Author: Guest Blogger

My Trauma Wounded Me, But it Did Not Silence Me

The Survivor Speaker’s Bureau (SSB) of REACH Beyond Domestic Violence is based on a social justice model in which REACH staff and volunteers work with community members, community agencies, educational institutions, and youth to raise community awareness and understanding of domestic violence to create positive change by encouraging individuals to reflect on their selves and their relationships with individuals and the community. This blog post was…

Survivor Voices: Finding the Courage to Leave

By Maya*, REACH Survivor Speakers Bureau “I knew I had to leave…it was the only way my son and I would ever be safe.” Those are the words I spoke when I sat down with REACH staff during my initial intake. For most people, deciding to leave can seem like such a simple thing. If you don’t want to be somewhere, you turn around and you…

How my REACH Beyond Domestic Violence Internship Changed my Views on Policy Work

Blog by Emma Keeling I have always said that I dislike policy. I never had solid grounds for this argument, but something about staring at a document for hours and picking apart every piece of language seemed boring to me. Although as a Public Health major I knew how important policies were, I avoided policy work and instead took a more downstream and educational approach to…

Longing for a safe space

Time and time again, this country has shown black Americans that they do not have a safe space. Not when walking home with a bag of skittles, not when playing with nerf guns at the park, not when getting pulled over by police, and not when sound asleep in their own apartment.