How it Works
The Elise Martin Crosby Scholarship Fund is designed to help domestically abused persons currently residing in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Funds for adult education classes in areas such as computer and vocational training will be awarded through a process of referrals followed by a detailed application review. For more information on the awards process, or to make a contribution to the Fund, please contact us using the below listed information:

Contact Us
The Elise Martin Crosby Scholarship Fund
1718 M Street, NW #179
Washington, DC 20036
(301) 503-4365
email: emcfund@hotmail.com

Board of Directors
Dawn Crosby
Joanna Crosby
Howard L. Feinstein
Laura Lifland
Brian Washburn

History
Eight years after their sister's violent murder, Joanna and Dawn Crosby are finding solace by helping others. They hope that The Elise Martin Crosby Scholarship Fund, established to assist victims of domestic violence obtain marketable job skills, will encourage victims to leave abusive partners permanently and build lives of their own.
"If I had known what my sister was going through, I would have supported her in every way possible to leave her abuser," Dawn Crosby said recently while discussing the new organization. Joanna added that, "Elise was a silent victim of domestic violence, so her murder came as a complete shock to all of us. Because of this we want to help others find the strength and hard skills to survive on their own without needing to rely on an abuser, financially or otherwise."

Many victims of domestic violence take long measures to hide the abuse they are victim to either because of embarrassment, fear, or other reasons. It is not uncommon for abusers to isolate the victim from their family and often families are unaware of what their loved one is experiencing. Elise was this type of victim and never spoke to her family about the abuse.
It was actually a fourth female member of the Crosby family who initiated the idea of a memorial fund - the mother of Elise, Joanna and Dawn. Prior to her own death, Sue Crosby asked that a fund be created to help protect other women from Elise's fate. Determined to carry out their mother's wishes effectively, Joanna and Dawn began exploring local resources to determine what already was available to aid domestic violence victims. Among the organizations they found was WEAVE (Women Empowered Against Violence).

As their relationship with WEAVE grew, the Crosby sisters realized that WEAVE and other domestic violence prevention groups in the D.C. area lacked a critical service that would truly enable women to leave their abusers for good. Focusing their efforts on fulfilling that need, they decided to establish a job skills development program. The sisters felt that if having marketable skills could give victims the confidence to find a job, they would be more inclined to find strength to escape destructive domestic environments.