{"id":238508,"date":"2016-10-17T06:06:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-16T20:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=238508"},"modified":"2016-10-17T06:06:21","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T20:06:21","slug":"dela-cruz-recipient-2016-bridge-light-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/dela-cruz-recipient-2016-bridge-light-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Dela Cruz is recipient of 2016 Bridge of Light Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elaine<\/a>
Elaine Cabrera Dela Cruz, front row center, poses for a group photo with family members after the recent Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation signing ceremony where she was named the recipient of the 2016 Bridge of Light Award. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence recently named Elaine Cabrera Dela Cruz as the recipient of the 2016 Bridge of Light Award at the Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation signing ceremony hosted at Saipan World Resort. <\/p>\n

The annual Bridge of Light Award is presented by NMCADSV to honor the accomplishments and sacrifices of one extraordinary individual who has worked diligently to provide safety for the community, to work to end domestic violence and sexual assault, and to be a \u201cbridge of light\u201d for victims and survivors in the CNMI. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s BOLA recipient, Dela Cruz, is currently a counselor at Karidat Social Services, which is a nonprofit organization that serves victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. She is also a facilitator for the Division of Youth Service\u2019s Parent Education Program and currently working to become a certified substance abuse counselor. <\/p>\n

In addition, Dela Cruz has worked as a counselor at the Community Guidance Center\u2019s Victims of Crime Advocacy program and the CNMI Public School System, where she also taught at the Head Start program and the first grade. <\/p>\n

According to Dela Cruz\u2019s nominator, who is a survivor of domestic violence, Dela Cruz was instrumental in helping them through the difficult process of separating from their abuser, achieving safety, and working toward healing. <\/p>\n

The survivor wrote that they were nominating Dela Cruz \u201cbecause of all the hope, truth and encouragement that she showed not just in my life but also in the lives of fellow victims and survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to Elaine for being this year\u2019s BOLA recipient,\u201d said Eulalia V. Arriola, NMCADSV board chair. \u201cThank you for your hard work, compassion, and dedication to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing stories like this from survivors makes us feel honored to be able to give back to someone who has made a difference in our community and the movement to end violence,\u201d said Arriola. \u201cWe\u2019re also very grateful to the Tan Siu Lin Foundation and Delta Air Lines for their continued support and generosity in sponsoring the Bridge of Light Award self-care treatment package.\u201d <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s BOLA included a number of prizes from the Tan Siu Lin Foundation and a travel voucher from Delta Air Lines to attend either a self-care retreat, or a training\/conference on domestic violence or sexual assault. <\/p>\n

After being named the recipient of the 2016 Bridge of Light Award, Dela Cruz took time to thank other first responders. \u201cI\u2019m also grateful that I work with superheroes and these superheroes are the women and the men that we serve who find the courage to seek help.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when we provide help we create hope and with hope we start to create the path to the bridge of light for them,\u201d said Dela Cruz. <\/p>\n

October is also federally and locally recognized as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. For more information, contact the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence at 234-3878 or email info@endviolencenmi.org. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence recently named Elaine Cabrera Dela Cruz…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":238509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12996,46,188,2688],"class_list":["post-238508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-bola","tag-ceremony","tag-delta-air-lines","tag-nmcadsv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}