A National Nonprofit Set Up Shop in Ridgefield — and Ridgefield Showed Up

The National Women's Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation spent the past year quietly building roots in our town. This week, founder Michelle Bart sent Ridgefield a thank-you note. Here's what the year actually looked like — and why it matters.

Every so often an email lands in the Meanwhile in Ridgefield inbox that's basically a love letter to this town. This week's came from Michelle Bart, founder of the National Women's Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation — NWCAVE, if you've seen the signs around town — and it was a year-end thank-you to Ridgefield for showing up in every way a community can. Donations. Clothing drives. Partnerships. A $25,000 grant that means a second staff member. We figured the reply should be public: right back at you.

Wait, what's NWCAVE?

Fair question. The National Women's Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation is a nonprofit that's been serving clients for nearly two decades, supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking through advocacy, education, prevention, and resources. It's based in Vancouver, works nationally — and over the past year, it's been increasingly woven into Ridgefield.

Bart, the organization's founder and executive director, has spent her career in media and communications amplifying voices that too often go unheard. NWCAVE's motto says it plainly: "We have a dream... a world without violence."

The Ridgefield year, in receipts

The relationship started in 2025, when NWCAVE was featured in the Ridgefield Women in Business issue produced by Active Media Publishing Group. From there, things snowballed in the very Ridgefield way things tend to snowball here.

NWCAVE joined the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce. They partnered with local nonprofits like Rocking B Farms. They networked with PNW Referrals at 3Peaks. They received quarterly donations from the 100+ Women Who Care SW Washington chapter, which meets at Windy Hills Winery — including a gift of more than $12,000. And they held their Annual Impact Reception at Willow & Vine Retreat, where they presented their Rita Corbin Burns Humanitarian Award to a Ridgefield resident: Lisa Houser.

Ridgefield residents also donated piles of new and gently used clothing to NWCAVE's Dignity Clothing Program, which provides clothing to survivors and clients rebuilding their lives. And just this week, the NWCAVE crew was out on the course at the Clark County Bar Association golf tournament — right here in Ridgefield, naturally.

The big news: a $25,000 grant

The capstone on the year: the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, through the Cowlitz Tribal Foundation, granted NWCAVE $25,000 to hire a second staff person for 2026–2027. For a small nonprofit doing this kind of heavy, essential work, a second set of hands isn't a luxury — it's capacity. More advocacy, more education, more clients served across Clark County, including right here in town.

Why this matters here

It would be easy to file this under "nice nonprofit news" and move on. Don't. The work NWCAVE does — supporting survivors of violence and exploitation — is the kind of thing small towns sometimes pretend they don't need. We do. Every community does. What's different about Ridgefield is that when an organization doing this work showed up, the town didn't look away. It wrote checks, cleaned out closets, made introductions, and handed over an award to one of our own.

That's the version of small-town life worth bragging about. Not just the farmers market and the Raptors games (though, yes, those too) — the part where we take care of people when it counts.