BVU, The Beacon Establish Strategic Partnership
Through a collaboration with Buena Vista University, The Beacon offers educational benefits to its employees and their eligible family members.
Buena Vista University (BVU) and The Beacon have aligned as Strategic Partners, providing new opportunities to transform the communities both entities serve.
This partnership allows for employees of The Beacon, as well as eligible family members of full-time employees, to receive grant funding to lower the overall cost per credit hour while enrolled in BVU’s convenient online undergraduate programs or the organizational leadership graduate program. Partner grant funding also lowers the cost of education for students enrolled in classes at BVU’s Storm Lake campus.
“We are excited about this strategic partnership with BVU and see it as an incredible opportunity to support our team’s growth and development,” says Amy Landrigan, Executive Director of The Beacon. “Expanding access to education aligns with our mission of empowering women in crisis to achieve positive long-term change–strengthening both the women we serve and the staff who walk alongside them.”
The Beacon, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that creates an environment empowering women in crisis to achieve positive long-term change. They provide a shelter and transitional housing program, as well as permanent recovery housing, for women experiencing homelessness and recovering from trauma.
“Education is more than a pathway to a degree, a lifeline to freedom. When a woman gains access to education, she gains the ability to provide for herself and her children, breaking the cycles of poverty, violence, homelessness, and addiction that too often hold families back. Research shows that women with higher education levels are more likely to achieve financial stability and less likely to experience abuse,” says Landrigan. “At The Beacon, we witness every day how education restores confidence, renews dignity, and reminds women that they are enough — and that their future can be different than their past.”
Each day, The Beacon houses 66 women in the Sherman Hill and Village campuses and serves 30+ more through their graduate program. Through this empowerment program, 100% of graduates transition to permanent housing with income, savings, and health insurance—and 85% avoid relapses or re-incarceration. By walking alongside women even after they complete the empowerment program, they ensure they know they are never alone.
“We are grateful for this partnership opportunity with The Beacon to offer their employees affordable access to higher education,” says BVU Director of Strategic Partnerships Laura Todd. “This partnership will help support their employees with both their professional growth and personal development.”
For more information about BVU’s Strategic Partnerships and partner opportunities, please visit the BVU website at bvu.edu/strategic-partnerships or contact Strategic Partnerships at StrategicPartnerships@bvu.edu.