Your Community Connection

OGDEN — Top of Utah residents have an opportunity to not only honor memorable women in their lives but also to help women in desperate situations rise above.

A donation of any amount, from now until Mother’s Day, will get a special card sent to a woman the donor believes deserves recognition and a rose dedicated in her honor at a special event.

And 100 percent of the donation will go to women who are rebuilding their lives after violent domestic situations and those using other programs of Your Community Connection.

OGDEN — The ripple effects from federal sequestration are swamping the operating budget of Your Community Connection, forcing the service center to turn away potential victims of abuse.

The federal across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, have reduced the YCC’s 2012-13 fiscal year operating budget by about $79,000. The YCC’s annual operating budget is approximately $1.2 million, but demand for services for abuse victims is up, said YCC Director Julee Smith.

Two federal grants the YCC depends on — the Victims of Crime Act grant and the Violence Against Women Act grant — were reduced by sequestration, she said.

OGDEN -- Participants took off their clothes and donated them Friday during the third annual Nearly Naked Mile fun run at Weber State University.

Clothing donations will benefit Your Community Connection in Ogden. The YCC assists victims of domestic violence and rape. Food donations will benefit the Weber Cares Program, which feeds needy students on campus throughout the year.

Nearly Naked Mile participants braved cold temperatures and the season's first snow Friday night in order to participate in the event. Afterward, awards were given for the most creative costumes.

OGDEN — Raquel Lee is a hard worker who enjoys her job as assistant director at Your Community Connection.

But Monday afternoon, she found herself in a simulated unemployed situation as a member of a family that had more expenses than income.

Quickly, she did whatever it took to get herself a job and make up that difference.

OGDEN — Your Community Connection is in “dire need” of volunteers, according to a news release from the shelter.

The YCC shelter provides support for victims of domestic violence, rape and financial hardship. Volunteers are needed from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. The shelter will provide training. Volunteers must pass a background check.

Anyone interested is asked to call Raquel Lee, the YCC assistant director, at 801-689-1702.

OGDEN — Your Community Connection has issued an emergency announcement for new children’s shoes for its Spirit of Giving drive.

OGDEN -- On a frosty fall weekday morning, a dozen or so young men could see their breath as they unloaded construction equipment from the Ogden-Weber Tech truck.

They'd spend the next few hours laying bathroom tile, and fastening white baseboard around the kitchen laminate flooring they had installed to replace torn linoleum. A new lighting fixture went up, and a modest, formerly dingy apartment began to take on the glow of a small, but proud, home.