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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - July 22, 2008
Laura Sabino Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
July 22, 2008

Evanston, Illinois Resident Wins Cash Award To Help Advocate Women About Sexual Assault On College Campuses


(New York, NY, July 22, 2008) Evanston, Illinois resident Laura Sabino, 43, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Laura was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. She is the fifth Hello Tomorrow Fund recipient from Illinois and was selected by a newly expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York and actress Phylicia Rashad. Laura will use her award to support a rape prevention awareness program in an effort to prevent further sexual violence on college campuses in the Chicago area.

Over 80 percent of college rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. This staggering statistic is what motivated a group of community members who were concerned about the increase in sexual assaults on college campuses to develop Porchlight Counseling Services in 2004. They partnered with a local psychologist and conducted a feasibility study to find out what college-age sexual assault survivors needed the most. The findings showed that women needed a more private place off-campus where they could seek help, as most victims wanted to remain anonymous. Porchlight took immediate action and made prevention and off-campus counseling for college rape victims the focus of their organization. They also provide women with advocacy and non-persuasive counsel so the victims can feel that they are in control of their own actions.

Laura, who has been passionate about women's issues since the age of 12 when she attended a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment, serves as the Executive Director of Porchlight. She began her work in women's services during college, and has continued to serve women in various capacities in the areas of sexual assault, domestic violence, mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. “Women in our culture experience so much harassment and violence that I must act to address it,” Laura says.

Porchlight has found that the best way to raise awareness of sexual violence on campus is through grassroots efforts and word of mouth, coupled with the distribution of printed materials that alert students to the prevalence of on-campus rapes. Laura frequently gives talks on the risks and realities of sexual assault to various sororities, dorms and other groups, and at college health fairs, yet has yearned to make this practical knowledge more widely known among this vulnerable age group. Porchlight’s limited funding has made it challenging to distribute information to the wide audience that they wish to reach.

Thanks to the Hello Tomorrow Fund, Laura will be able to pay for printing and reproduction of educational materials that will go to 27 local college campuses in the Chicago area, reaching thousands of college-age women. Additionally, Laura will be able to pay for space to provide seminars on the realties of sexual assault on campuses and will allocate funds to pay for online advertising, educational platforms and the telecommunication costs associated with this endeavor. Thanks to her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Laura may be able to help women prevent further sexual attacks on college campuses, therefore improving the lives of those around them.

Laura’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including personal finance expert, Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad and Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. “A young woman’s life can go tragically off-track after becoming a victim of a campus rape,” notes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. “The small cost for literature is a great investment in educating and empowering women in school so that they can prevent this tragedy.”

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