Leela Strong has been appointed Director of Development & Communications at Casa Myrna Vasquez, an ant-domestic violence organization that offers a safe haven for women leaving abusive relationships. Strong comes to Casa Myrna after serving as director of development at LIFT-Boston where she was responsible for creating philanthropic partnerships and successfully planned and executed special events ranging from a 50 person cultivation event to a 500 person black tie gala.
Strong has a Masters in Public Health from Boston University and received her BA from Lafayette College, where she doubled majored in Government & Law and Health Policy.
Casa Myrna was founded in the mid-1970s by neighborhood activists and street workers in Boston’s South End. Day after day, they found themselves listening with outrage and frustration as neighborhood women confided of beatings and abuse at the hands of their husbands or partners. As the campaign to help them began to take form, activists from the Villa Victoria housing development, United South End Settlements, Casa del Sol, St. Stephen’s Parish, the Church of the Covenant in the Back Bay and the South End Community Health Center joined to organize and seek support throughout the South End.
The first shelter, an eight-bedroom brownstone in Boston’s South End, was staffed entirely by volunteers. It has remained in continuous operation since opening and is now Casa Myrna’s emergency shelter program. Over the years, Casa Myrna added to its shelter capacity by acquiring other buildings in the city’s South End and Dorchester neighborhoods and converting them for use as shelters. Today, the agency is New England’s leading provider of shelter and comprehensive services to victims and survivors of domestic violence.
