Gallery Opens To Help Fund Dragonfly Village

Amity Foundation is opening a new, downtown Tucson gallery, with a Silent Auction, December 16, 2010 4-6pm. Proceeds from the auction will benefit Amity Foundation's new capital campaign, "Dragonfly Village" which is aimed at building a new, state of the art, 13 building, Children's and Family Reunification Center in Tucson. A grand opening event of the gallery space will be announced early in the new-year.

Amity, which began in 1969, intends to be an active presence in Tucson's downtown revitalization efforts for both the business and arts communities by promoting local artists in their new gallery space at 188 E. Broadway in the historic Julian Drew building and their new administrative offices in the adjacent, newly renovated Carriage House on the corner of Arizona Ave. All proceeds will benefit the capital campaign, "Amity Foundation's Dragonfly Village." Ray Clarke, best known for his many years of service at the Tucson Urban League, heads Amity Foundation's Fundraising Board of Directors known as "Dragonfly."

Amity's innovative, "Dragonfly Village," will provide long term, residential, re-education, habilitation and vocational treatment enabling mothers and fathers with children, as well as entire families, to heal, achieve dignity, acquire stability and begin new lives.

Families served by Amity are of the most forgotten groups in society today. These children, mothers and fathers experience a full gamut of societal symptoms, from broken families, substance abuse addiction, racial, social and economic prejudice, violence, trauma and homelessness, and are those that experience "falling through the cracks" of Arizona's current social services at an alarming and increasing numbers.

Today, Arizona possesses only 159 beds for mothers with children statewide. Amity attests that their state of the art, efficiently designed, home-like center will accommodate families of any size or configuration, mitigating the painful and mandatory decision parents often are faced before entering treatment of taking only part of their family with them into treatment. "Eradication of a 'Sophie's Choice' type policy, that is all too common today in residential settings, is at the top Amity Foundation's Dragonfly Village priorities," says Amity co-founder, Naya Arbiter. Arbiter stated further that, "this village is the first of many to be built to serve those in need across the nation and beyond."

Items are open to bidding prior to December 16, 2010. You may see these items by visiting the gallery at 188 E. Broadway, or phone, 520-628-3164, or email, info@dragonflyvillage.org.

The Amity Foundation was founded in July 1969 by families and teachers who were concerned about drug abuse and how the drug use of that era was leading to disintegrating family relations. Amity is dedicated to the inclusion and habilitation of people marginalized by addiction, trauma, criminality, incarceration, poverty, racism, sexism and violence. Amity is committed to research, development, and implementation and dissemination of information regarding community building. To learn more about the Foundation please visit our website at www.amityfdn.org.