in Australia. Her words stayed with us. One in three women will experience violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime — and organisations like Impact for Women exist to help them rebuild when they do.

That conversation led to action. A team of PhoenixDX volunteers built a purpose-built application to streamline how Impact for Women manages its resources, volunteers, and deliveries — giving Kathy and her team the capacity to do more with less.

Team members from our Sydney and Melbourne offices also attended Impact for Women's Wrap and Pack days — two major packing events held each year ahead of Mother's Day and Christmas. The scale is remarkable: volunteers packed nearly 2,500 Bags of Love across a single weekend, ready to be delivered to women's shelters across Victoria in the weeks that followed.

A heartfelt thank you to Mike Samuel, Hanno Coetzee, and Joao Melo for giving their time and showing up for this important cause. We are proud to have a team that brings the same energy to our community as it does to our work.

As Kathy reflected:

"We had two teams of volunteers who caught and shared courage: one who finished packing nearly 2,500 Bags of Love, and the second a mixture of our Drive & Deliver volunteers and those who packed their cars."

Sadly, many women and children fall outside the shelter network, couch-surfing without access to the support these bags represent. Impact for Women continues to need volunteers to help source, pack, and deliver the items that make such a difference at the most difficult moments in people's lives.

If you would like to support Impact for Women, find out how to get involved.