My name is Javier Espinoza and I'm raising money to complete my master's degree of social welfare at UCLA. UCLA’s social welfare (MSW) program teaches students how to best empower marginalized communities. As a student passionate about domestic violence prevention, social work classes will help me better facilitate youth workshops on how to identify and avoid abusive relationships, as well as help me develop my non-profit organization, In A Box (In A Box helps survivors of domestic violence). In addition, the program’s field placement aspect will allow me to continue my undergraduate senior project of developing a comprehensive, culturally relevant curriculum on gender inequality for incarcerated youth. This funding will allow me to complete my MSW program, given that I was forced to take a one year leave of absence due to economic hardship. I hope I have the opportunity to return to Los Angeles so I can earn my degree and continue to learn how to best confront issues of gender violence on a large scale.I enrolled in UCLA’s master of social welfare program for the same reason I attended college as an undergraduate; to garner the power to confront issues of gender violence on a large scale. Graduating with a B.A. in Women’s Studies from the University of Redlands (U of R), I dedicated my education to understanding the forces behind men’s violence against women. For my senior project—which earned me both the Global Impact and Women’s Studies Department Award — I developed and taught a curriculum analyzing gender inequality for incarcerated youth in San Bernardino’s Juvenile Hall.My passion for domestic violence prevention stems from my personal experience with domestic violence. Being personally invested in this work, I created In A Box, a non-profit that helps survivors of domestic violence. Since 2007 (with the exception of the time I've spent in graduate school), In A Box has provided support to families living in domestic violence shelters through the distribution of essential items, as well as personal letters of encouragement from survivors. In A Box also focuses on prevention work by educating youth on how to identify and avoid abusive relationships. Lastly, through service learning projects, In A Box fosters youth activism by connecting students with local shelters so they themselves can gather and deliver essentials directly to families living in protective custody.I first realized In A Box’s shipments were making an impact far beyond the items they contained when letters written by kids in shelters started coming back to me. It was then I knew In A Box could help break the prison of isolation that so often surrounds survivors of abuse. Eight years after its inception, what started as a single box of feminine products, clothes, and baby supplies is now a whole organization that has served shelters throughout California. Today, In A Box has opened the doors to greater dialogue. When I am not in the office, I am out in the community—school assemblies, health classes, TED Talk stages, rotary meetings, banquets, etc.—speaking against gendered violence and about In A Box. (Below is my TEDx Talk in which I talk more specifically about In A Box and growing up with an abusive father. This following link is a facebook photo album high lighting my work https://www.facebook.com/javi.v.espinoza/media_set?set=a.10210465751625917.1073741829.1408236103&type=3 ).During my first year of the MSW program, both staff and faculty were very critical in helping me further develop In A Box. For example, accumulated “Stay or Go” vignette exercises have proven effective in helping youth identify interpersonal abuse, and class assignments have helped me create a feasible one, three, and five-year plan for In A Box. A few notable outcomes by year five include 1) partnering with the six schools in San Rafael that have previously expressed interest in collaboration, and seeing a 30 percent reduction in dating violence at these schools 2) making the transition from being fiscally sponsored to being a certified 501(c)3 and 3) partnering with Good360 to significantly reduce the annual budget (Good 360 is a nationwide non-profit that takes excess inventory from large, name brand retail companies and redistributes their products to organizations that help families in need). By year five, In A Box will be a model that can easily be replicated throughout the Bay Area. Long-term goals include being a nationwide non-profit that serves communities in need from coast to coast.The second year of the program would help me further develop my non-profit. Classes on grant writing, non-profit management, program evaluation, and evidence-based practices would allow me to bring In A Box into the classroom and receive immediate feedback from professors. In addition to these classes, the program’s field placement component would allow me to intern with a non-profit that focuses on reducing juvenile recidivism in Los Angeles. Through this internship I would be able to revisit my U of R senior project, and fine-tune my curriculum, which highlights the intersections of race, gender, and class-based oppression in a way that helps students develop a sense of respect for gender differences.