LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  The Center for Women and Families, a domestic violence and rape crisis center, announced on Tuesday it received a $2.5 million grant from Jeff Bezo's Day 1 Families Fund.

The fund, launched in 2018 by Amazon founder Bezos, gives out awards annually to "leading organizations on the frontlines that are employing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing with the services they require to achieve stability," the center stated in a press release.

The award is of the largest private gifts in the organization's history. The center said the money will help assist families financially improve and expand access to emergency shelter services and programming for survivors and their children who experience violence.

“With intimate partner violence on the rise in our area, including local deaths doubling over 2021, this gift from the Day 1 Families Fund could not have come at a more critical time,” said Elizabeth Wessels-Martin, president and chief empowerment officer at The Center for Women and Families, in a press release. “So many survivors turn to us in the midst of a personal safety crisis, and they’re counting on us to provide a safe place for them and their children as they take steps toward building safer lives.”

The center was selected as a grant recipient by a group of national advisers who are also advocates and experts on homelessness and service provision, according to the press release. It's one of 40 nonprofits across the U.S. to receive a tot of $123.45 million to improve re-housing assistance and support families assisting homelessness.

The Center for Women and Families has four regional locations that serve nine Kentuckiana counties: Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties in Kentucky; and Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana. 

For more information about the center's services, click here.